Maritime Awards Society of Canada

Climate change is affecting the biogeochemistry of the ocean. The ocean serves as a sink for large quantities of atmospheric carbon dioxide, but this ecosystem service comes at a price: the dissolution of carbon dioxide acidifies seawater, which affects the ability of marine organisms to form calcareous shells and skeletons. Efforts to manage both the causes and effects of acidification are beginning. For example, the Center for Biological Diversity and Environmental Protection Agency recently reached a settlement on using the Clean Water Act to address ocean acidification. This is one of the tools that may help ocean and coastal managers respond to the potentially devastating impacts of climate change on the marine environment.

Panelists representing the scientific, nongovernmental, federal, and regulated communities will address the litigation, legislation, and research being undertaken and developed to address these changing ocean conditions:

Panelists:

Dr. Nancy Knowlton, Sant Chair for Marine Science, Smithsonian Institution
William Snape, Senior Counsel, Center for Biological Diversity
Christine Ruf, Senior Policy Analyst, Watersheds Branch, US Environmental Protection Agency

The Importance of Oceans, Coasts, and Small Island Developing States in the Climate Regime

December 14, 2009 | 8:00 to 22:00
European Environment Agency, central Copenhagen

The Oceans Day event is organized by the Global Forum on Oceans, Coasts, and Islands, the Government of Indonesia and the European Environment Agency and 46 other entities from around the world.

The Oceans Day Program is attached. Registration is already at capacity but spaces have been reserved for government delegates and media accredited to COP-15.

The Oceans Day will highlight:

1. the central role of oceans in climate. Oceans generate oxygen, absorb carbon dioxide and regulate climate and temperature. Just as we cannot do without a healthy heart and lungs, the world cannot do without a healthy ocean;
2. the fact that the close to 50% of the human population that lives in coastal areas and the 44 small island countries that are especially dependent on the oceans are at the frontline of climate change.  Coastal populations in 173 coastal countries will suffer disproportionate impacts from ocean warming, sea level rise, extreme weather events, and ocean acidification.

Oceans Day at Copenhagen will urge the international community to:

1. Proceed with utmost caution to ensure the continuing functioning of the oceans in sustaining life on Earth by adopting the most stringent reductions in greenhouse gas emissions within a short time frame
2. Emphasize the positive contribution that oceans can play to mitigate global warming, for example, through ocean-based renewable energy (such as windpower), and through the use of natural carbon sinks in coastal areas, such as mangroves, kelp forests, and coral reefs
3. Begin immediately, and with sufficient financing, adaptation efforts in coastal communities and island nations in all regions of the world and prepare the public for the inevitable changes that will occur.

For more information on Oceans Day 2009 visit: http://www.ceoe.udel.edu/cmp/oceans_day/index.html

For more information on the Global Forum on Oceans, Coasts, and Islands visit: http://www.globaloceans.org/

The second talk in the 2009 Killam Public Lecture Series on Oceans and Global Change will be held November 26th, 2009 at 7:00 pm in the Ondaatje Auditorium, Marion McCain Arts and Social Sciences Building at Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. A reception will follow. The address is 6135 University Avenue. The Lecture is entitled “The Arctic meltdown: an alarming symptom of global fever”.
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