January 4, 2016 — As the global focus on climate change shifts from negotiations in Paris to taking action to limit the globe’s average temperature increase, the focus is decidedly terrestrial. The text of the climate accord finalized last month isn’t exceedingly detailed when it comes to climate change mitigation strategies, but it devotes special attention to the importance of the world’s forests.
Meanwhile, there’s only one mention in the document’s 32 pages of a natural feature that covers 71 percent of the Earth’s surface, contains 97 percent of its water and produces at least half of its oxygen.
Oceans — which dissolve about a quarter of the world’s climate change-causing carbon dioxide — are key to any effort to combat climate change. And, of special importance to a coastal state such as Maine, oceans and the creatures that live in them are particularly susceptible to the consequences of climate change, from sea level rise to the increasing acidity of the world’s oceans.
There have been several reminders of that reality over the past year.