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Welcome to World Ocean Radio…
I’m Peter Neill, Founder of the World Ocean Observatory.
We are at war. There can be nothing good about it, the resort to mindless violence to deal with social circumstance deemed irreconcilable differences. Violence as reconciliation? That logic has never been clear to me. Relative to our focus on the world ocean, there a few observations to be made.
First, climate is a not so invisible part of the crisis in the Mid-east, historically through modern time. The area is subject to drought, today exacerbated to extreme, so that the traditional sources of fresh water, primarily mountain run-off from melting glacier and snow, that combines through rivers, marshland, and the underground aquifer to produce an ever-limited supply, is at critical risk. The region has historically innovated in the accumulation, conservation, and careful use of that resource through engineering, management, and practical use. But population growth, agricultural production, urban development, and climate change have radically changed the availability of fresh water to meet expanded needs; the crisis has been on-coming for decades.
In Iran, for example, site of the today’s altercation, the situation has become so dire that planners have considered the inevitability of the relocation of Teheran, national capital and city of some 9 million, to the south where better climate conditions remain and adjacency to the ocean for desalination is a practical option for the future. The relocation of an entire city! It is that severe, that urgent, and is further delayed and complicated by the imposed chaos of war. That the other sub-text, beyond the ostensible threat of nuclear weapon development, is oil, Iran producing some 3% of the world’s supply, mostly exported to China and Russia, is predictable given the political pre-occupation of America with this essential source of revenue and political power.
Second, keeping with oil, the passage of oil to Europe and the west through the Straits of Hormoz, is an ocean-related strategic choke-point that in just the first few hours of violence has been threatened with closure, causing, in days, tankers to pause passage, interrupting what has been a reliable supply chain for European and American demand. Further, maritime insurers have indicated the cancellation of coverage of those ships in a war zone, further depressing shipping and further increasing an almost immediate price increase worldwide. To re-direct those ships, or to limit normal supply, will disrupt a key aspect of the global economy by which everyone worldwide will be a victim. The blockage of the physical connection through conventional routes spreads consequence among the innocent, just as bombs falling in indiscriminate array, destroy lives, property, community, security, and survival.
So, what in fact is happening? In the name of momentary political advantage, of short-term might against conflicting views of right, we are affecting the region, if not the world, to everyone’s disadvantage, or worse. People are dying at the hand of regressive thinking, and the impact on the essentials of life, on water, and its relation to health and exchange in support of sustainable, harmonious, equitable living, is more deadly still. Whether water or oil, both are a function of climate and ocean connection, and through our indifference to them in the plan, we are acting not for, but against the best interests of all mankind.
The sea connects all things: as a means of support and survivability. When we disconnect from that reality, through war or otherwise, we abandon truth, and only sadness and inhumanity remain.
What will it take?
We will disuss these issues and more, in future editions of World Ocean Radio.
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