A UN report warned Monday that the ocean is under intensifying stress, and called for urgent global collaboration to protect marine ecosystems. Launched on World Oceans Day, which is observed annually on 8 June, the third World Ocean Assessment found that the ocean continues to be under severe and accelerating anthropogenic pressure, driven by climate change, pollution and increased human activities. These pressures are often cumulative, combining to cause widespread biodiversity loss, undermining the ecosystems that support fisheries, coastal protection and human health.
“The third World Ocean Assessment, launched today, documents a deepening crisis driven by climate change, overfishing, biodiversity loss and marine pollution,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a message for the launch of the report. “We cannot keep treating the ocean as limitless. We must build a new relationship with the ocean: Grounded in science. Framed by international law. “And built on shared responsibility — across nations, sectors, and generations — to advance the Sustainable Development Goals,” said Guterres.
The third World Ocean Assessment identified the main human drivers of change to the ocean: human population growth and demographic changes; economic activity; technological advances; changing governance structures and social, economic and geopolitical instability; climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution.
Xinhua
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