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Climate Change: Ignore the ocean at your peril

In the February edition of Adjacent Government, EMB Executive Secretary Niall McDonough makes the case for why the ocean should be part of climate change discussions. While commending the ambitious target of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5˚C above pre-industrial levels set during the December COP21 talks, Niall McDonough highlights the almost complete absence of the relationship between the ocean and climate in the COP21 negotiations and in the final agreement, despite many years of advocacy from scientists and NGOs. The reason for omitting the ocean in discussions is seen as our (human society and political opinion) failure to understand the ocean’s importance as a planetary life-support system. The ocean provides an array of essential goods and services which support human health and wellbeing, yet at the same time is under increasing threat from issues such as pollution, ocean acidification and  hypoxia. Niall McDonough makes the case that to understand the role of the ocean in the earth and climate systems, and the implications of changing oceans for our environment and wellbeing we need to increase our efforts in a range of areas such as progressing ocean observing systems, increased support for more basic ocean science, more effective training for the next generation of marine scientists, and more efforts to achieve Ocean Literacy. The full article is available to read online.