Fr. Seán McDonagh, SSC 2016 October

Transcription

1 Fr. Seán McDonagh, SSC 2016 October

2 We call our planet Earth because our Western culture views the planet from a land-based perspective.

3 An astronaut viewing the planet from space would probably call it water ocean 70 % of the planet s surface is covered by oceans.

4 We know more about the surface of the moon and about Mars

5 than we know about what is happening in the deepest oceans.

6 Only a few robots or submersibles capable of transporting people to the deepest part of the oceans.

7 the Mariana Trench in the Pacific Ocean -- maximum depth of metres makes it almost twice as deep as Mount Everest is high.

8 Oceans not only contain the bulk of our planet s water supply, but also most of the immense variety of living creatures, many of them still unknown to us and threatened for various reasons. (Laudato Si # 40)

9 The OCEANS home to 80 percent of all life on Earth 300,000 marine species identified there are, at least, double that number of species the deepest part of the oceans floor may contain up to ten million species

10 Other major gaps in our knowledge about the creatures of the ocean:

11 we don t even know the life cycle of the white shark

12 New species are regularly taken from the depths of the oceans.

13 Many think that the oxygen we breathe comes from trees and green plants on land.

14 In fact, 50 percent of the oxygen we use comes from the ocean s phytoplankton.

15 The water we drink each day come courtesy of the oceans through transevaporation.

16 For almost half the population of the planet fish is the staple protein diet.

17 The cost to the oceans has been great.

18 We have fished cod and tuna, almost to the point of extinction.

19 Industrial agriculture has produced excessive nutrient pollution in areas such as the Gulf of Mexico.

20 Mississippi River drains 41% of the land area of continental United States dumps highnutrient runoff such as nitrogen and phosphorus into the Gulf of Mexico.

21 This depletes the oxygen in the water which is required to support most marine life in bottom and nearbottom waters of the ocean.

22 Dead zones across the world's oceans... the largest cover 70,000 sq. km (27,000 mi²). A 2008 study counted 405 dead zones worldwide.

23 The impact of climate change would be much more severe, if the oceans did not absorb the extra heat we have generated.

24 The oceans have sequestered more than 90% of the extra heat created by greenhouse emissions generated by coal-fired power stations, transport and agriculture.

25 During the past 70 years, we have allowed 5 trillion pieces of plastic to enter the oceans and wreak havoc on the creatures that live there.

26 Despite all the damage which plastic does to the creatures of the sea, we have done little to restrict its use because we find it very useful for many of our daily tasks, including shopping.

27 Without the oceans our planet would be as inhospitable as Mars: no meadows, no forests, no birds, no animals and no humans.

28 Life began in the oceans 3.8 billion years ago. It evolved and was nurtured there for more than 3 billion years before it began to colonise the land.

29 When life came ashore almost 500 million years ago, it brought water with it so that water makes up more than 70 % of all living beings, including human beings.

30 Unfortunately, for the well-being of the planet, life in the oceans is threatened by a variety of human activities.

31 One of the saddest aspects of this present moment is that much of the life in the oceans could become extinct and be lost before it is identified.

32 The pressure on the oceans comes from many sources, including industrial pollution

33 destructive fishing methods

34 acidification of the water from carbon dioxide

35 strip mining

36 USA

37 September 2016, President Barack Obama created one of the largest marine protected areas around his home state of Hawaii.

38 This marine park spans 580,000 square miles of the Pacific Ocean.

39 It contains 7,000 species, 14 million seabirds, a threatened green turtle and the endangered Hawaiian monk seal.

40 Though the size of this marine reserve called Papahánaumokuákea may seem enormous (it is three times the size of California) only 4 percent of the oceans are completely protected.

41 In recent years, some governments and environmental organisations such as the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUNC) are arguing that, at least, 30 % of oceans should be off limits for commercial fishing and mining.

42 Marine biologist Dr. Greg Stone, believes that because humans are much more sensitive to what is happening on land, marine conservation is 100 years behind land conservation.

