ADDRESSING CLIMATE CHANGE AND OCEAN CONSERVATION

The ocean provides many benefits in terms of resources, climate moderation, and aesthetic beauty. Frankly we cannot survive without the ocean and its marine environmental services. The world ocean provides approximately 17 percent of protein for human consumption. It absorbs carbon dioxide, it dilutes pollution, and its edges, the estuaries and wetlands, filter pollution from water, provide nursery and feeding grounds for key food species, and assist with flood control. If we do not sustain the sea, it will not sustain us.

Through human-induced warming of the ocean, we have perturbed natural balances at a scale way beyond the pollution, siltation, predation, and other human insults. In fact, we may be unleashing a terrible set of oscillations that exceed natural background ones. The good news is that some damage may be reversible. We also have evidence that some parts of the ocean system may have greater resilience than we thought. However, the risks of upsetting the natural balances that sustain life on the planet are so great that we must address the following issues quickly and carefully.

Ocean Energy

The carbon-based sources of energy needed to support a consumer society, from electricity to transportation, have continuous negative effects on marine ecosystems that must be addressed. Airborne nitrogen deposition from power plants and other sources contributes to the degradation of such key estuaries as Chesapeake Bay, Mobile Bay, and Florida Bay, in the U.S., and other similar habitats worldwide, reducing their resilience to climate change and increasing marine species’ vulnerability to disease.

Yet there is an inherent conflict between mainstream recommendations for addressing climate change and some mainstream aspects of ocean conservation. On one hand, if we fail to stop the progress of climate change, the ocean could be ruined regardless of efforts to reverse or minimize the damage we have already done. On the other hand, some of the clean energy recommendations may require placing structures on the sea floor, or in the water column, or in coastal habitat—solutions that the ocean conservation community normally view as environmental threats. However, it seems clear that we cannot slow climate change without clean energy.

We are entering an era where energy issues have a growing connection to marine conservation efforts. Proposals for new oil and gas rigs and pipelines as well as facilities for liquefied natural gas have appeared up and down our coasts. There are also increased risks and impacts from seismic surveys on the continental shelf, particularly for marine mammals. There also is an increasingly vocal interest in tapping the oceans for alternative energy sources such as wind, seabed methane hydrates and tidal/wave power (see Ocean Observer An Ocean of Energy- There for the Taking in the W2O archives).

There are numerous reasons to be concerned about the potential expansion of energy infrastructure in marine and coastal ecosystems. They include: disruption of the benthic
communities and other ecosystems on the ocean floor, disturbance of toxic muds along coastal waters that would release PCBs and other poisons now capped, disruption of migratory paths for large pelagic species (and interference with their ability to communicate); additional release of mercury into the oceans through oil drilling; mortality of marine mammals and seabirds, other animals; and possible permanent changes to near shore fisheries through alteration of key ecosystems.

At the same time, scientists tell us that climate change could be the single biggest threat to the oceans in the near future—making reducing the emission of greenhouse gases an apparent priority. Tapping the ocean’s methane and alternative energy reserves could displace fuels that are far more dangerous from a climate change perspective and thus may be worth the immediate environmental risk. Wind farms cause local disruption to marine ecosystems and coastal communities, but may bring regional improvements in air quality and reductions in nitrogen deposition into watersheds, as they replace "dirtier" sources of electric power.

A deep skepticism of all energy development has affected views on an "energy policy for the ocean". The track record of oil production and transport reinforces this skepticism. However, the complex intersection with the climate change issue and the promise of cleaner fuels argue for a careful, thoughtful reassessment of the "no way, no how" attitude towards coastal energy development. This is particularly true since having a positive environmental agenda with regards to energy may help leverage progress on marine protected areas, ecosystem-based planning and vital reforms to ocean governance.