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NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
Showing posts from category oceans.
  • Tip of the Iceberg: Polar Ice Loss Effects the Planet

    ›
    Navigating the Poles  //  February 2, 2021  //  By Olivia Popp & Michaela Stith
    Climate,Change,-,Antarctic,Melting,Glacier,In,A,Global,Warming

    When the United States purchased Alaska from Russia, Americans considered the “frozen wasteland” to be a reckless, wasteful acquisition. What could ice possibly offer? 

    In fact, polar ice is a critical resource for the Earth. The summer and fall of 2020 marked the lowest sea ice extent ever recorded in the Arctic Ocean, and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) says contemporary September sea ice extents are so low that they are unprecedented in at least 1,000 years. Moreover, collapses in the ice shelves of West Antarctica, Canada, and Greenland raised concerns in 2020. The immediate effects of climate change in the polar regions are merely the tip of the iceberg—ultimately, they have profound effects on climate and communities around the world.

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  • Managing Fisheries Conflict in the 21st Century: A Role for Regional Management Organizations?

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    Guest Contributor  //  February 1, 2021  //  By Cullen Hendrix & Zachary Lien
    Mangalore,,India,-,November,1,,2019:,Life,Style,Of,Fishermen

    Are climate change and declining fisheries productivity likely to lead to a future of fish wars, or can existing fisheries management institutions evolve to help prevent large-scale fisheries conflict? From militarized fishing practices in the South China Sea, to the ongoing wrangling between the European Union and Great Britain over fishing rights, to violent clashes between indigenous and non-indigenous fishers in Canada, fisheries are at the center of many international, or at least inter-governmental, disputes.

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  • The Climate and Ocean Risk Vulnerability Index: Measuring Coastal City Resilience to Inform Action

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    Guest Contributor  //  January 26, 2021  //  By Jack Stuart, Sally Yozell, Miko Maekawa & Nagisa Yoshioka
    shutterstock_1125870605

    As the climate crisis continues to worsen, climate finance remains a fraction of what is needed. The Climate Policy Initiative estimates that $579 billion was spent on average on climate finance in 2017/18. This includes domestic and international investment from both the public and private sectors towards climate mitigation and adaptation actions. Of this amount, only $30 billion—five percent—was allocated for climate adaptation. This amount stands in stark contrast to $180 billion, which the Global Commission on Adaptation estimates is needed every year to build resilience to current and future climate impacts. This catastrophic funding gap is intensifying climate security threats and elevating the vulnerability of people across the world, particularly in coastal urban centers.

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  • A Dangerous Taste for Plastic in the Ocean Depths

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    China Environment Forum  //  Guest Contributor  //  December 10, 2020  //  By Zoie Diana

    shutterstock_737988934If you watched Finding Nemo (who hasn’t?), you may remember Nemo’s home in the beautiful pink sea anemone with its tentacles waving around. These tentacles are able to sting and eat fish, crabs, and sometimes even birds. Lucky for Nemo, clownfish have a mucus coat that protects them from the sea anemone’s poisonous stings. And lucky for the sea anemone, clownfish protect them from being consumed by other fish and provide them nutrients through their food and fecal droppings. Nemo and his fellow clownfish, however, can’t shield these sedentary sea animals from nearly invisible plastic microfibers or plastic preproduction pellets, called nurdles. At Duke University I have been studying one specific species of sea anemone, Aiptasia pallida, which seems to find plastic particularly tasty. My work is part of a larger wave of scientific research around the world looking into how and why sea animals are eating microplastics and how it may impact their health.

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  • Largest Polar Expedition Ever Seeks to Explain Shrinking Arctic Sea Ice

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    Navigating the Poles  //  On the Beat  //  November 17, 2020  //  By Michaela Stith & Olivia Popp

    Matthew Shupe drives a snowmobile over a bridge towards MET City.

    “If you’re a sea ice person, MOSAiC is the kind of experiment that you just live for,” said Don Perovich, a Dartmouth College researcher with the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate. “It’s the kind of experiment you dream about. It’s an opportunity to spend a whole year on the ice, just watching how a floe evolves over time.” He spoke at a recent event sponsored by IARPC Collaborations, an Interagency Arctic Research Policy Committee (IARPC) member space where scientists and others involved in Arctic research share knowledge and resources. The researchers on the expedition, said Perovich, aimed to collect data that would shed light on the causes and consequences of the evolving and diminished Arctic sea ice cover. MOSAiC’s mission was to facilitate a breakthrough in understanding the Arctic climate system and improve the world’s climate and weather forecasting models.

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  • Sharon Guynup, Mongabay

    Landed by the thousands: Overfished Congo waters put endangered sharks at risk

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    October 27, 2020  //  By Wilson Center Staff
    2-h

    The original version of this article, by Sharon Guynup, appeared on Mongabay.

    In a video clip, seven fishermen climb into a wooden “Popo” boat that’s beached on the Republic of the Congo’s sandy shoreline. They start up the motor of the 40-foot, limo-length motorized canoe and head out into the Atlantic. The men aboard the weathered craft — its blue paint chipped and faded by years of salt and sun — could be out for a week.

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  • The Environmental Collateral Damage of the South China Sea Conflict

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    Guest Contributor  //  October 13, 2020  //  By Ryan McNamara

    shutterstock_1503568094

    Tensions in the South China Sea increased last April when a Chinese coast guard ship sank a Vietnamese fishing boat near the Paracel Islands—a fiercely disputed territory in the South China Sea. Disputes over island territories in the region have endured for decades, with China, Vietnam, the Philippines, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei all making overlapping territorial claims. The region is rich in natural resources and biodiversity, holding vast fish stocks and an estimated 11 billion barrels of oil and 190 cubic feet of natural gas.

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  • How Plastic Pollution is Being Woven into Fast Fashion Culture

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    China Environment Forum  //  July 30, 2020  //  By Catie Tobin
    shutterstock_1678989160

    The words “plastic pollution” evoke images of discarded plastic bottles and bags, derelict fishing gear, and crushed cigarette butts set on a beautiful beach or floating underwater. In this imagery, the ebb and flow of plastic pollution is visible to the naked eye. But the plastic we can see is only part of the problem. What we do not see so easily are the microscopic, hair-like plastic fibers that are coursing through the water and air, accumulating on beaches, in intertidal zones, and even in Arctic sea ice. These are synthetic microfibers: thin pieces of plastic, a sub-category of microplastics, that resemble a strand of hair.

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