43 If we could see what is happening in the ocean, like we can on land, we d have taken action a long time ago.

44 Small maritime nations such as Palau have designated a 193,000 square mile sanctuary around their island.

45 Edward O. Wilson, world renowned Harvard University biology and Emeritus Professor, believes that half of the oceans of the world should be off limits to industrial fishing, drilling for fossil fuel or mining.

46 There are studies showing that if we were to prohibit all fishing in the open sea, then lo and behold the productivity of the territorial waters rises.

47 This would mean that there would be a dramatic increase in fisheries and profits for fisher people

48 In 2012, Australia began the world's largest system of marine parks to help protect ocean life.

49 The plan: to protect one-third of its coastal waters from oil or gas exploration in five main zones touching all of Australia s eight states and territories.

50 The number of reserves will increase from 27 at the moment to 60.

51 They will include significant marine breeding sites and feeding grounds and will cover more than 3.1 million square kilometres.

52 Specific areas included in the plan are Perth Canyon off the coast of Western Australia and much of the tuna fishing area of the eastern coast of Australia.

53 The marine industry in this area is worth 27,7 million a year.

54 The government promises to compensate the fishing industry for their losses. The fishing industry project that the conservation scheme will cause the loss of 36,000 jobs.

55 The government claims that the reserves have been designed to minimize the impact wherever possible estimated to displace approximately one to two percent of the annual value of wild fisheries production in Australia.

56 Humans need to proceed at pace and numerous initiatives to protect our oceans so as to improve the life of the seas.

57 World's largest marine park created in Ross Sea in Antarctica in landmark deal EU and 24 countries sign long-awaited agreement to protect 1.1m sq km of water in Southern Ocean, ensuring that fewer younger fish will be caught

58 In October 2016 twenty four countries and the European Union agreed to create the world s largest marine park in the Antarctic ocean covering 1.55 million square miles.

59 The Ross Sea is home to extraordinary marine biodiversity penguins, seals, whales, sea birds and fish

60 Wetlands converted into cultivated land lose the enormous biodiversity which they formerly hosted.

61 In some coastal areas the disappearance of ecosystems sustained by mangrove swamps is a source of serious concern.

62 40 Oceans not only contain the bulk of our planet s water supply, but also most of the immense variety of living creatures, many of them still unknown to us and threatened for various reasons.

63 Marine life in rivers, lakes, seas and oceans, which feeds a great part of the world s population, is affected by uncontrolled fishing, leading to a drastic depletion of certain species.

64 Selective forms of fishing which discard much of what they collect continue unabated.

65 Particularly threatened are marine organisms which we tend to overlook, like some forms of plankton; they represent a significant element in the ocean food chain, and species used for our food ultimately depend on them.

66 41 In tropical and subtropical seas, we find coral reefs comparable to the great forests on dry land, for they shelter approximately a million species, including fish, crabs, molluscs, sponges and algae.

67 Many of the world s coral reefs are already barren or in a state of constant decline. Who turned the wonderworld of the seas into underwater cemeteries bereft of colour and life? (Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Pastoral Letter What is Happening to our Beautiful Land? 1988).

68 This phenomenon is due largely to pollution which reaches the sea as the result of deforestation agricultural monocultures industrial waste destructive fishing methods

69 It is aggravated by the rise in temperature of the oceans.

70 Every intervention in nature can have consequences which are not immediately evident, and certain ways of exploiting resources prove costly in terms of degradation which ultimately reaches the ocean bed itself.

71 42 Greater investment needs to be made in research aimed at understanding more fully the functioning of ecosystems

72 and adequately analysing the different variables associated with any significant modification of the environment.

73 Because all creatures are connected, each must be cherished with love and respect, for all of us as living creatures are dependent on one another.

74 Each area is responsible for the care of this family. This will require undertaking a careful inventory of the species which it hosts, with a view to developing programmes and strategies of protection with particular care for safeguarding species heading towards extinction.

75 By Fr. Seán McDonagh, SSC PowerPoint by Leonor dela Santa, FMM Images from private collection and Internet sources