Arctic Ocean Fund

The goal of The Ocean Foundation’s Arctic Ocean Fund is to protect the Arctic Ocean’s tremendous marine resources from the threats associated with global warming and harmful impacts from humans, including shipping, resource extraction, and fishing.  Global warming and ocean acidification have many significant negative effects on the Arctic, including:

• Loss of ice sheets, resulting in: adverse consequences to marine mammals such as polar bears, walruses and ice seals; detrimental impacts on the benthic environment in the Bering Sea and elsewhere; loss of critical habitat for some pelagic species; increased warming due to loss of albedo; and greater threats to the health and traditional cultural survival of native communities
• Warmer oceanic and riparian waters, resulting in: increases in some marine diseases; changes in upwelling and other circulation patterns; modifications in species distribution patterns; enhanced invasive species; marine bird mortalities; dead zones; and coral bleaching
• Greater storms, resulting in: shoreline erosion; loss of community infrastructure; polar bear drownings; increased fishing risks; and adverse health consequences
• Sea level rise, resulting in habitat loss from inundation; infrastructure damage; community relocation needs; and substantial costs
• Ocean acidification, resulting in potential failures in coral reef building in both deep and shallow waters; destruction of calcium carbonate plankton; destruction of shellfish larvae; food chain disruptions; and other serious consequences
  

As the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has stated: “Most of the observed increase in globally averaged temperatures since the mid-20th century is very likely [90%] due to the observed increase in anthropogenic greenhouse gas concentrations.” Similarly, the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment observed: “There is an international scientific consensus that most of the warming observed over the last 50 years is attributable to human causes.” The corollary, ocean acidification, is caused by the absorption into the oceans of human generated carbon dioxide, and the resulting creation of carbonic acid.  Approximately 50% of all of the carbon dioxide emitted since the Industrial Revolution has been absorbed by the ocean.

Additional human activities, such as new offshore oil and gas development, bottom trawling, and shipping, seriously aggravate the adverse impacts from global warming on ocean ecosystems. This is especially true in areas, such as the Arctic Ocean, that are newly “exposed” and more susceptible to development due to global warming.

There is much that remains to be done to protect the Arctic Ocean, and to leverage the evidence of climate change in Alaska to help address the greatest long-term threat of all to the world’s oceans – global warming. The Alaska FIF allows donors to join with others in the advancement of these two critical goals, with the assurance that their donations are going to the best, most effective work in the region.

Help us to save the Arctic!  Donate Now!