The Scientific Advisory Board of the United Nations (UNESCO 2016) stressed
eight grand challenges which were categorized as serious problems of the entire
world community. Number one of these concerns “improving ocean science and
governance for the development of sustainable ocean knowledge-based economies”, and number five concerns “averting human disasters through prediction of
extreme environmental events.” The Board recommends that to “address these
grand challenges the United Nations should press for greater collaboration among
international science networks, including professional societies and academies, and
indigenous and local knowledge holders.” The First Global Integrated Marine
Assessment (World Ocean Assessment 1 2016) concludes that “many parts of the
ocean have been seriously degraded”, and that “the general threat to the ocean
comes from a failure to deal quickly with the manifold problems described in the
assessment”, as well as independently by the scientific community. The reason for
the failure is, following the assessment, related to, even due to, lack of integration
of scientific results into management. The problems must be addressed in order to
avoid a major risk that they combined drive a destructive cycle of degradation of the
ocean life-support system through which it can no longer provide many of the
benefits our society currently derive from it. This would seriously limit our means
to reach the visionary goal of Sustainable Development. The multiple, cumulative
stressors constitute a priority research area. The First World Ocean Assessment
(UN 2016) confirmed this in concluding that we are running out of time to
effectively protect the world ocean from multiple interactive stressors. This in itself
provides ample justification for a consolidated global effort. The problems and
priorities are known and documented. Hence now we need to orient ourselves
towards providing science-based solutions. It should be noted that the evaluation
of the seriousness of the problems largely depends upon science. Finding solutions
will also depend upon science and technology, involving several science disciplines
and engineering. However, most of the problems are due to our actions and uses of
the whole environment. This implies that the society as a whole must be involved in
addressing the solutions. This includes besides all the scientific disciplines also
policy- and decision-makers and the public, a truly holistic approach. The scientific
community has an additional large responsibility in delivering the science results in
a timely and understandable fashion, with communication to all these user sectors.
32.3 The Development of Organized International
Cooperation in Ocean Research
Early international cooperation related to ocean science concerned marine meteorology, weather observations and information on ocean surface layer currents from
ships observations and drifting. Such regular observations were organized into
international cooperation in the 1850s. They primarily provided services to shipping and fisheries, the transport and food producing sectors of our society.
534
G. Kullenberg
eight grand challenges which were categorized as serious problems of the entire
world community. Number one of these concerns “improving ocean science and
governance for the development of sustainable ocean knowledge-based economies”, and number five concerns “averting human disasters through prediction of
extreme environmental events.” The Board recommends that to “address these
grand challenges the United Nations should press for greater collaboration among
international science networks, including professional societies and academies, and
indigenous and local knowledge holders.” The First Global Integrated Marine
Assessment (World Ocean Assessment 1 2016) concludes that “many parts of the
ocean have been seriously degraded”, and that “the general threat to the ocean
comes from a failure to deal quickly with the manifold problems described in the
assessment”, as well as independently by the scientific community. The reason for
the failure is, following the assessment, related to, even due to, lack of integration
of scientific results into management. The problems must be addressed in order to
avoid a major risk that they combined drive a destructive cycle of degradation of the
ocean life-support system through which it can no longer provide many of the
benefits our society currently derive from it. This would seriously limit our means
to reach the visionary goal of Sustainable Development. The multiple, cumulative
stressors constitute a priority research area. The First World Ocean Assessment
(UN 2016) confirmed this in concluding that we are running out of time to
effectively protect the world ocean from multiple interactive stressors. This in itself
provides ample justification for a consolidated global effort. The problems and
priorities are known and documented. Hence now we need to orient ourselves
towards providing science-based solutions. It should be noted that the evaluation
of the seriousness of the problems largely depends upon science. Finding solutions
will also depend upon science and technology, involving several science disciplines
and engineering. However, most of the problems are due to our actions and uses of
the whole environment. This implies that the society as a whole must be involved in
addressing the solutions. This includes besides all the scientific disciplines also
policy- and decision-makers and the public, a truly holistic approach. The scientific
community has an additional large responsibility in delivering the science results in
a timely and understandable fashion, with communication to all these user sectors.
32.3 The Development of Organized International
Cooperation in Ocean Research
Early international cooperation related to ocean science concerned marine meteorology, weather observations and information on ocean surface layer currents from
ships observations and drifting. Such regular observations were organized into
international cooperation in the 1850s. They primarily provided services to shipping and fisheries, the transport and food producing sectors of our society.
534
G. Kullenberg