Drifting architects: Plankton, climate, and the race to understand our changing ocean | UN News
They drift unseen, but everything depends on them. Plankton– the ocean’s lifeblood– regulate the climate, feed the seas, and shape life on Earth. Scientists along the French Riviera are in a race against time to unlock the mysteries of these tiny organisms before their decline reverberates across the planet.
Among the gathering’s priorities: advancing the ‘30 by 30’ pledge to protect 30 per cent of the ocean by 2030 and bringing the landmark High Seas Treaty, or ‘BBNJ accord’ to safeguard life in international waters, closer to ratification.
Guidi underscored the urgency of these UN-led efforts, saying: “All of this must be thought through with people who are capable of making laws, but based on scientific reasoning.”
He doesn’t claim to write policy himself. But he knows where science fits. “We convey scientific results; we have proof of a phenomenon. These are not opinions, they’re facts.”
And so, in Villefranche, Lionel Guidi, Anthéa Bourhis and Captain Carval continue their work – hauling life from the sea, capturing it in pixels, counting its limbs, and sharing its data with scientists across the globe. In doing so, they chart not just a threatened ocean, but the unseen threads that bind life itself.
