Abstract
Oceans are key indicators of global environmental change and play a central role in the earth´s climate, especially the high seas with its vast volumes of water. At the same time, the high seas are a difficult environment for us to address, govern and protect. Marine scientists argue that the way we have understood the oceans in the past needs to be radically changed in order to facilitate more and better marine policies and protection. To effect that change, we need not just new science and technologies, but also profoundly new stories that can transform how we regard the sea. Such stories encounter several critical challenges. The oceans are very different from terrestrial environments, where many kinds of degradation are directly visible to local communities and give rise to public outrage, campaigns and debate. Invisible, complex and evasive changes in the ocean on the other hand, such as acidification, rising temperatures and loss of biodiversity, can be very difficult to apprehend and imagine. Meeting these challenges involves not only social, political and juridical questions of ocean governance, but also questions relating to representation, perception, imagination and justice. To address these, this project studies framing narratives and ideas in recent non-fiction ocean literature in relation to contemporary societal and academic developments of environmental thought.
Sweden