Hope for People and the Ocean

Can we use the ocean without using it up? The task is daunting given current trajectories in fisheries, plastics and other pollutants, and the increasingly serious impacts of climate change and ocean acidification. However, new scientific insights, tools, and partnerships are providing hope that it is not too late to transition to more sustainable practices and policies. Solutions exist, but they are not at the scale required. Changing social and economic incentives will be key. Lubchenco draws on her four years as the Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and the Administrator of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), her two years as the first U.S. Science Envoy for the Ocean, and her decades of research around the world to summarize scientific knowledge about the importance of sustainable use of the ocean and approaches that are working. She brings a coupled message of urgency and hope.

Speaker: The Honorable Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Distinguished University Professor and Marine Studies Advisor to the President, Oregon State University