been discussions about the adequacy of our regulatory system and the appropriate amount of offshore and deep sea drilling, as well as a recent settlement that imposed a $4.5 billion damage award on BP, little has actually changed. This reliance on fossil fuels has created perhaps the greatest threat to our oceans: climate change. Marine scientist Jeremy Jackson paints a discouraging picture of the changing chemistry, biology, and biophysical functioning of oceans that are rapidly heating-up, with a likely 3-4 degree Celsius increase in surface sea temperatures by the end of the century. Changes in global sea temperatures have already resulted in significant shifts in the distribution of marine species, and more will occur as species seek to adapt, if they can, to these temperature and habitat changes. 1 Ocean stratification, and reduced ocean mixing, will further contribute to the declining complexity and productivity of ocean ecosystems. The mixing of ocean water layers serves essential ecological and biological functions. In many parts of the ocean, for instance, nutrient upwelling (or the movement to the surface of nutrients otherwise trapped in lower layers) provides important food sources for species that form the bottom of the ocean’s food chain. The oceans have served as a “giant reservoir of carbon,� 2 likely reducing and moderating the impacts of our profligate fossil fuel use. The cost to oceans and ocean life has been high, as acidification of ocean waters has been (and continues to be) a death knell for coral reefs, and threatens to further disrupt essential marine food chains. Phytoplankton and other marine organisms form their shells from calcium carbonate, and as the pH of ocean waters decreases this becomes more difficult, as carbonate becomes less available. 3 . On a more optimistic note, the oceans may also represent our best hope for a more sustainable global future, as they hold great potential as a source of renewable production of energy that can ease our current fossil fuel dependence. Offshore wind production has many
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