Actor and activist Jane Fonda on Monday warned that humanity is “losing the ocean,” as two weeks of negotiations start on the United Nations on a treaty to guard the excessive seas.
“The ocean provides us with 50 percent of our oxygen, and it feeds billions of people — and it’s dying,” the 85-year-old American icon instructed AFP in an interview.
She is in New York to ship a petition with greater than 5.5 million signatures to Rena Lee, chair of the high-stakes talks which many hope will lastly, after 15 years, end in a treaty aimed toward defending and preserving huge ocean areas.
The petition, which Fonda handed over Monday night, requires a “strong” treaty.
“I have children, I have grandchildren and I just want to spend every single possible moment that I can as long as I’m still alive, to not allow us to destroy the planet,” Fonda instructed AFP.
Later at a reception, she mentioned there’s a “ray of hope” because the talks start.
“We’ve never been so close and momentum has never been so high. We need a global ocean treaty and we need it now…. It is at our own peril that we delay any further,” she added, describing the ills plaguing the oceans, from plastic air pollution to overfishing, warming, acidification and oil spills.
“I urge you as a mother, a grandmother and a citizen of this world: Set aside the politics, the greed, the special interests and the inertia that tends to drag big bold ideas into the ground,” she mentioned. “Let’s get this done.”
© 2023 AFP