My main focus this week is on the Global Commons, those places and elements which belong to the whole world, but, because they don’t belong to any one nation are not well protected. They include the air, the climate, the seas, our heritage of crops and medicinal plants, even our own genes. Of immediate concern is the Southern Ocean which surrounds Antarctica. While Antarctica’s landmass is now largely protected, this is not true of the surrounding waters. This year the 25 nations with claims on Antarctica will meet to decide their fate. While these waters contain a great diversity of marine life, they are under increasing pressure from industrial scale fishing and from activities such as deep sea mining. With “85% of the world's fisheries classified as over exploited, fully exploited, depleted or recovering from depletion," commercial fishing vessels are moving to remote waters such as Antarctica's in search of fish (according to the UN's Food and Agriculture ...
Practising Geographer - nature culture places people