In 2014-16 and again in 2019, the ocean waters off the West Coast were hit with hotter-than-usual temperatures in a marine heat wave that came to be known as “the Blob.” The 2014-16 heat wave was the largest marine heat wave since NOAA satellites started keeping track in 1981. The 2019 marine heat wave was the second-largest. (NOAA Coral Reef Watch)

An Unsustainable System

Pollution, unsustainable fishing, and toxic waste are causing devastating outcomes in the planet’s oceans. Like climate change, this is rooted in the system of capitalism-imperialism. As Raymond Lotta wrote on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, “The economic models and pricing system of capitalism cannot capture the true measure of these elements of nature. They systematically ‘undervalue’ nature because, historically, these benefits of ecosystems are provided ‘free’ as ‘public goods’—and have been systematically overexploited as imperialism relentlessly and massively commodifies more and more of nature.”

Look at what is known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch in the Pacific Ocean, where ocean currents have caused massive amounts of plastic and other garbage, twice the size of Texas, to accumulate. This is one of five similar sites worldwide. As plastics break down, they work their way into every part of oceans, from the surface to the ocean floor. Turtles, seabirds, fish, and marine mammals eat or get entangled in the plastic garbage. Plastic contains toxins, which get concentrated in smaller animals and the animals that eat them. At the top of that food chain are human beings. Studies have found that humans today have plastics in every organ of our bodies.

Even though the environmental harm of plastics has been long known, plastic production has continued to rise, often for useless things such as packaging of consumer goods. Between 2000 and 2010, more plastic was produced than in the previous century. And production of plastic is expected to increase by 40 percent in the next 10 years.

Look at the dead zone that forms every summer off the Gulf of Mexico. Dead zones form when chemicals, such as those used as fertilizer in industrial agriculture, run off into rivers that flow into the Mississippi and eventually into the Gulf. There they cause algae to bloom on the surface, which decreases the oxygen levels below. Thousands of dead fish wash ashore. Fifty years ago, there were 50 dead zones around the world. Today, this has grown to more than 400.

Nonsustainable fishing is also harming the ocean ecosystem. In 2015, one-third of ocean fish stocks were being commercially fished faster than the stocks could replenish. When too many fish are taken out of the ocean, an imbalance is created that leads to a loss of other important marine life—including vulnerable species like sea turtles and corals. Dwindling stocks of fish put millions of people living in poor coastal communities at risk of hunger and loss of their livelihood.

At the same time as the burning of fossil fuels is wrecking the climate, offshore drilling and the spills that can result are damaging to ocean life. The 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill from BP-operated wells in the Gulf of Mexico released 200 million gallons of oil. This disaster fouled at least 1,300 miles of Gulf shoreline, endangered public health, and killed 10s of thousands of birds, sea turtles, dolphins, and fish. In addition to large spills like BP’s, there are many smaller spills. Just in U.S. federal waters, there were 6,500 oil spills between 2007 and 2017. Aside from the devastating impact of oil spills, these wells produce many forms of toxic waste, even when they are running as designed.

We need a society that is based on maintaining a sustainable relationship with the natural world. This is something that capitalism cannot do.

Trump and the Oceans

Much of the environmental devastation in the oceans is the direct result of climate change caused by the burning of fossil fuels. This did not begin with Trump; it is the result of a system of capitalism-imperialism, its cutthroat competition, and its quest for profit. But Trump is greatly accelerating the process.

Trump has denied the science of climate change, pulled out of the Paris climate accord, promoted and deregulated coal power plants, repealed rules that would have reduced automobile emissions, cut regulations on methane, approved contested pipelines, and expanded drilling coal mining and fracking. And Trump has damaged the oceans in other ways:  

• On June 5, Trump opened the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument, the only protected marine monument, to commercial fishing. The site is home to a rare species of cold-water coral, some of which are more than 4,000 years old, as well as diverse systems of life that exist in its three undersea canyons and four extinct volcanos.
• Last week, Trump appointed two climate science deniers and a campaign aide to top positions in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), the leading U.S. agency studying climate change and the ocean environment. These appointments presage what would likely happen if Trump remains in power: turning an important scientific body into a hack center of climate change denial.
• On June 19, 2018, Trump signed an executive order overturning the National Ocean Policy (which Republicans called “Obamacare for the Ocean”) and replacing it with a policy that barely mentions climate change and focuses not on ocean conservation but on economic development, including mining the sea floor.
• Trump overturned regulations put in place after the BP oil spill that were meant to prevent future spills. And he has proposed changes that would allow oil drilling in all federal waters.
• Trump is a big-time supporter of the U.S. plastics industry. He constantly ridicules efforts to reduce single-use plastics. When he does talk about plastic pollution, he blames other countries (especially China), even though the U.S. produces much more plastics per capita than China.

***