Ocean Sentry
At least half the planet must be protected if humanity is to survive the next century, declared conservationists at the conclusion of 9th World Wilderness Congress on Friday, Nov. 13.
The enormous challenges humanity faces this century – like a warming planet, freshwater shortages, pollution, declining fisheries, desertification and unsustainable food production – cannot be solved without protecting more than 50 percent of Earth”s land and oceans. Protection doesn”t necessarily mean more national parks, but a ban on resource extraction and all forms of development. Living things regulate the climate, recycle and clean the air, water and organic matter. In the past few hundred years, human beings have greatly disrupted those natural processes through deforestation, overfishing, and more recently through pollution and emissions of greenhouse gases.
Correcting this accidental and destructive geoengineering of the planet requires setting aside very large but connected parts of the oceans and land. Humans would not be excluded, but human development and activities like industrial fishing, mining, agriculture, plantation forestry and so on will need to be banned so that nature can restore itself, cool the planet and provide the vital services we need…. Read Full Article by Stephen Leahy
