Climate and Biodiversity - chaos and control on the High Seas
1 December 2022
Join Heriot Watt University and Stromness Museum for a joint event. Dr Tim Noble will present 'Climate and Biodiversity - chaos and control on the High Seas'. The talk takes place at 7.30pm on Thursday 1st December in the Robert Rendall Building, ORIC, Stromness.
The very words ‘HIGH SEAS’ carry that sense of freedom from rules, wide open spaces and awesome power. They are romantic and dangerous - a heady mix. For centuries they have been the preserve of seafarers and explorers who, if they returned at all, brought back stories of adventure and wonders. In modern times we know the High Seas to be packed with valuable economic resources and we have the advanced technologies able to exploit them. We also know the oceans to be a vast store of biodiversity and climate control. Management with internationally observed rules across the seas are a priority today - but how to achieve them among the Earth’s 193 countries each with highly diverse interests and abilities? A new United Nations sponsored treaty seeks to protect the High Seas and build on the existing provisions which have their foundations in the 1990s. In this talk, Tim unpacks the complexities and prospects for new international action and considers their meaning for Orkney, coastal communities and …the whole planet.