Caring about the ocean - the message is spreading!

Thanks to World Ocean Day organised by the Global Ocean Forum and taking place today at the European Environment Agency in Copenhagen we have seen many examples of how climate change will affect people living in coastal communities. This morning we have heard many arguments made by world leaders and leading scientists for why the changes already seen expected in the ocean should be taken seriously:

- Most of us live in vicinity of the coast, and we will experience the impacts of sea level rise. For some communities they will be catastrophic

- Many marine ecosystems are already impacted by rising temperatures and large changes in species diversity is expected, particularly in the tropics where a large number of communities depend critically on fisheries.

- The opening of the Northwest Passage is by seen as an environmental catastrophy by people living in the Arctic region. They will no longer be able to maintain their way of life.

- The ocean has become more acidic in the past 20 years, and this development will continue with increasing CO2 concentrations of the atmosphere. At some point this will cause a collapse of marine life as we know it! For this there is no adapatation measures possible - only reducing CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere will make a difference.