Editor: Paul G. Harris
Publisher:  Cambridge University Press
Book Review by: Sonu Chandiram – 450 pages

Seven of these indicators would be expected to increase in a warming world and observations show that they are, in fact, increasing. Three would be expected to decrease and they are, in fact, decreasing. Image credit: Wikipedia

An article in Wikipedia warns us: “The effects of global warming or climate damage include far-reaching and long-lasting changes to the natural environment, to ecosystems and human societies caused directly or indirectly by human emissions of greenhouse gases. It also includes the economic and social changes which stem from living in a warmer world.

Many physical impacts of global warming are already visible, including extreme weather events, glacier retreat, changes in the timing of seasonal events (e.g., earlier flowering of plants), sea level rise, and declines in Arctic sea ice extent.”

Unless all governments, particularly those of major countries including the United take action to mitigate the adverse effects of climate change, the massive threat to human life as we know, will not subside.

A 2014 study by the World Health Organization shows us that the threat to human life caused by changes in climate the world over included an additional 250,000 additional deaths per year between 2030 and 2050

Climate Change and Ocean Governance – Ten Indicators of a Warming World – Image Credit – Wikipedia

In this book by Professor Paul Harris, a detailed action plan is provided to avoid this threat, with a summary in the Conclusion in Part VII of this highly valuable book.

Forty specialists in various areas relating to climate change and ocean governance, from 16 countries – Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Philippines, Qatar, South Africa, Switzerland, Tasmania, and the United States – authored the 27 chapters of this extensive book. We name them below to provide you a broad overview of the scope and contents of this book:

  1. Part I – Introduction
  2. Climate Change at Sea: Interactions, Impacts, and Governance
  3. The Ocean Governance Regime: International
  4. Part – Vulnerable Islands and Coasts
  5. Political Economy of Coastal Development: The Case of the Caribbean
  6. Coastal Development and Climate Risk Reduction n the Persian-Arabian Gulf: The Case of Qatar
  7. Adapting to Sea-Level Rise in the Indian Ocean: The Cases of India and Bangladesh
  8. Coastal Risks from Typhoons in the Pacific: The Case of the Philippines
  9. Ocean Policy Perspectives: The Case of Indonesia
  10. Politics of Rising Tides: Governments and Nongovernmental Organizations in Small-Island Developing States
  11. Part III – Marine Fisheries and Pelagic Seas
  12. Climate Change and Fisheries Politics: Case Studies from the United States, New Zealand, and Norway
  13. Policy Options for Marine Fisheries: Approaches in a Changing Climate
  14. Large Marine-Protected Areas and Ocean Resilience: Stake holder Conflict in Pelagic Seas
  15. Climate Change and Contested Marine Areas in the Arctic: The Case of Svalbard
  16. Part IV – Changing Polar Seas
  17. Climate Change and the Southern Ocean: The Regime Complex for Regional Governance
  18. Policy Responses to New Ocean Threats: Arctic Warming, Maritime Industries, and International Environmental Regulation
  19. The Arctic Ocean’s Melting Ice: Institutions and Policies to Manage Black Carbon
  20. Part V – Institutions and Law for Ocean Governance
  21. Contested Multilateralism: Toward Aligning Regimes for Ocean and Climate Governance
  22. Climate Change in the Coral Triangle: Enabling Institutional Adaptive Policy
  23. Non-territorial Exclusive Economic Zones: Future Rights of Small Island States
  24. International Law and Marine Ecosystem Governance: The Climate Change Nexus
  25. Managing Marine Resources: Can the Law of the Sea Treaty Adapt to Climate Change?
  26. Part VI – Policies for Ocean Governance
  27. The Plastic-Climate Nexus: Linking Science, Policy, and Justice
  28. Financing Emission Reductions: Forest Mechanisms as a Model for Coral Reefs
  29. Capturing a Moving Target: De-carbonizing Shipping through Informational Governance
  30. Energy from the Sea: Challenges and Opportunities
  31. Climate Change and Navies: Bracing for the Impacts
  32. Geo-engineering at Sea: Ocean Fertilization as a Policy Option
  33. Part VII – Conclusion
  34. Ocean Governances Amid Climate Change: An Essay on the Future

This is a timely and very important work, and very well documented with research findings.

 

  

Editor:

Paul G. Harris is a political scientist and Chair Professor of Global and Environmental Studies at the Education University of Hong Kong. He is author and editor of many books on global environmental politics, policies, and ethics, including Global Ethics and Climate Change, 2nd edition (Edinburgh University Press, 2016), the Routledge Handbook of Global Environmental Politics (Routledge, 2016), and What’s Wrong with Climate Politics and How to Fix It (Polity, 2013).