Revolutions bear the mark of bloodshed, heroic figures fighting despots carried by the masses to get justice, food and security.

The most recent one was carried by two digits, 0’s and 1’s with no bloodshed.

Contrary to previous revolutions, the “green” and “zero emission” revolution is (hopefully) going to happen within a set time frame. It has started, should have started long ago, and the end date is 2050, or 2070 by the latest.

This blog, Ocean 2070 looks at one of the protagonists for this revolution to happen: The oceans. Judging from what is at stake and how the battle is articulated by world leaders, activists and businesses it can become the mother of all revolutions.

What’s going on?

I am trying to figure out how our activity on land affects life in the oceans and the oceans itself. Maritime anthropology is actually a subject at the University of Bremen, Germany.

Searching the internett, I discovered that accessible, easy to read journals or sites are scarce. Most of the time you end up with either science articles, big organisations or the UN. Nothing wrong with these sites. There is definitely not a lack of knowledge you could dig into, but it takes time and commitment to connect the dots. For instance; what has China-Russia relations to do with ice melting in the North East passage? Why does an algorithm developed in Italy for underwater photography interest NASA?

So, I wanted to follow this “revolution” as it evolves in front of our eyes, through the lenses of a regular non-science guy with a passion for the ocean.

Ocean as playground

It would be a lie to say that these are questions I puzzle with while I am out in the ocean, windsurfing.

Out on the water I mainly have two thoughts in my mind.

This is awesome! I love it. What a great place to be!

This pure joy and gratitude is mixed with the other thought that I carry with me:

What should I improve today? My gybes, forward loop, speed? Underlying this is the recurring big dream and what I should have done differently to achieve it. This dream I have decided not to let go, because I can’t, so I rather use it as a motivation in life: 10,000 hours of solid windsurfing in one chunk and see how good I could get.

Well, there is a big pile of posts just right there, as you will discover in Ocean 2070.