If we have learned anything from the Covid-19 pandemic it is that we are all inextricably connected with each other and the natural world. Without greater balance and cooperation we cannot survive as a species. Human wellbeing is at the heart of what we do.  Our work, to protect the ocean is driven by the reality that humankind needs a healthy planet that can sustain life, for the sake of our homes, health, livelihoods, and food. Many have taken the rupture to our lives caused by Covid-19 to think about this and about how we can rebuild better, learning from the pandemic to achieve a greater balance, and to protect the fundamentals which make life on Earth possible. Doing so is a necessity.

We do not have the luxury of choosing between paths which damage the natural world and those which do not.  If we continue to harm nature at the rate we have been, our world will not be able to sustain human wellbeing – from jobs to food security and health. We have been given a stark warning. Once we emerge and start to rebuild, we need to do so in a way that protects the fundamentals that all human beings rely upon, foremost among these being a planet capable of sustaining human life.

Beach

Governments will be put under pressure to drop environmental protections to make it easier for industry to operate; to privilege short term economics and job increases over other considerations. These will be presented as a choice – choose humans over nature – but it is not a real choice. For the good of humankind we must achieve balance with the natural world, a coexistence which ultimately enables us to thrive. If we do not achieve that balance, take action to do better now, the rupture in our lives will get bigger, we will face other, escalating global disasters. We ask governments to protect human wellbeing and to make decisions which keep a functioning blue planet beneath our feet.

Seas At Risk, Aida, David Suzuki Foundation, Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, Ecology Action Centre, Global Fishing Watch, Global Ocean Trust, Greenovation Hub, High Seas Alliance, International Programme on the State of the Ocean, Marine CoLABoration, Marine Conservation Institute, Marine Conservation Society, New Economics Foundation, Shark Project International, Oceans North, Our Fish, Thames Estuary Partnership, Turkish Marine Research Foundation, OneOcean, Zoological Society of London, Wild Trust.