VOA常速英语:2019世界海洋峰会：保护海洋 刻不容缓

The world’s oceans make life on this planet possible. They help regulate the global climate, absorb carbon dioxide and provide food and livelihood for billions of people. But even though they cover more than 70% of the Earth’s surface, our oceans are being overwhelmed by an avalanche of plastics, overfishing and increasing temperatures brought about by climate change, and if there is one message the attendees at this year’s World’s Oceans Summit tried to send, it’s that something must be done to protect them.
That’s pretty obvious. What is required which is for societal change and radical change in fact because the news that we have had from our scientist, and I refer particularly to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) is that we are trending in a very hazardous cause.

And it’s not just radical change sometimes soon-- these advocates are calling for radical change now. But we have still got time over the next 10 years to lower our GHG (Greenhouse Gas) emissions to a level whereby we will not hit that 2 degree warming stage which as you would know, once we get to 2 degrees, we’re currently training towards 3 degrees. Once we get to 2 degrees, we lose all coral reefs, for example, in the world.
The biggest declaration to come out of the summit is the Blue Prosperity Coalition which has the audacious goal declaring 30% of the world’s oceans off-limits to fishing by 2030. We’ve over-fished the oceans, we have, you know, in my opinion, five to ten years to really reverse the trends as before or it’s going to be too late. We rely on the oceans for so many things, livelihoods, the food we eat, the air we breathe. The oceans sequester a ton of carbon and if we don’t fix the oceans now, it’s gonna be too late. The coalition needs a lot more buy-in from world governments but signatories say with smart management they can accomplish their goals while maintaining fishing yields and without causing undue economic hardship.
Kevin Enochs, VOA News.