Knowledge is GREAT lecture on Rising Tides: Sustainability across our Blue Planet

British Council in partnership with University of Southampton presents Rising Tides: Sustainability across our Blue Planet
28 January 2021

About the lecture
The oceans – the earth’s largest ecosystem – are so amazing! They provide us with food, they help regulate the climate, they keep us healthy, they create millions of jobs. But how do we utilise the oceans for all the wonderful things they provide, without damaging them for future generations? In his lecture, Dr Haigh discussed about the stresses the oceans are facing, including pollution, over-fishing, destruction of marine habitats, oil drilling and climate change. He shared with us his research area: sea-level rise and its impacts on coastal cities, deltas and small islands. Finally, Dr Haigh provides us with suggestions of what we can do to help reduce the pressures our oceans are facing.

About the British Council 'Knowledge is GREAT' lecture series
The British Council 'Knowledge is GREAT' lecture series showcases UK's knowledge, creativity and innovation through leading UK specialists in areas of topical debate and discussions.

Singapore Sign Language interpretation was kindly provided by The Singapore Association for the Deaf .

[RobSharkRescue]

Although it's good for individual citizens and groups of citizens to take action in reducing our plastic use or carbon footprint, until governments can redirect the energies of coal- and oil-producing countries and corporations, this problem isn't going to go away. People who care enough to change their behaviour are vastly outnumbered by those who don't, can't afford to, or are just too ill-informed. Even if their behaviour could be changed, the root of the problem lies with heavy industrial extraction and production.

Until biodegradable netting and line are used in global fisheries, ghost fishing gear will continue to entangle and kill marine wildlife. The same goes for fishing techniques. What hope is there for putting an end to seabed ecosystem decimation when shallow seabed trawling is enshrined in the fisheries policies of e.g. the E.U., China and the U.K.? It's been shown that more trawling occurs in so-called MPAs than in non-protected areas.

It's scientifically proven that leaving old-growth forest in place is far better than planting saplings with regards to protecting biodiversity and removing carbon from the atmosphere, but how can that be accomplished when activists are imprisoned for attempting to stop governments from doing this?

The Paris agreement will be little more than greenwashing unless the industrial, economic and political systems that are causing the global heating situation change, and the unacknowledged goal of defrosting the poles is rescinded, at least until safer methods can be found to access their resources.

Solutions might include:
- subsidising the lab-grown and plant-based meat industries, but this will not happen if it is blocked by the farming and meat-production lobbies.
- subsidising renewable energy production but this is dwarfed and hindered by subsidies and loans to the fossil fuel extraction and plastics production industries.
- placing a global moratorium on old-growth tree felling but this is unlikely ever to happen despite its necessity. The willingness of certain governments to promote 'biomass' energy production by felling old-growth trees and burning them, shows how little regard is paid to environmental science.
- changing the civil engineering models of fewer large, high impact projects to many more smaller, lower-impact projects. e.g. water wheels along miles of river banks rather than massive dams, or improving the overall rail networks rather than investing billions in ecologically detrimental high speed rail projects.
- subsiding algae production in coastal areas for biofuel and human consumption while drawing carbon from the atmosphere. Or subsiding sea farmers to grow it and sink it into deeper oceanic areas.

The list goes on but the focus on individuals changing their habits has been shown to be a distraction from the root causes of the decimation of biodiversity and global heating. Those causes have been shown to mostly come from the heavy industry sector. The example of the plastics industry being changed to become plant-based and biodegradable shows that there are ways out of this abusive relationship with nature, however it will require significant systemic change to have any chance of succeeding. A change to lighter forms of industry that work in harmony with nature rather than decimating it.