Our Ocean, Our Future - Ocean Sciences Meeting

Slides from the Ocean Sciences Meeting 2022 Keynote Address. As was discussed throughout the conference, the FLUIDITY of our ocean planet is our FUTURE. It is essentially what gives it life. And yet, as we know, our world today is simply, IN TROUBLE. It's safe to say that what we've done with environmental degradation and the issues of social instability are creating a significant amount of uncertainty for all of us, and then there is the unthinkable situation in Ukraine and with the associated crisis in the Black Sea. These issues are overwhelming. And somehow they're all interconnected — climate change, natural disasters, loss of nature in the ocean, overpopulation along the ocean. Addressing these issues with equitable SOLUTIONS is going to be challenging for all of us for the rest of our lives, requiring new governance, new policies, new market approaches, and certainly new technologies which is a focus of the talk. 

ONE MAJOR SOLUTION I would argue is GEOGRAPHIC, where a so-called Geographic Approach can come to the rescue to help us organize and optimize our knowledge of the ocean (ALL OF OUR KNOWLEDGE, FROM ALL CULTURES, and GEOGRAPHIES) to solve these challenges and to SAVE it. And what I mean by a Geographic Approach is really a Way of Thinking and Problem Solving …

  … that Integrates spatial data Science & Information Into How We Explore, Designate, Understand, Manage and Communicate about the ocean

This approach integrates and supports powerful methodologies: geoanalytics, creating insights and understanding; geovisualization, a language through maps and visualization for communicating the content and the context of our world; geodesign, designing sustainable and inclusive futures; geocollaboration, engaging all the community; and geoaccounting, being able to account for all the factors, setting up balanced measures that are driven by our shared value of the ocean, our knowledge, climate financing and much more.

https://www.aslo.org/osm2022/plenary-speakers/