GA Tech Ocean Science and Engineering Presents Dr. Jeremy Jackson, Yale Institute of Biospheric Studies 

The oceans are gravely threatened and at a tipping point of irreversible change. Multiple threats of overfishing, pollution, habitat destruction, and climate change are driving a great Anthropocene extinction of ocean life. Coral reefs and kelp forests are dying, once productive coastal waters are being transformed into anoxic dead zones dominated by microbes and jellyfish, and deep-sea mining poses an existential threat to life on the sea floor. Global warming makes everything worse. Increasing efforts to reverse the carnage are working but so far only at inadequately small scales. Transforming perceptions of marine creatures from mere commodities to the fascinating creatures they are is helping to change attitudes towards stewardship and conservation. Marine protected areas, improved fisheries management, and agricultural reform are helping to rebuild coastal fisheries and the ecosystems that support them. Charismatic animals like whales and sharks are thousands of times more valuable alive for ecotourism than dead and there are promising efforts to regulate and protect the high seas. But none of this will be sufficient unless we abandon fossil fuels. The technology is increasingly available to make the switch to renewables. We have maybe 20 years to turn things around before it is too late.

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