Seas the Day: A New Narrative for the Ocean

It’s time for a new narrative for the ocean, one that reflects current scientific knowledge and acknowledges innovative new partnerships and solutions that center the ocean in our future.  The two current dominant narratives for the ocean are anchored in the past.  The older one considers the ocean to be so vast, bountiful, and resilient that it is simply too big to fail. This first narrative drives pollution and overexploitation of resources.   A second, more recent narrative is that the ocean is now so depleted, polluted, and disrupted, and the drivers of those outcomes are so powerful and complex, that the ocean is simply too big to fix.   A third, new narrative is emerging, based on scientific findings, existing solutions, and innovative partnerships and policies.  This new narrative acknowledges that the ocean is central to a safe, clean, healthy, just, and prosperous future.  This new narrative tells us that the ocean is neither too big to fail, nor is it too big to fix.  But it is too important and too central to our future to ignore.  

Speaker: Jane Lubchenco, Oregon State University

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