Today, April 5, the Commonwealth committee meets to discuss a dire and time sensitive topic.
The Blue Charter is the idea that our oceans should become protected by not just individual countries, but by our combined countries, creating a network of marine protected areas between the nations.
Several countries come to the floor presenting their own issues, including Tonga and South Africa who struggle greatly with overfishing and pollution. They bring up the fact that they cannot continue to fight these problems alone, the world’s oceans are shared with all countries and as a result, countries that focus their resources towards ocean protection aren’t just cleaning up their own mess, they are cleaning up everyone else’s as well.
Samoa opens their argument asking the committee room if they can imagine a world without blue. “The colour of the ocean is fading away under tons upon tons upon tons of pollution.” Samoa argues that this is a time sensitive issue, and Tonga agrees, stating “the longer the we sit here and debate, the more and more we lose”
Maldives arguing for the support of smaller island countries.
The general consensus around the committee seems to be that we need to take action now to help our oceans but the Bahamas (A), heavenly effect by the ocean crisis, doesn’t sound hopeful about the solution. “everyone comes with their minds already made up [on a solution], we’re not making decisions we’re just talking about stuff we already know.”
Despite the many proposed resolutions including, standardized penalties, separate union creation, enhancing support for small islands and sharing funding, the debates continue, proving the Bahamas to be correct.
The United Kingdom points out problems in the proposed solution, stating that standardized penalties would infringe on sovereignty and despite the positive response for the creation of a separate union no countries with money to fund it are willing to.
As the debates continue, the world waits for the consensus. We all wonder whether a decision will be made in time to save our oceans.