[intro music, ocean sounds]
Welcome to World Ocean Radio…
I’m Peter Neill, Founder of the World Ocean Observatory.
If there is a repeating underlying connection to the more that 790 editions to date of World Ocean Radio, it is the assumption that the ocean’s contribution to the past, present, and future of the world economy, therefore to world civilization, is the core principle for real calculation of the value of natural capital and its relation to human endeavor – certainly now, as that Nature is being irresponsibly depleted, corrupted, and ignored by world leaders and their political allies and constituents. To ignore the opportunity for a systemic re-set of structures and behaviors is simply to continue, indeed, to perpetuate societal chaos and decline.
To advance such an understanding, we ask here, again and again, how do we value, how do we price Nature, measuring and re-defining asset value as we struggle to find a way out of our historical failures to protect, through the application of scientific knowledge, prescient new policies, re-defined and re-directed political actions, and social investment enough, in time, to redress world conflict and damage, and to apply the power of invention to a new way of doing the business of successful living and survival.
We claim, here, that the ocean is the scape upon and within which this transformational change will occur. If there is truth in that, we must define anew the true value of the ocean. In a recent report issued by the United Kingdom Office of National Statistics, I found a helpful, simple means to understand the challenge and frame the response.
The report embraces the idea of “natural capital,” first proposed in 1937 by the economist E.F. Schumacher in his book, Small is Beautiful, to include “natural capital accounting,” to acknowledge. Incorporate, and monetize Nature’s economic contribution to global economic output. As the ocean constitutes more that 70% of the earth’s surface, and inter-related natural freshwater systems dependent there on, it seems beyond ignorance not apply this new way of understanding, calculating, and embracing this reality in the imagination of our future. The Report quotes Stanford University ecology, Lisa Mandal, as follows: “If there were no Nature, there would be no economy…Nature has been treated as essentially worthless or of negligible value when compared to other kinds of human activities. Natural capital accounting is an effort to correct…and to shine a light on the many different ways that Nature and biodiversity support human well-being and the economy”.
The report includes a simple illustration of four systems, with some, not all, examples within each, of ocean functions that underly our capacity to sustain life on Earth, as follows:
PROVISONING, to include fish and shellfish stocks, energy, harvestable seaweed, genetic resources, sand and gravel; SUPPORTING, to include the food web, nutrient cycling, water cycling, larval and gamete supply, species habitats, water currents and sediment transport; MAINTAINING, to include carbon storage, climate regulation, waste breakdown and detoxification, and storm protection; and ACULTURATING, to include tourism seascapes, recreation, science and education, wildlife sustainability, health and well-being, creativity and art.
Finally, I would add the most essential ocean value of all: by the incorporation of water in all religions as a source for individual meaning, solace, and rejuvenation – as a personal, universal return on our investment in its protection and sustainability. As I have claimed here so often: if we will protect, transform, and preserve this demonstrable asset value of Nature, the reciprocal response will turn short-term loss into long-term gain for us, our children, and ensuing generations. Why would we not make such a decision? Why would we destroy or deny the obvious true ocean value, now with this enduring, most generous dividend available to us all, for all time to come?
We will discuss these issues, and more, in future editions of World Ocean Radio.
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[outro music, ocean sounds]
