The lack of focus on our public seas and coastlines in addressing climate change has been particularly egregious given that the ocean economy is worth $373 billion and that 127 million Americans live in coastal counties increasingly impacted by rising, warming, acidifying ocean waters.
“Ocean climate action such as this is critically overdue,” Middlebury Institute Professor Jason Scorse, director of the Center for the Blue Economy and Blue Frontier’s David Helvarg make the case for their new ambitious Ocean Climate Action Plan in an op-ed in The Hill today.
As nearly half of the U.S. populace lives in or near coastal areas, the Green New Deal needs to prioritize the sustainable use and preservation of the marine environment – called the “blue economy.”
