According to a recent UNEP report, a third of all coastal regions are at high risk of degradation, and in four out of seven coastal regions the degradation is increasing. There is hardly a global issue that is not linked to the ocean. Ocean currents play a pivotal role in climate and ocean productivity. In the tropics, surface waters are heated and transported towards higher latitudes. At great depths, colder waters travel around the world, taking about 1,000 years to complete the journey.
Current patterns drive many of our activities on land and sea.
Upwelling of nutrient rich waters off the Pacific Northwest coast of the U.S., off Peru, and the Benguela system of West Africa generate some of the most productive and biologically diverse environments, which, in turn, have spawned large fisheries. Global warming could disrupt this current, causing temperatures to plummet and producing disastrous consequences for biological diversity, and the people of the region. Last year, a number of economists assembled in Santa Barbara to try to estimate the value of all goods and services that nature provides. We depend on the oceans a great deal. The threats to marine life are many.