2. Contents today
Ocean challenges
Carbon cycle
SDG 14: life under water
Marine environmental governance
Case: Salton Sea
Tragedy of the commons and common pool resources
Elinor Ostrom: polycentricity
3. Ocean challenges
• Overfishing (90+ %)
• rising sea levels
• bleaching/acidification
• sea warming (93,4% of
additional heat stored in
oceans)
• dead zones (eutrophication)
• plastic waste
4.
5.
6. Marine
environmental
governance
UNCLOS (into force 1994): international and national legal marine
framework needed in coastal countries for issues regarding their
sovereignty, rights and responsibilities relevant to the management of
the marine environment and its resources
Includes global agreements on fisheries resources, safety of marine
traffic, pollution control, biodiversity, climate change, and regional
agreements
High Seas Marine Protected Areas
Blue Economy
IMO, IOC, FAO, UNEP, UNCTAD, WTO, Oceana, regional orgs
15. Video: the useless Salton Sea
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwTEix9Mcgw
16. Garrett Hardin – Economist
Authored essay in 1968 titled
“The Tragedy of the Commons”.
Focuses on:
1. environmental degradation
2. population growth
3. limited natural resources
4. privatization of land
17. What does commons mean?
A public resource available for private gain.
What are some “commons” that you can think of?
18.
19. Elinor Ostrom
• Climate change as a collective action problem
• Traditionally top-down approach (externally enforced
rules) suggested
• But: weak empirical support for conventional theory
of collective action
• Behavioural aspects, knowledge, and trust are key +
benefits of climate action at local level
• In addition to the problem of waiting too long,
‘‘global solutions’’ negotiated at a global level, if not
backed up by a variety of efforts at national, regional,
and local levels, are not guaranteed to work well
20. Solution:
polycentricity
• Many centers of decision-making
• Multiple governing authorities at differing scales
• Each unit can make rules and norms
• Take each other into account
• Use local knowledge and learn from each other
• Trial-and-error (innovation) and adaptation
• “Polycentric systems are not a panacea!”
when a body of water becomes overly enriched with minerals and nutrients which induce excessive growth of algae.[2] This process may result in oxygen depletion of the water body.[3] One example is an "algal bloom" or great increase of phytoplankton in a water body as a response to increased levels of nutrients. Eutrophication is often induced by the discharge of nitrate or phosphate-containing detergents, fertilizers, or sewage into an aquatic system.
Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) w Arthur Dahl
Biggest lake in California
Beach boys and Frank Sinatra vacationed here and went water skiing
So popular that people bought from the air
Plots of land for 3000 USD
Water evaporates and leaves salt and minerals behind; 30% more salty than Pacific Ocean
Air! No one owns the air-avail to all
Water in oceans & rivers is avail to all.
Fish of the sea avail to all.
Hardin’s parable involves a pasture "open to all."
He asks us to imagine the grazing of animals on a common ground.
Individuals are motivated to add to their flocks to increase personal wealth.
Solution = privatization or coercion, top-down prohibition
Malthusian
Hardin esp concerned with overpopulation, e.g. one child policy and coercion
So does privatization lead to more or less exploitation of resources?
The term ‘‘collective action’’ refers to settings where decisions
about costly actions are made independently but outcomes jointly
affect everyone involved. Participants posited as
maximizing short-term material benefits and making independent
choices are not predicted to achieve the best outcome for everyone in long term.
E.g. we will fish until left no fish in the ocean or emit GHGs until runaway climate change
Implication: global agreement is not enough if not supported by multiple levels
Each unit = e.g. family, firm, local or national govt, region, international regime
Example = when Trump out of Paris Climate Agt
Still need a global agt, but complemented by polycentric approach
There are no panaceas, however, for complex problems such as global warming.