World Ocean Conference draws horror scenarios on climate change

May 11, 2009, 13:27 GMT

Manado, Indonesia - Politicians and climate experts predicted dreary effects of climate change on the world's oceans at an international conference opening Monday on Indonesia's Sulawesi island.

The state of the oceans and the role they play in the world's changing climate must be a central issue in the upcoming negotiations on a new global climate pact, participants at the World Ocean Conference said.

'We must make sure that we are not spectators at the climate talks but that those of us who speak for the ocean have a role,' said Tony Haymet, director of the Scripps Institute for Oceanography of the University of California.

The oceans absorb 22 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2), a main greenhouse gas, per day, said Richard Spinrad, the head of the US oceanographic authority NOAA. They store 38,000 gigatons of CO2, which is 50 times as much as the atmosphere holds.

More than 5,000 climatologists, ocean-experts, government representatives and environmentalists from 80 nations discuss the effects of climate change on the world's oceans at the Sulawesi conference, which runs until Friday, and plan to pass a 'Manado Declaration,' which should find its way into the UN climate talks in Copenhagen in December.

According to Spinrad, raising sea levels of more than 1 metre over the next 100 years cannot be ruled out. 'Sea-level rises have accelerated over the past years,' Spinrad said.

The regions affected by the rise are home to 150 million people. The ocean's acidity levels also increased by 30 per cent due to the higher CO2-content.

Nineteen per cent of the world's coral reefs have already been destroyed, said Gabriele Goettsche-Wanli of the United Nations' ocean bureau in New York. Another 15 per cent are in danger of dying by 2020.

'It is clear that our precious marine resources are under dire and increasing threat and that in many parts of the world climate change will accelerate their destruction,' said Freddy Numberi, Indonesia's minister of fisheries. He urged the rich nations not to forget about the dire effects of climate change for developing nations.

Indonesia wants the world' oceans to be recognize as carbon storage like rainforests. Countries with large sea territories, like Indonesia, could improve their carbon footprint and receive international funding for protecting the oceans.

However, this move was met with criticism from scientists: 'To get credit for preserving the ocean or avoiding deforestation is like getting credit for not beating your wife,' Haymet said.