State of the Oceans
Great Decisions 2012 | Topic 6
A look at the health of the world's seas
by Sara Tjossem
The world’s oceans are essential to life on earth, and are tremendously sensitive to global climate change. What are the consequences of climate change on oceanic factors like biodiversity, sea levels and extreme weather systems? How can the U.S. and its international partners address the emerging challenges to this shared resource?
Read a sample from the Briefing Book article
Watch an introduction to the Television Series episode
Take the Spring Quiz for "State of the Oceans"
Latest News
State of the Oceans Latest News
- Guest Review: Jamie's Italian on Quantum of the Seas - Royal Caribbean Blog (blog)
- Anthem of the Seas Leaves Shipyard for North Sea - Cruise Critic
- Seven Seas, Clean Seas: Wearable Art 2015 - KCAW
- Arctic Frontiers takes place in Tromsø, Norway
- Global media interpretations of China’s rescue of stranded passengers off Antarctica vary
Related Organizations
-
Blue Ocean Institute
From Arctic Alaskan fishing villages to Zanzibar’s shores, the staff of Blue Ocean Institute studies and articulates how the ocean is changing and how everything humans do—both on land and at sea—affects the waters, wildlife, and people of our world. But gloomy environmental warnings and predictions don’t move people to make changes that can help our shared ocean. MacArthur Prize-winning scientist/author Dr. Carl Safina and Mercédès Lee created Blue Ocean Institute in 2003 as a unique voice of hope, guidance, and encouragement.
-
Blue Frontier Campaign
The Blue Frontier Campaign works to promote unity, provide tools to and raise awareness of the solution-oriented marine conservation community.
-
Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution is dedicated to research and education to advance understanding of the ocean and its interaction with the Earth system, and to communicating this understanding for the benefit of society.
-
Ocean Futures Society
The mission of Ocean Futures Society is to explore our global ocean, inspiring and educating people throughout the world to act responsibly for its protection, documenting the critical connection between humanity and nature, and celebrating the ocean's vital importance to the survival of all life on our planet.
-
Oceana
Oceana is the largest international organization working solely to protect the world’s oceans. Oceana wins policy victories for the oceans using science-based campaigns. Since 2001, we have protected over 1.2 million square miles of ocean and innumerable sea turtles, sharks, dolphins and other sea creatures. More than 500,000 supporters have already joined Oceana. Global in scope, Oceana has offices in North, South and Central America and Europe.
-
Ocean Conservancy
Founded in 1972, Ocean Conservancy promotes healthy and diverse ocean ecosystems and opposes practices that threaten ocean life and human life. Through research, education, and science-based advocacy, Ocean Conservancy informs, inspires, and empowers people to speak and act on behalf of the oceans. In all its work, Ocean Conservancy strives to be the world's foremost advocate for the oceans. Ocean Conservancy's four strategic priorities reflect the critical ocean conservation issues that will be the main focus of our efforts, including restoring sustainable American fisheries, protecting wildlife from human impacts, conserving special ocean places, and reforming government for better ocean stewardship.
Recommended Readings
-
The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean
by David Abulafia
Situated at the intersection of Europe, Asia, and Africa, the Mediterranean Sea has been for millenia the place where religions, economies, and political systems met, clashed, influenced and absorbed one another. David Abulafia offers a fresh perspective by focusing on the sea itself: its practical importance for transport and sustenance; its dynamic role in the rise and fall of empires; and the remarkable cast of characters--sailors, merchants, migrants, pirates, pilgrims--who have crossed and recrossed it. -
Oceana: Our Endangered Oceans and What We Can Do to Save Them
by Ted Danson and Michael D’Orso
In Oceana, Danson details his journey from joining a modest local protest in the mid-1980s to oppose offshore oil drilling near his Southern California neighborhood to his current status as one of the world’s most influential oceanic environmental activists, testifying before congressional committees in Washington, D.C., addressing the World Trade Organization in Zurich, Switzerland, and helping found Oceana, the largest organization in the world focused solely on ocean conservation. -
The World is Blue: How Our Fate and the Ocean’s Are One
by Sylvia Earle
This book tie-in to National Geographic's ambitious 5-year ocean initiative—focusing on overfishing—is written in National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence Sylvia Earle's accessible yet hard-hitting voice. Through compelling personal stories she puts the current and future peril of the ocean and the life it supports in perspective for a wide public audience. -
Seasick: Ocean Change and the Extinction of Life on Earth
by Alanna Mitchell
We have long lorded over the ocean. But only recently have we become aware of the myriad life-forms beneath its waves. We now know that this delicate ecosystem is our life-support system; it regulates the earth’s temperatures and climate and comprises 99 percent of living space on earth. So when we change the chemistry of the whole ocean system, as we are now, life as we know it is threatened.
Great Decisions 2024 cover image.