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Uniting Ocean and Earth for Climate Action

By Courtney Mattison  This winter, the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21) in Paris will feature one of the largest gatherings of world leaders to ever address global warming. The stage is set for all United Nations member states to come together and create an international agreement on the climate with the goal of keeping global warming below 2°C. In anticipation of this opportunity, President Barack Obama announced an action plan to combat climate change in June. Also this summer, Pope Francis demonstrated a masterful understanding of the science behind global warming and urged Catholics to take immediate action to combat greenhouse gas emissions in his recently released encyclical. Even China, the world’s heaviest polluter, has committed to significantly reduce its carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.…

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The Deepwater Horizon Catastrophe 5 Years On

No one missed the Deepwater Horizon disaster. People missed the recent oil spill in Bangladesh. But the world witnessed Deepwater Horizon. Millions of gallons of oil flooded the Gulf of Mexico everyday — for 87 days. The biggest accidental oil spill ever. Five years later the effects of the Deepwater Horizon blowout still endure. A new study confirms a massive undersea oil mat near the unlucky oil well — Macondo 252 — that blew on April 20th, 2010. Considering this tar mat is the size of Rhode Island, the Gulf is clearly still feeling the affects of the catastrophe five years on. Gulf sea turtles stranding more frequently, dolphins killed, observed oil slicks hundreds of kilometers in length after the well was “capped” — a depressing list of unknown length.…

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Happy Holidays from Sylvia Earle and Mission Blue!

Dear Friends,
It has been a truly amazing year and I would like to thank you for playing an important role in the growth and success of Mission Blue!
Harrison Ford recently narrated the voice of the ocean in an online video. He growls, “I am the ocean. You need me. But, I don’t need you.” If only this were true! The fact is now we are at a critical point in  time when the ocean does need us. We must wake up and understand what the ocean delivers: most of the oxygen in the atmosphere, a great sink for carbon dioxide, the majority of biodiversity — the ocean maintains a planet that works in our favor. Sadly, our collective actions — overfishing,  pollution, resource extraction — have driven this great system into a real crisis that is unfolding in this very moment in time.…

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World’s Largest Protected Area Declared in U.S. Waters

By Courtney Mattison
“The United States does not have an Amazon basin, but it has the watery equivalent, a paradise of turtles and sharks, seals and dolphins, coral reefs and giant clams, frigate birds and boobies.”[i] Last Thursday, the environmental community rejoiced as President Obama announced that the U.S. would protect this natural treasure by expanding the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument and creating the largest protected area anywhere on Earth. Building upon the 83,000 square miles of U.S. territory designated for protection by President George W. Bush in 2009, Obama’s executive action increases the reach of this cluster of remote Pacific reserves southwest of Hawaii to 491,000 square miles – three times the size of California and six times larger than the monument’s previous size.…

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