[dropcap]A[/dropcap] United Nations panel released its latest assessment of the impact of climate change on the world’s environment, focusing on issues such as food supply and economic security. The ocean, which covers 71 percent of the Earth’s surface, is at the epicenter of many of the problems brought on by climate change.
“Even before this report came out, we knew we were draining the ocean of life,” said Karen Sack, senior director for international oceans at The Pew Charitable Trusts, referring to the new work released today by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
“The IPCC report raises further alarm about how climate change is speeding up the degradation of increasingly fragile marine ecosystems. World leaders must act now to implement solutions we know exist, to problems that we are certain can be reversed, by ending overfishing and establishing very large, fully protected marine reserves.”
The release of the panel’s Fifth Assessment Report comes as country delegates convene in New York City for U.N. meetings that include talks on sustainable development goals and the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction, or the high seas.
Established by the U.N. General Assembly in 1988, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change consists of climate experts from member nations. The panel and former Vice President Al Gore shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts to analyze and explain the risks of climate change and to lay out possible steps to stem it.
