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June 5, 2012

World Environment Day: Our top 5 environmental problems

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Today is World Environment Day and we’ve decided to share with you what we believe are the five most important environmental problems facing our planet.

  1. Overfishing. FAO recognizes that 85% of the world’s fisheries are fully exploited, overexploited or depleted. In Europe, 92% of evaluated stocks in the Mediterranean and 63% of those in the Atlantic are overfished.
  2. Marine habitat destruction caused by aggressive fishing techniques, dumping, dredging, etc.
  3. Pollution caused by industrial waste, oil, solid waste, waste from ships
  4. Climate change: rising temperatures alter ocean currents, and combined with increasing water acidity, damage species and disrupt ecosystems.
  5. Failure to protect the oceans. 2012 marks the original deadline for all governments to have protected at least 10% of their seas and oceans to halt biodiversity loss. To date, little more than 1.5% has been protected and the UN has since delayed the deadline to 2020, but forecasts suggest that if the slow rate of marine protection continues, it is more likely that the 10% objective will be reached after 2050.

We clearly have a marine bias, but when you consider the fact that the world’s population is growing at a frightening pace, and take into account that the oceans of our world have the ability to feed us all, if they are managed properly – the obligation to return them to their bountiful nature becomes more urgent.