NYT Op-Ed – Executive Communications
A unique moment to win a global plastics treaty required a strong executive voice to break through the cacophony of international noise.
Our Ocean Sustains Us. We Must Return The Favor.
April 26, 2024
The recent reports of an imminent, global coral reef bleaching event should be a clarion call to decision makers worldwide. Our aquatic ecosystems are crying out for protective action. Thankfully, we have a unique opportunity this week as negotiators explore a global plastics treaty at INC-4 in Ottawa. The ocean provides irreplaceable benefits and protections to all life on our planet. Private and public decision makers must agree on a framework that protects oceans in kind. Such reciprocity can only occur when negotiators respect the ocean’s contributions to life on this planet, and understand the threat that plastics pose to everyone and everything who relies on the ocean.
The ocean can seem so vast and everlasting that it is difficult to comprehend how plastic overproduction causes ongoing damage. Every day in my work leading the Ocean Conservancy, I see incredibly arresting images of harm done to marine ecosystems, and witness the threat of plastic pollution to frontline communities and critical species. Through our International Coastal Cleanup, we’ve removed 348 million pounds of waste from global shores. Most of that garbage is plastic, and more than 70% of that plastic is not recyclable. 17 million volunteers have joined us in this effort, out of a sincere love for the coasts and waterways. We see during these cleanups heartbreaking realities, like a seahorse wrapped around a Q-tip, a tiny victim of the single-use plastics industry. Or who can forget the iconic photograph of a sea turtle with a straw embedded in her nose, an image so powerful it caused ripple effects of plastic straw bans internationally? Seeing the toll of single-use plastics on beautiful ocean creatures can sometimes rouse tidal shifts in policy.
Yet more urgently motivating are the realities for everyday human beings living and working on the frontlines of ocean destruction. Today, families reliant on small-scale fisheries depend on a shrinking catch containing increasing levels of microplastics, primarily from abandoned fishing equipment. Low-lying communities see their shores strewn with plastic from clothing and packaging. Right now, Pacific Island nations are preparing for climate-induced displacement from their ancestral lands, a tragic measure of last resort. Making these injustices worse, policymakers often overlook the subsistence fishers, waste pickers who clean up plastic trash, and residents of threatened coastal environments. Justice for impacted nations means they must be at the table for treaty negotiations, and they must not bear an outsized burden of larger and wealthier nations’ plastic and other fossil fuels consumption. For many, the ocean is an irreplaceable connection to both traditional ways of being and modern survival. For all people, the humbling, tranquil beauty of our ocean shows us that we are just a small part of a dynamic world ecosystem which we must love enough to save.
What happens to the ocean impacts all of us, because the ocean nurtures humanity in countless ways. It is a growing source of much of the world’s food. It provides medicines which reduce human suffering every day. Sustainable fisheries, kelp harvesting, offshore wind, wave power, and many other industries could not exist without healthy, responsibly-managed ocean ecosystems. We have only begun to explore the potential of oceanic resources, which are as vast, deep and unknown to us as the ocean itself. But single-use plastics pollution impacts and harms more plants and animals than humans have even discovered. Plastics manufacturers must prioritize reuse and cyclical production, not disposability, to end this invisible harm.
We can’t solve climate change without the ocean. By some estimates, the ocean serves as a global carbon sink surpassing continental forests and outpacing the capacity of atmospheric carbon by fifty times or more. Our ocean has absorbed more than 90% of the human-generated heat of our warming planet, and about 30% of carbon dioxide emissions, leading to acidification. As humanity races past carbon reduction targets and temperatures rise, global policymakers must take every chance to preserve the delicate balance supporting marine ecosystems. A successful plastics treaty can stabilize the ocean, as we keep pressing for climate action to prevent ocean failure.
We simply ask that global negotiators recognize and respect all that the ocean does to sustain us. It is time for systemic, global action to protect the ocean’s enormous beauty, unexplored resources, vital utility, and deep cultural significance. This moment demands a strong global plastics treaty to end the era of single-use plastics devastating our waters. Such a treaty must include reducing plastics at their source, requiring plastics designed for cyclical production, and including microplastics and abandoned fishing gear. If business and elected leaders love this planet, they must show that love for the majority of Earth’s living creatures and their aquatic home. They must ensure justice and inclusion for the people living at the frontlines of plastic devastation. And they must preserve the ecological balance which keeps our global home livable for island nations, for marine creatures, and for everyone.