Quick Dips
Curated topical articles on the Blue Economy
Ingrid van Wees, World Economic Forum
With the future viability of so many economies and livelihoods at stake, saving our blighted oceans is a key development challenge.
Read more → (5 minute read)
Reuters Shipping & Ports Tourism
The International Maritime Organization (IMO) on Friday agreed stricter energy efficiency targets for certain types of ships in an effort to speed up action to cut the sector’s emissions.Read more → (2 minute read)
Charles Avis, Public Information Officer (UN Environment) Plastics & Pollution
Decisions on plastic waste have been reached today in Geneva, as approximately 180 governments adopted a raft of decisions aimed at protecting human health and the environment from the harmful effects of hazardous chemicals and waste.
Read more → (6 minute read)
Steven Adler, CEO Ocean Data Alliance
It’s well known that the majority of people now live in towns and cities. It’s more surprising to learn just how many of the world’s population live on or near the coast. Forty percent of people are within 100km of a shoreline. Not coincidentally, most major problems in our oceans are found within 100km of the coast.Read more → (12 minute read)
Mareesa Nicosia Energy Solutions
Tech Titans’ Philanthropy Puts Oceans Front and Center
While the ocean covers more than 70% of the earth's surface, the precious global resource receives just a fraction of all philanthropic funding—less than 1% since 2009, according to FundingtheOcean.org, an effort by the nonprofit Foundation Center to track ocean conservation philanthropy.
Titans of the technology and finance sectors, however, are increasingly committing resources to help solve the biggest problems facing our oceans, include warming temperatures, overfishing, and ocean acidification from increased carbon emissions.
Read more → (4 minute read)
Global Aquaculture Alliance Fisheries & Aquaculture
By 2030, 62 percent of all seafood produced for human consumption will come from aquaculture. Today, it’s about 50 percent. So, what is aquaculture?
Read more → (3 minute read)
Daniel Hanna, Global Head of Sustainable Finance, Standard Chartered
How blue financing can support the fight against climate changeRead more → (5 minute read)
Lisa Duchene, Global Aquaculture Alliance Fisheries & Aquaculture
Conservation organization The Nature Conservancy takes a considered step into aquaculture.
Read more → (7 minute read)
Brigit Katz, Correspondent, Smithsonian Magazine Fisheries & Aquaculture
The prevalence of conchs in the Bahamas’ culture and economy has come at a sobering cost
Read more → (3 minute read)
The Nature Conservancy Tourism
AI and social media are helping quantify the economic value of coral reefs.
Read more → (3 minute read)
European Commission / European Investment Bank / World Resources Institute / WWF
Our economies and financial systems, lives and livelihoods are being put at risk by degrading ocean health. One-third of fish stocks are overfished, plastic and toxic chemicals are polluting the waters, and fertilizer run-off from agriculture has led to more than 400 ocean ‘dead zones’ totaling more than 245,000 km^2 . Valuable habitats are under threat, including coral reefs and mangroves, with over half already lost.
These changes have implications for economic stability, food security and livelihoods, and are undermining efforts to deliver the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
Read more → (10 minute read)
James Temple, MIT Technology Review Fisheries & Aquaculture
A diet supplemented with red algae could lessen the huge amounts of greenhouse gases emitted by cows and sheep, if we can just figure out how to grow enough.
Read more → (7 minute read)
Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Louise Elizabeth Maher-Johnson, Scientific American Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture
We can sequester carbon and improve our nutrition through regenerative farming of land and sea.
Read more → (7 minute read)
Natasha Garcha, World Resources Institute / The Economist Group Fisheries & Aquaculture
Our world’s top scientists spend billions of dollars every year on space exploration, searching the universe for one thing: water, considered a necessity for life. Yet on Earth, our primary source of water — the ocean — is perhaps one of the most undervalued resources on the planet.
Read more → (5 minute read)
The World Bank Tourism
When properly planned and managed, sustainable tourism can contribute to improved livelihoods, inclusion, cultural heritage and natural resource protection, and promote international understanding.
Read more → (5 minute read)
Jennifer Eder Tourism
Cruise ship passengers are lining up for "authentic, sustainable onshore experiences", such as beach clean-ups and tree planting, but New Zealand cruise destinations have yet to cash in on the demand.Read more → (16 minute read)
Jurriaan Kamp, President & Editor in Chief of the Optimist Daily Energy Solutions Fisheries & Aquaculture
Gas is the future. That may sound counterintuitive in an emerging world of renewable energy where new solar power records are set on a monthly basis. However, for Joost Wouters, Dutch engineer and entrepreneur at Inrada Group, there’s no doubt: in the future, we will continue to use gas-fired stoves to cook our meals and warm our homes with gas-burning heating systems. Gas? Yes, biogas from seaweed.Read more → (6 minute read)
Editorial Staff, World Resources Institute
The ocean asset bank is large, so what will it take for mainstream finance to dive in?
Read more → (2 minute read)
Principles for Responsible Investment Plastics & Pollution
Increasing regulation means that companies need to be ready to respond to the growing plastic-related legal requirements.
With 8 million tonnes of plastic entering the ocean annually, and growing evidence of microplastic entering the food chain, seafood companies and consumers are also at risk.
Read more → (5 minute read)
Editorial Staff, World Resources Institute Fisheries & Aquaculture
The ocean is vast and complex, but there is at least one clear truth; there are fewer and fewer fish in the sea, and better fisheries management is needed.
Read more → (2 minute read)
