Water
The economics of issues we face today.
International Waters
As a resource that many regard as the most important for not only human survival but for the survival of all living things, water is critical to the everyday lives of all inhabitants of the Earth. Because water is needed to satisfy basic human needs it is viewed as a right that all mankind should have access to and is therefore protected under international human rights law.
So why are oceans so important? In sheer size alone, oceans are noteworthy. They house nearly all of the water found on Earth (ninety-seven percent). What’s more, oceans cover seventy-one percent of the Earth making connectivity between countries bound by the seas. Of the seventy-one percent of our Earth covered in oceans, sixty-four percent is considered high seas or international waters. Not only are oceans expansive, they are vital to our sustainability as a planet. Collectively, oceans produce more than half of the oxygen in the atmosphere and they absorb a large amount of carbon.
Historically, many have viewed the ocean as an inexhaustible source of various vital resources; hence, economically the ocean is of great import and has been very fruitful. Currently, ocean based businesses account for a significant portion of global GDP. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, “In 2011, the ocean economy… contributed more than $282 billion to the U.S. GDP and provided more than 2.8 million jobs.” We as a society continue to depend on the ocean for food, transport, underwater assets, tourism, safety from natural phenomena such as hurricanes and storm surges, and many other benefits and yet in large numbers we turn to the seas with destructive practices that are ruining our most essential asset.
Because of the importance of oceans to our wellbeing both physically and economically, we have seen governments globally since ancient times place great importance on command of the ocean. Particularly with the emergence of sail and trade between nations, a more urgent view of the oceans surfaced and nations rushed to establish control of the seas.
Why are Oceans Important?
Territorial Waters
Throughout most of history, countries established how much of the surrounding ocean fell under their jurisdiction on their own. Prior to oceanic exploration and heavy exploitation, many nations had few worries about the far reaches of the ocean and were comfortable with the waters close to their coastlines. As bigger and sturdier ships were built and population grew, mankind expanded further into the oceans much in the same way as they expanded by land.
Around the seventeenth century, as legislation became necessary, the ‘freedom of the seas’ concept emerged giving national rights to the portion of the ocean that could be reached by cannon fire from the coastline (roughly three nautical miles). Anything beyond these national waters were considered international waters, which were free to all but belonged to none.
The slow technological development prior to the Industrial Revolution allowed for simple maritime law but the emergence of more powerful ships during the Industrial Revolution allowed fisherman to go further and stay at sea longer. Furthermore, new technology made it possible to exploit resources previously. These advances made the already valuable oceans even more valuable in the eyes of the people and the oceans became less of a shared resource and more of a privatized economic good. These technological advances and lack of restraint, which continue today, have led to depletion of fish stocks and exploitation of resources. This shift was extremely detrimental to the sustainability of the ocean and has lead to many discussions and even conflicts on the ownership of the seas.
Undersea Assetts
With technological advancement the world began to recognize the value of undersea assets such as oil, precious metals, and minerals. Information from the United Nations demonstrates the swift rate at which this technological advancement changed the approach to economic ocean endeavors: “… in 1947 off-shore oil production in the Gulf of Mexico was still less than 1 million tons. By 1954, production had grown close to 400 million tons.” Because of these undersea assets and the ease at which technology allowed nations to access these assets, countries began to expand their oceanic claims for economic development. The United States was among the first to expand its claims. By signing the Truman Proclamation the U.S. claimed the entirety of the continental shelf surrounding the United States and its resources. This claim was roughly two hundred nautical miles, far more than the offerings of the ‘freedom of the seas,’ which were roughly three nautical miles. The rest of the world responded to the U.S. by laying claim to their surrounding oceans as well. Dispute arose over whose claim was strongest and out of this friction, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea took place updating, but not completely resolving, the law of the seas.
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
As countries rushed to claim more and more of the ocean, the international community realized borders needed to be standardized. The United Nations held three conferences on the law of the sea in 1958, 1960 and 1973. A variety of topics pertaining to the ocean were covered. The fruit of their efforts was the treaty of the law of the sea. The treaty is to date the most comprehensive effort to unify the governance of the sea. It consists of 320 articles and covers such topics as navigational rights, economic rights, pollution of the seas, conservation of marine life, piracy and more.
Though first signed in 1982, the treaty did not come into effect until 1994, as it needed a signature from at least sixty countries. Though the United States generally adheres to the treaty, it has yet to ratify it though both Bush and Obama have advocated for its signing. The boundaries established by the treaty give each country twelve nautical miles of ‘territorial sea’ and two hundred nautical miles of ‘exclusive economic zone.’
Despite the fact that this treaty came to be as an effort to dissuade conflict, the fact that each country lays claim to two hundred nautical miles is problematic for countries that lie closer than four hundred nautical miles apart. When this is the case, countries must decide amongst themselves as to where the boundaries lie which is a difficult task. Islands also pose a serious threat as they became highly valuable with the declaration that all habitable islands could claim the two hundred nautical mile ‘territorial sea.’ Because of this, countries like France who have control of many Pacific Islands have access to droves of square miles of ‘exclusive economic zones.’ Many islands that were previously insignificant became highly valuable and led to conflicts such as that of the Spratly Islands.
The Last Frontier
Areas of the ocean beyond jurisdiction account for roughly ninety-five percent of the ocean when the depth of the ocean is taken into account. The two hundred nautical miles assigned to each country extends approximately as far as the continental shelf meaning the ocean is much shallower in these zones. The vast majority of the ocean is ungoverned and subject to any ills with no consequence other than the destruction of our most important resource.
The high seas are threatened by overfishing, illegal fishing, marine pollution, and deep-sea mining among other things. The benefits the oceans give to us are staggering yet the way in which we exploit the ocean is not sustainable and the cost will be the destruction of our ocean. We have grown overwhelmingly dependent on the benefits the ocean provides us with and yet we as a society continue to ignore the cost of overuse of this most precious resource.
The threats facing our ocean may not be prevalent enough now to outweigh the benefits but in the long run we will see much larger costs namely sea-level rise, acidification and low-oxygen dead zones. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea was an important step towards the protection of the ocean but it was not nearly sufficient.
Cost-Benefit Analysis
A new study by Professor Robert Diaz of the Virginia Institute of Marine Science aimed at placing a value on the oceans has revealed that when the costs and benefits of economic ocean activity are measured, the cost of mistreating our oceans far outweighs the cost of reducing our human impact on the ocean: “The study estimates that if human impacts on the ocean continue unabated, declines in ocean health and services will cost the global economy $428 billion per year by 2050, and $1.979 trillion per year by 2100. Alternatively, steps to reduce these impacts could save more than a trillion dollars per year by 2100, reducing the cost of human impacts to $612 billion.” Many threats face our oceans today and while the costs may be bearable today, the future should we continue in this fashion is dim.
Sources Cited and Further Reading
- http://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/oceaneconomy.html
- http://www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/convention_historical_perspective.htm
- http://www.oceaneconomics.org/
- http://www.declineoftheempire.com/2012/03/what-is-the-economic-value-of-healthy-oceans.html
- http://www.globalpartnershipforoceans.org/key-issues/recognizing-economic-value-oceans
- http://www.vims.edu/newsandevents/topstories/diaz_ocean_value_report.php
- http://www.protectplanetocean.org/
- http://stateofthecoast.noaa.gov/economy.html