The ocean needs us more than ever. We’re now over halfway through the United Nations Ocean Decade, with urgent climate and biodiversity milestones ahead, including the need to protect at least 30% of our seas by 2030; a goal that is crucial for nature, crucial for the climate, and crucial for those that depend on the ocean for their livelihoods. In fact, this global goal is vital for us all. A stable and healthy ocean is as close to a deity as we can imagine, our great protector, our great provider, the great human connector. Giver of life.

Ocean issues are fast becoming headlines news, and successive environmental marine crises dominate news channels with increasing frequency. Sparking public outrage, driving protest movements and exposing the culprits of pollution, destruction, extraction, and the widespread, rampant abuse of the sea. A sea previously thought to be a bottomless source of wealth with an infinite capacity to absorb the detritus of human civilization.

The plastic pollution crisis was brought to life by the ocean – islands of plastic floating in the middle of our seas. Turtles and whales choking on straws, plastic bags, and other seemingly innocuous, but clearly devastating pollution. Created by the thoughtless weaponization of plastic against nature, driven by corporate greed, and put into the hands of the unsuspecting consumer.

In the wake of Blue Planet 2, the world woke up to the plastic pollution crisis – armies of volunteers took to cleaning beaches; scientists launched investigations into plastic pollution from the bottom to the deepest ocean to the top of our highest mountains; the media fixated on the issue, and the evidence flowed. Unequivocal evidence on the scale and impact of the plastic pollution crisis. A crisis devastating ocean life, destroying the wellbeing of communities, compromising human health, and fuelling the climate crisis.

Thanks to this uprising, we thought the world had acted; governments launched the United Nations negotiations for a Global Plastics Treaty. Yet these talks have recently failed. Undermined and weakened by Petrostates, fossil fuel companies, and plastics manufacturers determined to maintain the status quo of plastic (pollution) production. Countries including the United States, Saudi Arabia, Russia, India, and China stood out as major blockers to an ambitious treaty. These major plastic producers opposed strong limits on plastic production, instead preferring to focus on recycling. No surprise that these countries often host large fossil fuel industries. The political will for change was just not there.

Politicians have become too comfortable with a system, too influenced by archaic business leaders, and too frightened to take progressive, positive, and meaningful action to change the course of history.