Two people diving in the ocean

World Ocean´s Day 2020

Here is What You Can Do

World Oceans Day is an initiative by the Unesco calling upon citizens of the world to pledge to improve 30% of our oceans by 2030. The theme of this year has been called “30×30” which focuses on safeguarding and preserving at least 30% of our land and ocean through a series of pledges. While last year in 2019, the theme focused on “Gender & The Ocean”.

The concept of a World Oceans Day, celebrated each year on June 8th was first initiated in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with the aim to raise awareness about the crucial role the ocean plays in human lives, recognize the interpersonal relationships between man and the sea and how the humanity can raise its consciousness to help protect it.

As the challenges to the ocean continue to grow, so does the need for novel solutions and the people driving them. To that end, the theme of UN World Oceans Day 2020 is Innovation for a Sustainable Ocean. Innovation – relating to the introduction of new methods, ideas, or products – is a dynamic term and one that is fundamentally filled with hope. 

This year’s theme is especially relevant in the lead-up to the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, which will run from 2021 to 2030. The Decade will strengthen international cooperation to develop scientific research and innovative technologies that can connect ocean science with the needs of society.

In the words of Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of World Oceans Day, “Every year, in late May and early June, UNESCO celebrates three major international days which are an important opportunity to consider together the three systemic pillars of climate change: biodiversity, the environment, and the oceans. This third day draws attention to a key issue: the oceans. They occupy most of the Earth’s surface – 70% – to the point of giving our planet its unmistakable color. As such, they are eloquent barometers of the state of the Earth’s health: to observe them is to know where we stand.

In terms of climate, the warming and acidification of the oceans have harmful consequences on marine life and on land: there is of course the rise in water levels which threatens communities settled along the coasts and island States. There is also a risk that is even more worrying since it is systemic, and it will become a reality if the oceans are no longer able to perform the climate regulation function that they have long fulfilled.

As far as biodiversity is concerned, the diagnosis is even more alarming. Where life has taken root, where it has diversified and branched out, as well as where it remains largely unknown, it is, everywhere, profoundly threatened.

We are well aware of these interlocking and interacting crises, thanks in particular to the work of UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year. We also know where we must act. However, we still have to take stock of matters and mobilize widely in order to manage the inevitable and prevent the irremediable.

COVID-19 affords us this opportunity to come together and set up ambitious programs of action. This is true for the climate; it is true for biodiversity; it is also true for the oceans, as the United Nations Special Envoy for the Ocean, Peter Thomson, explained a few days ago: “If there were ever a tide in human affairs that should be taken, this is it.” As we enter the United Nations Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, it is indeed our responsibility to seize this moment. We must seize this moment, firstly, to learn more about these depths, which often remain largely unknown to us, and still hold many secrets that only we can reveal. We must seize this moment, secondly, to give free rein to imagination and innovation, which we need in order to confront this worrying situation. This is why we have made innovation the theme of the celebrations of this international day. We must also seize this moment to sound the alarm, perhaps more widely than we have done so far, because no technical solution can replace a widespread, personal understanding of the threats to the oceans, their mysteries and their beauty.“I need the sea because it teaches me”, wrote the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda, to whom the Pacific Ocean was so dear. On this World Oceans Day, I invite you to make the ocean your teacher, to learn from it, and to act for it.”

Here are the Pledges We at Fuerteventura Times have taken.

What will you pledge to protect our planet?

You can Sign The Pledges by Registering Yourself at the official website of the UN WORLD OCEANS DAY here.

MORE WAYS TO TAKE ACTION HERE

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