Why we need to respect Earth's last great wilderness - the ocean

There are plans to harness our seas to help tackle the effects of the climate emergency. But without understanding and respect a life support system for our planet could be trashedThe real payoff from the Apollo missions had nothing to do with the moon. The prize was travelling far enough out into space to look back properly at planet Earth. Those two unforgettable images - Earthrise and Blue Marble - showed us our fragile and precious planet, defined by its blue. Since then, we've talked proudly about our "blue planet" but without thinking any further about what that blue actually is. We talk about fish and whales, plastic and pollution - the things that are in the water - but not the water itself. The great ocean engine has just kept turning while we scurry about near its surface, only caring when its churning causes something dramatic that we can see - an algal bloom or a giant swarm of jellyfish.More than 50 years after Apollo, the ocean is starting to get more attention, but a growing slice of the discussion is based on the assumption that it is there for us to use, a resource to be exploited, a great volume of "nothing" that human inventiveness is going to turn into "something". And this is incredibly dangerous. Unless humanity starts to see the ocean for what it really is - a critical part of our planetary life support system - we risk sleepwalking into destruction. Continue reading...