Conclusion: Pacific Futures and the Fate of the Planet

The Pacific Ocean is emerging as a key battleground for many of the most pressing
environmental issues facing humanity. Climate change from the overuse of energy sources heavily pollutes the atmosphere, raising temperatures beyond the tolerance of many marine species and sea levels beyond the level of island-building processes for low-lying atolls. Unsustainable resource extraction and toxic waste discharge into the oceans are further complicating the chances of returning to sustainable levels of resource use in the Pacific.

The current Pacific Ocean management regimen of voluntary compliance and limited policing is clearly not working. Pacific nations and international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have been pushing for large-scale reserves with reduced or no catch or development to allow ecosystem revival, but this will require all parties to comply in expanses of ocean never adequately policed or even monitored.

This chapter ends by examining the long-term prospects for the future health of Pacific ecosystems and the increasing importance Pacific resources and climatic influences will have on the planet as a whole. The fate of the Pacific Ocean may well decide the fate of humanity. The world’s first ocean may remain a vibrant source of life elsewhere on Earth, or a weakened refuge for a far less diverse biota than currently exists. In this age of unprecedented anthropogenic change, humans need to act quickly and decisively to embrace the Pacific, as previous sea peoples have, in guardianship and self-interest. Paul D'Arcy.

FURTHER READING:
Anawalt, Patricia. 1992. “Ancient Cultural Contacts Between Ecuador, West Mexico and the American Southwest: Clothing Similarities.” Latin American Inquiry 3 (2): 114-29.

Anderson, Atholl. 2005. “Sub-Polar Settlement in South Polynesia.” Antiquity 79: 791-800. Antony, Robert. 2003. Like Froth Floating on the Sea: The World of Pirates and Seafarers in Late Imperial South China. Berkeley, CA: Institute for East Asian Studies.

Badouin, Luc and Patricia Lebrun. 2009. “Coconut (Cocos nucifera L.) DNA Studies Support the Hypothesis of an Ancient Austronesian Migration from Southeast Asia to America.” Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution 56 (2): 257-62.

Bardach, John and Penelope Ridings. 1985. “Pacific Tuna: Biology, Economics, and Politics.” In Ocean Yearbook 5, edited by Elisabeth Mann Borgese and Norton Ginsburg. Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 29-57.

Bennett, Judy. 2009. Natives and Exotics: World War II and Environment in the Southern Pacific. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i.

Berg, Mark. 1992. “Yapese Politics, Yapese Money and the Sawei Tribute Network before World War 1.” The Journal of Pacific History 27 (2): 150-64.

Blair, Clay. 2001. Silent Victory: The U.S. Submarine War Against Japan. Annapolis, MD: Naval Institute Press.

Brody, Hugh. 2002. The Other Side of Eden: Hunters, Farmers and the Shaping of the World. London/New York: Faber and Faber.

Broeze, Frank. 2002. The Globalisation of the Oceans: Containerisation from the 1950s to the Present. St. Johns, Newfoundland: International Maritime Economic History Association. Broinowski, Adam. 2017. “Informal Labour, Local Citizens and the Tokyo Electric Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Crisis: Responses to Neoliberal Disaster Management.” In New Worlds from Below: Informal Life Politics and Grassroots Action in Twenty-First-Century Northeast Asia, edited by Tessa Morris-Suzuki and Eun Jeong Soh. Canberra, Australia: ANU Press, 131-66.

Caldicott, Helen. 2006. Nuclear Power Is not the Answer to Global Warming or Anything Else. Melbourne: Melbourne University Press.

Callaghan, Richard. 2003. “Prehistoric Trade Between Ecuador and West Mexico: A Computer Simulation of Coastal Voyages.” Antiquity 77 (298): 796-804.