Leaving the Fossil Fuels Era Behind

It’s no longer a question of if, but when we will fully confront the devastating consequences of climate change. As greenhouse gas emissions blanket the Earth, they trap the sun’s heat, accelerating global warming. Our planet is heating faster than ever before. Rising temperatures are disrupting weather patterns and destabilising the natural balance, threatening life in all its forms. Earth’s oceans, the planet’s most vital carbon sink, have already absorbed about 90 per cent of the excess heat generated by these emissions – an intolerable surge causing a cascade of unprecedented impacts, from ice melting and sea-level rise to marine heatwaves and ocean acidification.

The Ruthless Pursuit of More Oil and Gas

That news is bad enough, but the petroleum industry’s relentless quest for more oil and gas is inflicting yet another layer of devastation on our oceans. Fossil fuels—coal, oil, and gas—are not only the leading drivers of global climate change, responsible for over 75 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 90 per cent of carbon dioxide emissions, but the industry’s offshore seismic surveys bombard marine life with destructive acoustic assaults.

Beneath the waves, the oceans are a world of sound. From the tiniest plankton to the largest whales, most marine species depend on sound for survival—whether for hunting, avoiding predators, navigating, mating, or communicating.

Imagine a sudden, explosive sound a million times louder than a jackhammer, shattering your world and surrounding you entirely. Now, imagine that massive noise repeating every 10 to 15 seconds, 24 hours a day, for weeks or even months. This is the horrifying reality for nearly all marine species within range of offshore seismic surveys.

Oil and gas exploration uses intense, impulsive technology to locate oil and gas reserves buried deep beneath the seabed. To map a prospective area, between one and four dozen compressed air guns are towed behind a ship, generating sharp, explosively loud noise pulses of up to 260 decibels. These sound waves travel hundreds, even thousands, of metres through the water, penetrating tens of kilometres into the seabed. The returning echoes reveal clues about new oil and gas deposits. This noise pollution is lethally dangerous for any marine life caught between the air guns and the seabed, with the noise impact displacing or killing marine animals across hundreds of thousands of square kilometres.

Ocean Noise in the Mediterranean

This devastation isn’t limited to distant seas with lax regulations where the petroleum industry can operate unchecked. In 2002, the Mediterranean Sea was estimated to hold reserves of around 50 billion barrels of oil and 8 trillion cubic metres of gas—about 4 per cent of the world’s reserves. By 2005, over 350 offshore wells had been drilled in the waters off Italy, Egypt, Greece, Libya, Tunisia, and many other countries. And while some countries including France, Portugal, and Spain have, in recent years, stopped or banned granting new licences for exploration activities, many others, including Cyprus, Egypt, Greece, and Türkiye, continue licensing the exploration of new oil and gas fields within the Mediterranean Sea.

It’s a travesty that many countries, blessed with abundant sun and wind, are now pursuing fossil fuel production at the very moment when the hydrocarbon era must end. The Mediterranean region has already surpassed the critical 1.5° increase in air temperature above pre-industrial levels, exceeding the agreed global threshold. As record-breaking water temperatures in the Mediterranean Sea make daily headlines, the urgency for decisive action becomes ever more undeniable.

Moving Towards Leaving the Fossil Fuel Era Behind

OceanCare has been a fierce advocate for quieter seas since 2002, and we will not relent. We demand that governments and international bodies act with the urgency this crisis demands. The continuation of seismic exploration in the ocean to locate new oil and gas deposits must be banned, and existing extraction should be phased out, both to address the climate crisis and to protect marine species and the broader marine ecosystem.

This call is part of the OceanCare petition Because our Planet is Blue urging the public to sign on to urge governments to ban oil and gas exploration to protect the ocean and Earth’s climate.

The fossil fuel era must end now.