Ocean Crisis

The industrialization of the world's oceans is intensifying. The oceans have always been important for globalization, whether as trade routes or fishing grounds. However, economic exploitation of the oceans has accelerated. North-South and climate policies are lagging behind this megatrend.

Never before have so many scientists researched the effects of declining seawater pH on animals and plants in the ocean as they do today. We have compiled their most important research findings from recent years here.

It is the ocean current of superlatives: the Gulf Stream transports more water than all the rivers on Earth combined. Its energy exceeds the capacity of all European power plants a thousandfold.

Never in over 1,000 years has the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), also known as the Gulf Stream system, been as weak as it has been in recent decades: this is the conclusion of a new study by scientists from Ireland, the UK, and Germany.

Underwater noise, caused not least by motorised shipping, is changing living conditions in the oceans in an alarming way, negatively affecting food chains, among other things. However, Switzerland, as a major maritime nation, has not joined a ‘coalition of the highly ambitious’ against noise at sea.
Image: https://www.delphinschutz.org/news-delfine/das-schreien-der-delfine/

One of the Earth’s most important sources of oxygen is under threat. The bacterium in question is Prochlorococcus, which produces up to a fifth of the world’s oxygen through photosynthesis. As the oceans warm, Prochlorococcus populations could decline by up to 51 per cent. This would have devastating consequences for marine food chains.

A new report by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research shows that seven out of nine planetary boundaries have been exceeded. Ocean acidification is now one of these areas of concern: this threatens marine life. This has serious consequences for the entire planetary system.