For three days starting Wednesday, February 9, the city of Brest, in western France, is hosting the One Ocean Summit: scientists, representatives of large companies and multiple actors from the ocean world will discuss the preservation of oceans and the development of a protection framework for the high seas. On Friday, around twenty heads of state are expected in the Breton city, alongside Emmanuel Macron.

Supported by the United Nations, this new ecological high mass is the first international gathering entirely devoted to the preservation of the oceans.

Many NGOs, however, see in this initiative of the French president only a “comment stunt”, which would not bring any real progress.

Worse, according to its detractors, the summit would divert attention from even the most problematic issues, such as the grabbing of the oceans by multinationals, pollution of agro-industrial origin or underwater mining.

A group of citizen struggles, “Sea uprisings”, organized a counter-summit in Brest, from February 4 to 6, in opposition to the official meeting. 

Within this group, Catherine Le Gall, journalist, took part in discussions on the question of the privatization of the oceans.

This is the central subject of his book: "The oceanic imposture, the ecological plunder of the oceans by multinationals".

The investigator, who recently presented her book on the set of France 24, delivers her analysis about this summit.

France 24: do you share the pessimism of this collective citizen, which sees in this initiative only another summit in trompe-l'oeil?

Catherine Le Gall:

I recognize that it is quite difficult to be optimistic.

We know the threats to our planet.

And yet, the ecological policy implemented since the 1990s has not borne fruit. 

However, it is the same policy that is applied to the oceans through the “blue economy”, promoted by this summit, which aims to both protect and exploit the ocean.

How can we hope that a principle which has generally failed on dry land will work miraculously for submerged surfaces?

In this respect, the new approach promoted by the European Commission last May, which instead of the “blue economy” formula finally preferred “sustainable blue economy” - as if there were no redundancy here - shows to what extent “the 'blue economy' has never been a sustainable ecological thought.

The lexical field of ecology showcased at international summits reveals a monetarized conception of ecology.

Antinomic with the preservation of nature, certain terms of the One Ocean Summit program 

also

leave one wondering: “invest, “large ports”, “public-private partnership”... Or even, “sustainable tourism economy”: one can legitimately wonder how tourism could be a vector of ecology, when this industry plays a large part in the destruction of ecosystems (erosion of dunes, discharges from uncalibrated treatment plants on the coasts, disturbances of wildlife …).

France 24:

what do you think are the main stumbling blocks for this summit?

And those of the French policy for the preservation of the oceans?

Catherine Le Gall:

The first pitfall is the undervaluation of land-based waste: yet it is responsible for 80% of ocean pollution.

In fact, common sense dictates that 80% of efforts, forums, workshops, proposals should be dedicated to it.

However, on the program of this summit, as on the level of our global ecological thinking, the interconnectivity of marine and terrestrial ecosystems often seems misunderstood. 

During the Nature Congress organized in Marseille in September 2021 by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the French president preached for 30% of land and sea areas to be classified as protected areas by the end of 2020. summer 2022. Only 7% of the marine domain was then.

But this wishful thinking suffers from at least three ambiguities.

Preserving one-third of the oceans comes at the expense of the other two-thirds, and could provide a moral alibi encouraging even more aggressive exploitation of the rest of the ocean world. 

These marine protected areas are also hardly protected from phenomena linked - in particular - to land-based pollution, such as the acidification and eutrophication of waters, which are nevertheless of the greatest concern.

The protection of these spaces, by the very admission of its promoters, remains

ultimately

ineffective, because it requires the concerted action of all the actors (users, industrialists and political decision-makers).

However, this consultation requires two ingredients that are lacking in marine protected areas: time and financial means. 

Many of these marine protected areas favor certain human activities over others.

Tourism is thus valued at the expense of local fishing.

An ecological absurdity, if we take into account - for example - the carbon footprint of the tourist who comes from Europe to snorkel in the coral regions.  

France 24: Listening to you, it is feared that the next marine ecological initiatives will come up against the same pitfalls as the protection of the terrestrial environment, despite the anteriority of the latter.

Would we be condemned to a certain ecological inaction?

Catherine Le Gall: 

The invitation cards to this first summit dedicated to the oceans indeed suggest a scenario similar to that of the COPs and other Earth summits: numerous, powerful, industry representatives will no doubt influence the discussions. 

The glimmer of hope brought by this first eco-ocean initiative is to be found in citizens' awareness.

We can integrate the oceans into the public debate on ecology.

We must become aware of the link that unites the human species to them: in addition to their essential role in thermal regulation, the oceans absorb 30% of greenhouse gases. 

The protection of the marine worlds puts our democracies back in the face of an essential question: what ecology do our citizens want?

Today's ecology is based on a systemic compensation system: economic actors finance ecological projects with the aim of continuing their polluting activities, thus only buying “rights to pollute”. 

Ecological policies, both marine and terrestrial, ultimately suffer from a problem of tempo: they have adopted the slow rhythm imposed by the multinationals.

The problem is that we have no more time.

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