The ocean’s ability to support human health is at riskĪ healthy ocean is a prerequisite for a healthy planet and healthy human communities. We may not be able to gather to celebrate the ocean right now, but the global health crisis should sharpen our resolve to protect our blue planet. But they all demand the same essential response: transformational change through solidarity, science and a commitment to a sustainable, fair future. The interconnected global crises of climate change, species extinction, ocean decline, and now COVID-19-on top of pre-pandemic health challenges-can feel overwhelming. With 99 per cent of Earth’s living space under water, those systems very much include the ocean. Our lives depend and have an impact on the Earth’s natural systems, and on other species sharing the planet with us. World Oceans Day 2020 has gone virtual, but the threats to ocean health become more real every day.Īs countries battle the COVID-19 pandemic and begin to chart their courses out of the crisis, we must learn a crucial lesson: human health does not exist in a bubble. Instead, the conference halls and corridors have fallen silent, as have United Nations buildings all over the world. This year, many of us planned to spend the preceding days at the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, assessing progress towards Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 14 on “Life below water”. World Oceans Day is celebrated on 8 June, usually with gatherings of experts and decision makers dedicated to protecting marine ecosystems.

Blue planet deep sea orb