A Philosophical View of the Ocean and Humanity

By Anders Omstedt

This book is about the ocean and about the future. It is written in two modes, a concerned analytical scientific mode and an intuitive artistic mode in which the ocean is given a voice. The disconnect in the relationship between human dependency on and feelings about the ocean is examined in a dialogue between these two modes. The book illustrates how science and the arts can be connected to increase our awareness of the state of the ocean and support behavioural change.  This book is intended for everyone who would like to contribute to the sustainable use of the ocean.

Includes forewords by Alice Newton, University of Algarve, Portugal and Martin Visbeck, GEOMAR, Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research, Kiel, Germany. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Springer
• Release date: Feb 3, 2020
• ISBN: 9783030366803

Book preview

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020

A. OmstedtA Philosophical View of the Ocean and Humanityhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-36680-3_1

1. Introduction

Anders Omstedt¹  

(1)

Department of Marine Sciences, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Västra Götalands Län, Sweden

Anders Omstedt

Email: [e-mail]

Abstract

This opening chapter introduces the threats that the ocean and its coastal seas face from strong anthropogenic pressures. The challenge of addressing these threats require a great change in human behaviour, as communicated by scientists and in the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. To meet this challenge, the science community needs to work across many academic disciplines using transdisciplinary approaches and develop new skills of communication. Such communication occurs via drama, scientific and literary writing, and global and regional assessments conveying increasingly urgent information, though new and more facts alone may not be enough to change the behaviour. The chapter opens with a discussion of the need to couple science and the arts, with the latter providing knowledge of societal and human values necessary to foster change.

Keywords

OceanCoastal seasClimate changeEnvironmental changeConnecting science and the artsSustainabilityOceanographyPsychologyPhilosophy

The ocean and its coastal seas are increasingly threatened by relentless anthropogenic pressures. Natural scientists are struggling to address these threats, and doing so requires a broad understanding of various natural science disciplines, such as oceanography, meteorology, hydrology, geology, geography, chemistry, and biology, but also of human behaviour from disciplines such as literature, psychology, history, philosophy, law, sociology, political science, and economics. What is certain is that human society must change its behaviour with the goal of achieving sustainable interaction with the ocean (World Ocean Review 2010, 2017). Society must address these ‘global grand challenges’, and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (UN 2030), adopted in 2015 by the United Nations, contains 17 major Sustainable Development Goals and 169 targets related to these challenges. The 2030 Agenda is integrated and indivisible, intended to balance economic, social, and technological progress in harmony with nature. Three of the Goals directly concern water: Goal 6—clean water and sanitation concerns the sustainable management of water; Goal 13—climate action concerns urgently addressing climate change; and Goal 14—life below water concerns the sustainable use of the oceans, seas, and marine resources (UN 2018).

Putting management of the oceans and coastal seas onto a sustainable pathway requires a huge change in thinking and, to this end, the scientific community needs to initiate research programmes across many academic disciplines using transdisciplinary approaches. Improving our understanding of complex problems, finding new solutions, changing attitudes towards sustainability, and communicating these matters to a large diverse group of people, such as scientists from various disciplines, politicians, experts, students, and laypeople, represent important future missions (Photograph 1.1).

How scientific truth comes into conflict with society is illustrated in Henrik Ibsen’s 1882 play² An Enemy of the People. The conflict starts with Dr. Stockmann investigating the water in the city spa. After careful investigation, he finds that the spa water is seriously polluted by bacteria and identifies the source of the contamination—his father-in-law’s tannery—and the changes needed to eliminate it. He and his wife are proud and hopeful that he can make a positive contribution to the community. Soon various townspeople start to rally round, supporting Dr. Stockmann in criticizing the community leadership and encouraging the local press to write articles on the matter. Dr. Stockmann feels that he has strong support. However, soon Dr. Stockmann’s brother, Peter, who is the mayor, chief of police, and chair of the spa board, visits him, very upset. Why has this investigation been conducted behind his back? Peter argues that the water quality is not just a scientific problem, but also involves technical and economic considerations. The cost of repairing the spa will be very high, according to the mayor, requiring money that will need to be raised through increased taxes. Peter asks Dr. Stockmann to announce that his analysis is flawed, but Dr. Stockmann believes that he is right and has the people and press behind him. Inspired by the truth, he writes an expose for the local newspaper and gets support to publish it. Peter contacts the newspaper and argues that the claims about the spa will ruin the community, and support for Dr. Stockmann starts to ebb. Instead of Stockmann’s article, the local newspaper publishes a short announcement from the mayor that there is no problem with the spa. Dr. Stockmann’s next approach is to give a public meeting. After some delay, Dr. Stockmann starts his presentation but, having lost his focus, he instead presents his insights into how society works. Seized by inspiration, he states that the spiritual life of the community is completely poisoned. The whole audience turns against him; Stockmann is called an enemy of the people and the meeting breaks up. By the next day, the windows of Stockmann’s home have been broken by stones thrown by upset townspeople. The mayor, his brother, gives him a letter stating that he has been fired from his job at the spa. Stockmann’s daughter has lost her job as a teacher and the family has been evicted from their house. The whole society has turned against him. Still, he decides to stay and fight, even though the mayor and others recommend that he leave and later admit that he had made a mistake.

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Photograph 1.1

What is our relationship to the ocean?

Could Dr. Stockmann have taken a different route to improve the water conditions in the spa? The play indicates that he made a mistake by going behind the mayor’s back. Perhaps another alternative would have been simply to wait for people to become sick from the spa water? We don’t know what happens to Dr. Stockmann and his family, but Ibsen’s drama about a whistleblower is still relevant today when scientists or other experts try to communicate new results that come into conflict with society’s beliefs or economic and social interests.

In 1962, Rachel Carson³ published her famous book Silent Spring about the increasing danger of using pesticides such as DDT to fight insects. The book was dedicated to Albert Schweitzer who had written: ‘Man has lost the capacity to foresee and to forestall. He will end by destroying the earth’. After publishing the book, Carson had to fight the agriculture industry and its government allies who sought to deny her message. Despite well-financed and bitter personal attacks, she was able to spread her warning about chemical pollution. Few books have made such an impact on the general public’s awareness of environmental degradation. In an afterword to the 1999 edition of Silent Spring,³ Linda Lear concluded that the world at the beginning of the new millennium was awash in thousands of new and more damaging chemicals, so it is important to ‘rediscover Rachel Carson and Silent Spring, and to take her warning and her hope to heart’.

Alex Rogers (2019) made a passionate plea in The Deep: The Hidden Wonders of Our Ocean and How We Can Protect Them to protect the garden of the deep sea floor, only a very small fraction of which has been examined by scientists. Rogers stated that we are now at a critical historical juncture when we have a good understanding that much of the ocean is, in fact, dying. We face a choice between two very different oceans: one healthy and productive that is sustainably managed, or an over-exploited ocean continuing on its current trajectory of decline. The former requires, according to Rogers (2019), that nations immediately implement an effective agreement to slash carbon dioxide emissions, eliminate overfishing and destructive fishing practices, establish a global network of effectively enforced marine recovery and resilience zones, effectively reduce marine pollution, improve ocean management, take greater steps to map the ocean, the distribution of marine life, and how the ocean functions, and step up education about the ocean and its