By Elizabeth Willoughby on
In response to US President Obama's new national policy to protect the oceans, actress Sigourney Weaver has newfound hope for the future of the seas.
In an article in The Huffington Post, Weaver said of the policy, “This is the most significant action any US President in history has ever taken for our seas. It will help make our oceans stronger and healthier, and help them fight off the myriad of threats they face today. It will help clean up the pollution that contaminates our beachwater, protect endangered species, keep the seafood we love on our plates, and make the oceans more resilient to the impacts of climate change.”
She also brought attention to a lesser known affect of carbon emissions: acidification.
“Only recently did scientists begin to realize that carbon dioxide emissions, about one quarter of which dissolve in the ocean and turn into acid, threaten dramatic changes from the bottom to the top of the food chain,” endangering coral, shellfish and plankton, as well as the fish, birds, dolphins and whales that they feed.
Weaver sees the solution to preventing ocean acidification as cutting emissions, using clean energy and making the oceans healthy, which she says Obama’s new policy sets out to do: “The creation of a national policy shows us there are solutions, and we can achieve them. It fills me with promise for a future of healthy oceans.”
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