UN - First Ever Treaty to Protect International Waters
Until now, there has never been any international law governing the high seas, so many individuals and organizations hope the U.N.’s adoption of the measure will mark a clear turning point for vast stretches of the planet where conservation efforts have long struggled in a sort of wild west of exploration, overfishing, oil exploration and deep-sea mining.
“You have delivered,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the member nations upon the treaty’s adoption. “And you have done so at a critical time.”
“Roughly two thirds of the Earth’s oceans lie beyond national boundaries in an area known as the ‘high seas’—yet only about 1% of that largely unexplored expanse has been protected. This year, nearly 200 nations finally agreed on the first treaty to protect the high seas,” the Conservation International organization said.
“It is often said that the ocean is too big to fail. That is simply not true,” said Monica Medina, the Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs. “The ocean is more fragile than most people understand. It is also more essential. It provides the oxygen we breathe and food for tens of millions of people.”
Nichola Clark, who works with the Pew Charitable Trusts’ ocean governance project, told CBS News the treaty was “critical for our climate, as the world’s oceans play “an important role in regulating our climate—absorbing carbon dioxide and excess heat from the atmosphere, regulating temperatures, and driving our global weather patterns.”
-www.cbsnews.com, 19 June 2023
Arno's Commentary
While this treaty targets biodiversity of the oceans, it’s just another step in the direction of international law, by which all nations will and must be governed.
Concerning the future of the oceans, we read: “And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea” (Revelation 21:1). This is part of the creation of the new heaven and the new earth. It is guaranteed by the Lord Himself, who alone can offer salvation: “And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely” (verse 6).
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
