Clean, healthy and biodiverse : the reef around Appo Island in the Philipinnes
Behind many a Greenpeace action and every campaign lies a large amount of science related work. Much of the analysis and some of the research backing our campaigns comes from the scientists of the Greenpeace Research Laboratories, based at Exeter University. Over the years they have accumulated a vast amount of expertise and thousands of scientific papers on a wide range of issues including many that are related to the health of the worlds oceans. From bycatch to ocean acidification, the team has been uncovering the facts behind the changes we are now witnessing happening at sea.
Having worked on a wide range of marine conservation issues all over the globe, the team have recently pulled together their vast knowledge and written a book - State of the World's Oceans – which both catalogues the threats to our oceans and sets out a blueprint for reversing current trends and laying the foundations for a return to clean, healthy and biodiverse seas. In particular the book sets out the science behind Greenpeace's call for a global network of marine reserves covering 40 per cent of the oceans.
Written in a way that makes it accessible to anybody with an interest in the fate of the seas around us, Paul Johnston, the head of the Greenpeace science unit, hopes that it will be widely read by the up and coming generation of marine scientists. "What we hope we've achieved is paint the big picture of what is happening to the oceans and made the scientific case for an holistic approach to marine management with the protection of whole ecosystems and their functions at its core."
