ABSTRACT
Our world is a blue planet with extensive ocean areas providing ecosystem goods and services that are critical to our life on Earth. Yet historically we have utilised the oceans with scant regard for sustainability, on the understanding that resources were ever plentiful and that our activities could not materially impact on the oceans. We have known for some time that these beliefs are wrong. In some cases, the effects of human activities have been acute with extreme impacts affecting localised areas and regions; in other situations our impacts have been extreme because they are globally significant, caused by cumulative actions from multiple sources. In both cases the results are environmental degradation and ecosystem damage. Simultaneously, the oceans provide a range of natural extremes – deep seas, freezing waters and extreme weather events – with impacts exacerbated by climate change. If we are to achieve sustainable utilisation of our oceans and blue economy goals we must better understand and respond to these extreme environments, activities, events and impacts. This chapter outlines the background and justification for a focus on marine extremes, the impetus for this book and the breadth of the multi-disciplinary contributions.
