Scientists Call For The Ocean to Be Recognized as a Living Being With Inherent Rights

Most of our planet's surface is covered by the ocean and it provides a significant amount of resources by way of food, minerals, and energy.

Our oceans are underrepresented when it comes to environmental convention.

footnotes and passing mentions in international accords aim to unite our world in sustainable practices.

To move beyond token efforts and develop guidelines that truly ensure future generations can continue to reap the benefits of functioning marine systems we need to change on a fundamental level.

A group of researchers argue in an editorial that a new framework should be used to do that.

The commentary states that maintaining the status quo of environmental law equates to legalized destruction of nature.

The ocean's inherent rights need to be reflected in international law. Human health is related to ocean health.

Our natural environment is placed in a position of equality with humanity rather than being a separate domain of exploitation.

An umbrella term for initiatives that aim to recognize the interdependence that exists between humans and their environment via our institutions and laws is called Earth law.

The right to exist is one of the legal frameworks most people are familiar with. It's an ethical principle that underpins the development of laws.

The Rights of Nature is a legal framework within Earth law that recognizes nature as having value because of its own worth. Not by virtue of what it can provide as property or resources ripe for exploitation, but as a living being in its own right.

The authors write that Ocean-centered governance recognizes the Ocean as a living entity,advances law, policy, and institutional action that centers the needs of the Ocean in decision making.

The UN Decade of Ocean Science for sustainable development was declared in December of last year.

In the wake of the first World Ocean Assessment in 2015, a sobering report that assessed our reliance and impact on marine environments based on themes that included climate change, food security, pollution, and exploitation of resources, the decision was made.

The Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission was tasked with coming up with a plan to improve the status of marine activities. The commission proposed a number of challenges and optimistic outcomes to be worked on in the coming years.

The patchwork of existing conventions and tensions that currently exist regarding existing definitions and frameworks over sustainable practices will make some of those challenges more imposing.

We need shared values and expectations in order to have a healthy relationship with the ocean.

Whatever we're doing is not working. Our oceans are changing in ways that won't serve future generations well, with expectations of loss in ocean resources predicted for our children's lifetimes

We need to transform our thinking from "ownership and separateness" to one of "loving interdependence" because of the decade.

The ocean deserves the kind of rights, respect, and reverence most of us take for granted.

The commentary was published in a scientific journal.