Recently, at the invitation of China Youth Climate Action Network (CYCAN), Dr. Zhou Jinfeng, the Secretary-General of China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) conducted a webinar on “Oceans and Development” for young students. The attendees are mostly undergraduates and postgraduates with atmospheric science, oceanography, environmental law and other related backgrounds.

Founded in August 2007 by a group of Chinese young people with a focus on climate change and energy transformation, CYCAN is China’s first non-profit environmental organization focused on promoting youth’s response to climate change, mainly through four areas of work of climate advocacy, local action, industry exploration and international exchange, effectively promote young people to understand, recognize and actively participate in the process of tackling climate change, and provide a platform for aspiring young people to lead green change. More than 500 Chinese universities have participated in the CYCAN operation, affecting more than hundreds of thousands of young people.

The theme of Oceans and Development is also a part of what CYCAN’s “2030 Climate+” focuses, which aims to train a group of first-line practitioners who can work on climate change around 2030, as well as young leaders focus on cross-cutting issues. These issues include energy, infrastructure, equity, biodiversity and oceans.

In order to spread the concept of marine protection more widely, the following is the training content of Dr. Zhou's “Oceans and Development” webinar, and the full text is as follows:

Hello everyone! Everyone knows that the ocean accounts for 71% of the earth’s surface, and you may also know that the ocean accounts for 97% of the earth’s water resources. So, do you know that the oceans also provide 50% of the earth’s oxygen? You can imagine that human beings are inseparable from oxygen. If oxygen is half short, what will we do? Therefore, the ocean carries and supports all the life of the earth, including human beings, which is a very important part.

Several times ago, I participated in an expert seminar on ocean statistics in the United Nations Asia-Pacific system. During the meeting, an authoritative expert in marine economic statistics made a report. He said that last year China alone had a total marine economy of more than one trillion yuan. What is this concept? The marine economy plays a very important role in our national economic and social development. However, I was surprised by his last words and question, so I couldn’t help standing up and answering his question. Then what’s his question? His question is that the ocean economy is so large that some people would say that the gross ecological product of the ocean will be much larger than the total economic and social value of the ocean. He said it was impossible to imagine that the scale of the marine economy was already trillions, so the gross marine ecological product and the assets of the natural resources of the ocean should not be as large as that of the marine economy.

Today, what we want to share and discuss is oceans and development. Then this theme cannot be separated from the gross marine ecological product. How much ecological value does the ocean provide? Is it millions, billions or even trillions? There is no doubt that the gross ecological product of the oceans is very huge. Where do freshwater, rivers, lakes, seas and frozen water in glaciers come from? They come from the ocean and rely on the ocean's total water circulation system. Seawater rises into the air through sunshine and then falls to form freshwater resources on the land. Not only fresh water comes from the ocean, but also air humidity, temperature, and oxygen cannot be separated from the regulation and supply of the ocean.

I would also like to highlight another feature of the ocean, which is very different from the land. Except for the Antarctic, most of the terrestrial parts of the earth belong to countries and have territorial divisions. However, most of the oceans are High Seas, which do not belong to any country. How about thinking about public goods? Everyone may have had the experience that public goods can easily be destroyed. The High Seas, including international sea areas, international sea bodies, and international seabed, are global marine areas beyond national jurisdiction. At the same time, it is also the most unprotected and threatened ecosystem in the world and faces a series of problems such as dumping waste, overfishing, pollution and so on. Therefore, we have actively applied for membership in the High Sea Alliance (HSA), an international partnership organization. The organization aims to build a strong common voice and support for the protection of the High Seas on the Earth, to discuss how the High Seas should be managed and what the relationship between oceans and climate is. Nowadays, more and more people are constantly aware of the importance of the ocean to human beings.

When I went to Guangdong to participate in the activity last year, I was just in time for Typhoon “Mangkhut” to land. As I said at that time, this kind of super typhoon which has never been seen in a hundred years will often be encountered in the future. Why? Because the climate will be different every year. So, what’s the difference? It’s temperature. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, global temperatures are rising year by year. Rising temperatures mean that both the amount of water vapor evaporated, and the energy carried by the oceans are rising. Many people don’t understand how we often encounter storms that we haven’t seen in a hundred years. Increased ocean evaporation and the convergence of atmospheric cloud energy due to climate change will bring us more extreme weather. I can make an analogy: as the temperature rises, every year new energies as big as countless atomic bombs converge into the sky, and some of these energies are released in the form of typhoons.

Let me give you a general account of the relevant situation in the field of marine protection. This week, I was hired by IUCN WCPA as one of the five executive commissioners of the working group on marine connectivity. The working group will focus on national marine policies and marine science and will be divided into four scientific areas to organize global scientists to work together on addressing the impacts of climate change on the oceans and the challenges facing humankind in this situation. How can concerted action be taken to reduce the impact on humans? At present, the burden of work is still heavy. The scope of work defined by this working group includes oceans and coasts. The coast is also a very important part of marine ecology, which is the focus of our current concern. Following this topic today, I have several topics to share with you. Welcome to ask me questions after the meeting.

1. Plastics in Oceans. In the early days, human beings moved from East Africa to other places of the world along the coastline, and they also drifted across the sea. We’ve all seen “Journey to the West” before. After Sun Wukong was born, he traveled by a bamboo raft to go to Dvipa to study. In the early period, human beings experienced such a process of ocean-crossing and expansion. At that time, no matter the quantity or ability of human beings, the impact on the oceans was very small. However, nowadays, the number of human beings in the world has increased dramatically, reaching an all-time peak and continuing to increase. The development of science and industry has also led to a significant increase in human capabilities and an unprecedented impact on the oceans. What is the specific performance? Let me share a very real example: part of human waste drifts to the ocean, where it forms a huge plastic waste island. The island is still expanding and may soon exceed the number, weight, and volume of all the fish in the ocean. They will continue to expand soon, and now some plastic islands are even much larger than some island countries.

Some people say what does the ocean have to do with this plastic island. The relationship between them is very complicated. We’ve seen many examples of marine organisms that, after their deaths, find large amounts of plastic waste in their stomachs or bodies. There are many cases of marine species such as fish and turtles being killed by plastic bottles and abandoned fishing nets. More than that, plastic particles decomposed from plastics are accumulating in marine and marine organisms. In addition to plastic particles, there are also a large number of chemically harmful ingredients accumulated in marine organisms, which eventually return to our human body through the food chain cycle. Investigations have shown that plastic particles are abundant in a large number of bottled waters. Although these plastic garbage and plastic particles have not yet brought about large-scale and direct harm to human health, this day is not far from us.

(Photo credit: CYCAN)

Original Chinese article:

http://www.cbcgdf.org/NewsShow/4854/9154.html

By / Maggie, Xue Tongtong