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NewSecurityBeat

The blog of the Wilson Center's Environmental Change and Security Program
Showing posts from category oceans.
  • Deadlock in the Negotiation Rooms to Protect Global Oceans

    ›
    China Environment Forum  //  November 10, 2022  //  By Erica Yunyi Huang

    Greenpeace together with the High Seas Alliance gather for a photo op outside the United Nations in New York to remind delegates that time is running out and demand they  agree a strong global ocean treaty.   Governments are meeting at the United Nations in New York this week to negotiate a new Global Ocean Treaty, which will determine the fate of the oceans.

    For decades, western multinational companies have been profiting by exploiting plant, animal, or microbial genetic resources obtained from less developed countries. Take the neem tree, for example. Since the 1990s, international companies have registered more than 70 patents on products derived from India’s “tree of life.” Yet these patents have prohibited local people from using these trees (as they had for centuries) to make cosmetics, fertilizers, and medicines.

    International companies have now turned their eyes to the high seas in a new hunt for genetic resources. Concerned they will be left out of the potentially profitable patents once again, developing nations are demanding equitable use and benefit sharing of genetic resources in ongoing global ocean treaty negotiations.

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  • Deep Seabed Mining and the Green Energy Transition

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    Guest Contributor  //  May 31, 2022  //  By David Michel

    Rays,Of,Sunlight,Into,The,Underwater,Cave

    On March 8, 2022, the price of nickel doubled overnight. Fueled by the war in Ukraine, fears of supply disruptions briefly drove the cost of nickel contracts over $100,000-a-ton. The London Metal Exchange, the main global market for industrial metals, suspended trading for a week, canceling billions of dollars worth of trades.

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  • Navigating the Arctic’s 7Cs

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    Navigating the Poles  //  Reading Radar  //  December 3, 2021  //  By Iris Thatcher
    arctic 7cs 645 

    “It seems incumbent upon the Arctic policy community to identify the most pressing issues to address in the region while simultaneously, effectively and creatively communicating their complexities and interrelated nature,” writes Mike Sfraga, founding director of the Wilson Center’s Polar Institute, in a new Wilson Center monograph, Navigating the Arctic’s 7Cs. Policy priorities in the Arctic boil down to climate, commodities, commerce, connectivity, communities, cooperation, and competition, writes Sfraga. The “7Cs” provides a framework that policymakers can use when engaging in Arctic affairs.

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  • Blue Jeans Contaminating Blue Oceans: The Expanding Microfiber Footprint of Our Clothes

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    China Environment Forum  //  December 2, 2021  //  By Sam Athey

    AmundsenDeck

    The Arctic is believed to be a pristine environment, far removed from littered city streets and toxic industrial emissions. I study human pollution and I found it hard to believe that my fellow researchers and I would find so much litter out here. It was even harder to believe that what we uncovered closely resembled the contents of my own closet, over 3,000 kilometers (2,000 miles) away in Toronto.

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  • Hitting the Brakes on Plastics in China’s Food Delivery Industry: Q&A with Zheng Xue and Sherry Lu of Plastic Free China

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    China Environment Forum  //  Q&A  //  November 4, 2021  //  By Solange Reppas, Mingwei Zhu, Tongxin Zhu & McKenna Potter
    Shanghai,,China,-,Apr,2,,2020:,Deliveryman,From,Food,Delivery

    In every Chinese city, there is an army of motorcycles and mopeds weaving through the traffic jams, and sometimes even venturing on sidewalks, to deliver millions of food and e-commerce orders each day. Meituan, one of China’s most popular food delivery apps, delivers 30 million orders a day, serving up 100 million plastic containers. According to Greenpeace, e-commerce and express delivery in China generated 9.4 million tons of packaging waste in 2018 and will likely triple to 41.3 million tons by 2025.

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  • Don’t Bury Me in Trash — From Recycle to Reduce in West Papua: Q&A with Misool Foundation’s Virly Yuriken

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    China Environment Forum  //  August 19, 2021  //  By Ruyi Li & Abigail Long
    Wayang,Of,Raja,Ampat

    With white sandy beaches, cerulean waters, and lush jungles, Indonesia’s Raja Ampat Islands are some of the world’s most beautiful islands—and currently under threat from a growing plastic waste crisis. Covering 40,000 square kilometers of land and sea off the northwest tip of West Papua, Raja Ampat lies at the intersection of the Indian Ocean and Pacific Ocean tides in a biodiversity hotspot known as the Coral Triangle. 

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  • Tip of the Iceberg: Polar Ice Loss Effects the Planet

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    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.

    MORE
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