2011 Roger Revelle Lecture: Dr. Nancy Rabalais, Executive Director and Professor at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium
Troubled Waters of the Gulf of Mexico
The Deepwater Horizon oil spill brought the world’s attention to the Gulf of Mexico and raised awareness of the region’s chronic loss of wetlands and the massive dead zone caused by excess nutrients from the Mississippi River. Now the challenge is to develop and implement large-scale restoration plans for the Gulf Coast ecosystem. Are we up for the challenge?
2010 Roger Revelle Lecture: Dr. Jane Lubchenco, Under Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere and NOAA Administrator
The Interconnected Biosphere: Science at the Ocean's Tipping Points
Advances in social and natural sciences provide hope for new approaches to restore the bounty and resilience of ocean ecosystems. From approaches such as catch shares to marine spatial planning and marine reserves, to new insights into strategies for adaptation to the impacts of climate change, new knowledge is beginning to inform policies and practices. This decade is a pivotal one for the future of oceans. The confluence of local, regional, and global changes in oceans-driven by stressors including nutrient pollution, habitat loss, overfishing, and climate change-is rapidly transforming many once bountiful and resilient ocean ecosystems into depleted or disrupted systems. Degraded ecosystems cannot provide key ecosystem services, such as production of seafood, protection of coastlines from severe storms and tsunamis, capturing of carbon, and provision of places for recreation. The accelerating pace of change presents daunting challenges for communities, businesses, and nations to make a transition to more sustainable practices and policies. In this paper, we highlight new interdisciplinary approaches, tools, and insights that offer hope to recover the bounty and beauty of the ocean and the benefits that they provide to people.
Watch the Lecture
Summaries of previous Revelle lectures are available as a PDF here.