How to pronounce "unobserved"

So what do you think of when you think of the ocean?

Maybe you think of a visit to the beach

or whales or sharks or coral reefs?

I think of this.

This is the San Juan Islands in Washington state.

They jut out of an expanse of deep dark water,

and they're filled with life and mystery and opportunity.

But whatever you think of, the ocean is much more.

It is a complex physical, chemical and biological system

that takes up 70 percent of our planet.

And yet we're still really just beginning to understand it.

What we do know

is that the ocean is a vital part of our life support system on the planet.

It produces at least 50 percent of the oxygen that we breathe.

So more than one in every two breaths.

It also regulates temperature for the planet.

So without the ocean, the poles would be unbearably cold

and the equator would be unbearably hot,

and it would be a lot harder to live here.

Now we think about saving the ocean from plastic or from oil and oil spills

or from overfishing.

But really, we should be thinking about how the ocean is saving us.

And what is it saving us from?

It's saving us from the climate change that we are creating.

Essentially, ourselves.

And so what does that mean?

Basically, what we need to do is think about not how to save the ocean,

but instead how the ocean can actually help us

in this fight against climate change.

Already, the ocean is absorbing 25 to 30 percent of the CO2

that we release into the atmosphere.

It is the world's largest carbon sink.

The ocean has also absorbed 90 percent of the excess heat

trapped by greenhouse gases.

So it is basically helping to keep the planet habitable,

at least for now.

And yet, when we think about climate action

and climate strategies and climate plans,

we often overlook the ocean and leave it out,

because somehow we think that saving the ocean

is something else we have to do,

not a core part of our climate strategy.

And that's what has to change

because the ocean is a core part of our climate system,

and so it has to be a core part of our climate solutions.

So what does that actually mean?

Well, for starters, we know that the ocean is already doing a lot for us.

So the first thing we do need to do to save the ocean to save ourselves

is to actually reduce emissions.

I don't think anyone here would disagree with that.

But that still sounds like the ocean is a victim in the story,

and really the ocean can and should be a hero in this story.

The ocean can provide us with solutions to help us reduce those emissions,

and it can also help us to adapt

to this new climate reality that we've created.

So how does that happen?

Well, essentially the first thing we need to do

is to make sure that we keep all of these systems working

and protect the systems that are protecting us.

Because all of that CO2 and heat that the ocean is absorbing

is actually coming at a cost.

The ocean is warming and rising and acidifying,

and we even have evidence now

that we're changing the basic circulation of the ocean,

which changes the way it regulates temperature.

So the first thing we need to do is really just protect those systems

that are protecting us.

But how do we more actively engage the ocean

in our climate strategies?

What can we do to really use the ocean to help us reduce emissions

and to adapt to the impacts of climate change?

What does that practically look like?

Well, we know that coastal ocean ecosystems

like mangroves or seagrasses or salt marshes

are some of the most effective carbon sinks on the planet.

Acre for acre, they can absorb 10 times more carbon than a forest on land.

And that carbon is very deep in the soils

so that it can stay there for thousands of years

if we leave it undisturbed.

The problem is that we’re not leaving it undisturbed;

we are destroying these places.

We’ve lost 20 to 50 percent of them already,

and we lose more every year.

And all of that is creating emissions.

But if we protect those places, then those emissions stop.

Just like if you shut off a coal-fired power plant.

And if we restore those places,

then we can actually absorb even more carbon.

But the power of the ocean isn't limited just to reducing emissions.

The ocean can also help us to adapt to the impacts of climate change

we already feel

and that we know will be here with us for decades.

Those same mangroves can actually protect coastal communities

by buffering them against more intense coastal storms

and slowing wind and waves.

Another example, oysters.

In New York City, they're using oysters

to help reduce the risk of major floods and flood damage

like they saw during Superstorm Sandy in 2012.

The idea is that these reefs form dense places

that force water through nooks and crannies that slow it down.

So by the time it hits the shore,

it actually has less power and therefore can do less damage.

And at the same time, they're creating aquatic parks

and places where people can gather and be with nature.

Because the truth is that in this new climate reality that we've created,

we will have to learn how to live with water and with the ocean

in new ways.

And so what better ways to do that than with the creatures

that actually have evolved to live in these land and sea interfaces?

And these are real solutions that are being implemented in real places

based on what we know about the ocean now.

And yet the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association

of the United States

estimates that 80 percent of the ocean is unmapped,

unexplored and unobserved.

So there is so much more out there that we could be doing

and thinking about as climate solutions,

and so much that we're just still getting our imaginations around.

For example,

what if we could actually harness the power

of the ocean's wind and waves and tides to produce power?

The International Energy Agency estimates

that offshore wind alone could produce enough energy for the Earth

and 17 other planets, carbon-free.

And at the same time,

we could actually be providing power to coastal communities and islands

that don't benefit from our current grids and systems.

And if we're really smart about it,

we can plan and design these systems so that we're creating artificial reefs

that could support wildlife and aquaculture

and help us grow food and sequester carbon

and actually help the ocean instead of harm it.

Or what if we could harness more of the ocean's biological power

to help us in this fight against climate change?

For example, kelp.

Kelp is one of the fastest-growing organisms on the planet.

It can grow two feet per day.

What if we could actually restore the world's kelp forests

and actually grow kelp at a scale

that we could use all of that growing power

to help us sequester carbon?

Now, that's likely to be a lot cheaper

than trying to deploy human-made technologies

out into the middle of the ocean

to sequester carbon.

And it's likely to be a lot less risky than changing the ocean's chemistry

or engineering the ocean,

because we'd actually be working with the natural systems

instead of against them.

And we'd probably have a lot of kelp left over

that we could use to feed ourselves and feed animals

and create plastic alternatives

that would also help us to lower our footprint on the planet.

And this is just a sampler of the types of solutions

that the ocean has to offer for the climate crisis.

The key is that we have to think about the ocean as a source of solutions

that we can be using and enlist it in this fight.

And these aren't easy solutions.

The time for that has passed.

We don't have any easy solutions left.

And these aren't excuses for not doing other things,

these are not silver bullets.

So we still have to do the hard work

of reducing and getting rid of fossil fuels,

and we still have to do the hard work of making sure

that the most vulnerable among us will be able to adapt and thrive

in the new climate reality.

But the ocean is a powerful source of solutions

that we've overlooked for far too long.

And so we need to think

about how we really integrate it into our strategies now.

And that comes down to a fundamental change in mindset,

which is instead of thinking about how we save the ocean,

we should be thinking about how we can help the ocean save us.

Thank you.

(Applause)