Quick Dips
Curated topical articles on the Blue Economy
Steven Adler, CEO Ocean Data Alliance It’s well known that the majority of people now live in towns and cities. It’s more surprising to learn just how many of the world’s population live on or near the coast. Forty percent of people are within 100km of a shoreline. Not coincidentally, most major problems in our oceans are found within 100km of the coast.
Read more → (12 minute read)
Tech Titans’ Philanthropy Puts Oceans Front and Center
While the ocean covers more than 70% of the earth's surface, the precious global resource receives just a fraction of all philanthropic funding—less than 1% since 2009, according to FundingtheOcean.org, an effort by the nonprofit Foundation Center to track ocean conservation philanthropy.
Titans of the technology and finance sectors, however, are increasingly committing resources to help solve the biggest problems facing our oceans, include warming temperatures, overfishing, and ocean acidification from increased carbon emissions.
Read more → (4 minute read)
By 2030, 62 percent of all seafood produced for human consumption will come from aquaculture. Today, it’s about 50 percent. So, what is aquaculture?
Read more → (3 minute read)
How blue financing can support the fight against climate change Daniel Hanna, Global Head of Sustainable Finance, Standard Chartered
Read more → (5 minute read)
Conservation organization The Nature Conservancy takes a considered step into aquaculture.
Read more → (7 minute read)
The prevalence of conchs in the Bahamas’ culture and economy has come at a sobering cost
Read more → (3 minute read)
AI and social media are helping quantify the economic value of coral reefs.
Read more → (3 minute read)
European Commission / European Investment Bank / World Resources Institute / WWF
Our economies and financial systems, lives and livelihoods are being put at risk by degrading ocean health. One-third of fish stocks are overfished, plastic and toxic chemicals are polluting the waters, and fertilizer run-off from agriculture has led to more than 400 ocean ‘dead zones’ totaling more than 245,000 km^2 . Valuable habitats are under threat, including coral reefs and mangroves, with over half already lost.
These changes have implications for economic stability, food security and livelihoods, and are undermining efforts to deliver the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Read more → (10 minute read)
A diet supplemented with red algae could lessen the huge amounts of greenhouse gases emitted by cows and sheep, if we can just figure out how to grow enough.
Read more → (7 minute read)
Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Louise Elizabeth Maher-Johnson, Scientific AmericanWe can sequester carbon and improve our nutrition through regenerative farming of land and sea.
Read more → (7 minute read)
Our world’s top scientists spend billions of dollars every year on space exploration, searching the universe for one thing: water, considered a necessity for life. Yet on Earth, our primary source of water — the ocean — is perhaps one of the most undervalued resources on the planet.
Read more → (5 minute read)
When properly planned and managed, sustainable tourism can contribute to improved livelihoods, inclusion, cultural heritage and natural resource protection, and promote international understanding.
Read more → (5 minute read)
Read more → (16 minute read)
Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture
Jurriaan Kamp, President & Editor in Chief of the Optimist Daily Gas is the future. That may sound counterintuitive in an emerging world of renewable energy where new solar power records are set on a monthly basis. However, for Joost Wouters, Dutch engineer and entrepreneur at Inrada Group, there’s no doubt: in the future, we will continue to use gas-fired stoves to cook our meals and warm our homes with gas-burning heating systems. Gas? Yes, biogas from seaweed.Read more → (6 minute read)
Editorial Staff, World Resources Institute
The ocean asset bank is large, so what will it take for mainstream finance to dive in?
Read more → (2 minute read)
Increasing regulation means that companies need to be ready to respond to the growing plastic-related legal requirements.
With 8 million tonnes of plastic entering the ocean annually, and growing evidence of microplastic entering the food chain, seafood companies and consumers are also at risk.
Read more → (5 minute read)
The ocean is vast and complex, but there is at least one clear truth; there are fewer and fewer fish in the sea, and better fisheries management is needed.
Read more → (2 minute read)
Not all fish are created equal when it comes to their impact on the climate, according to a new study.
Read more → (3 minute read)
A global study led by a team from The University of Western Australia and the Marine Biological Association of the UK has found that kelp forests take in more than twice the amount of carbon dioxide than previously thought, which can help mitigate the impact of climate change.
Read more → (2 minute read)
Read more → (6 minute read)