Kerry: Policymakers 'toy' with oceans by not addressing climate

Secretary of State John Kerry said during a Monday speech in Washington, D.C., that policymakers have "the responsibility as human beings" to combat climate change in defense of oceans and aquatic ecosystems.

Kerry called climate change an economic and national security issue — as well as an environmental one — because it affects oceans, aquatic ecosystems and the food they produce.

“Climate change is coming back in a sense as a serious international issue because people are experiencing it firsthand. The science is screaming at us, literally, demanding that people in positions of public responsibility at least exercise the so-called ‘precautionary principle’ to balance the equities and not knowing completely the outcomes at least understand what is happening and take steps to prevent potential disaster,” Kerry said.

Kerry made the comments at National Geographic Society’s Ross Sea Conservation Reception, where former New Zealand prime minister and current Ambassador Mike Moore and Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr also spoke.

Kerry has spoken often about climate change in his first weeks at Foggy Bottom. He commented Monday that President Obama has put the topic “back on the front burner where it belongs.”

Kerry called the Ross Sea, a bay in Antarctica that runs into the South Pacific Ocean, a “natural laboratory” that is threatened by climate change.

He said Arctic ice melt and rising sea levels jeopardize the diverse set of species there, which have adapted to unforgiving conditions and proven a wealth of information for researchers.

Kerry referenced fossil-fuel energy and climate change in developments that are negatively affecting aquatic ecosystems. He pointed to ocean acidification, pollution, ice melt and sea level rises.

He noted the ecosystem is “interdependent,” and that “we toy with that at our peril” by failing to address climate change.

“We call this beautiful planet that we are privileged to inhabit for a short period of time, we call it Earth, but it could well have been called Ocean because three-quarters of it is ocean. And the oceans are responsible in many ways for life because of the cycle of rain and humidity and all of the protein and life that comes from the ocean. So we can’t be casual about it,” Kerry said.