“The effect of the ocean on every single person cannot be overestimated. We all share one planet, one ocean. We also share the responsibility to protect it. Some people underestimate the damage we do to the oceans every day...” Overfishing: “Too much money chasing too few fish...” “Pollution has led to 500 dead zones in the ocean, where life simply can’t exist...” Ocean acidification: “We are changing the chemistry of the ocean…we run the risk of fundamentally breaking ecosystems…” “The good news: we know what to do.”
These are some excerpts of Secretary of State John Kerry’s inaugural speech at the Our Ocean 2014 conference at the United States Department of State in Washington, DC. There had been a whirlwind of talks, networking and back-to-back meetings at the conference. For the first time since arriving in Washington DC, I had a serene moment. Insulated in a cocoon of white noise in my plane cabin, I have a chance to re-evaluate my conference notes.
Appropriately, my plane had just crossed the Florida coastline and was now over the Gulf of Mexico, which is still struggling to cope with the after-effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill.