Waters That Unite: An Interactive Interview with Mounir Ghribi

Abstract

Water habitats provide essential ecosystems to humankind, but their health is under threat from an array of human activities. Examples of these threats range from climate change, overfishing and destructive fishing, marine pollution, ocean acidification, under water noise, habitat degradation, biodiversity loss, and invasive species. Science has been responsible for both acknowledging the critical importance of the ocean and other water habitats’ sustainability as well as identifying their multiple stressors and delicate ecological limits. With the increasing significance of environmental and water-related discussions in international fora, scientists are asked to provide evidence on life-threatening challenges associated to the current industrialized development model, particularly human-induced hazards like intensive food production and pollution drivers (plastic, pesticides, fuels, etc.). More recently, science has been pushed in the ocean international arena to play a more relevant diplomatic role in both unveiling the water unknowns and using the water’s physical disregard for boundaries as a good excuse to overcome uncertainties in international diplomatic relations. Could such integration of water science and diplomatic principles lead to shaping a better multilateral landscape and impose a new economic paradigm for the world? We have tackled these issues with Dr. Mounir Ghribi.