880-year timeline to reach 30% ocean protection: comment

The recent Our Ocean conference in Athens highlighted a stark reality in ocean conservation efforts. Despite ambitions to protect 30% of global oceanic waters by 2030, current progress indicates that reaching this goal could take an additional 880 years at the present rate. The conference revealed that only a 0.1% increase in protected marine areas has been achieved in the past four years, signalling a significant slowdown. The current pace of glacial melting necessitates a dramatic escalation in the designation of marine protected areas, requiring the establishment of areas twice the size of the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary daily until 2030. (Mongabay)