It's so Easy Being Green: Overuse, Underexposure, and the Marine Environmentalist Consensus

This article seeks to understand the rise of marine environmentalism, which extends beyond the groups usually associated with the conservation of species and ecosystems to include commercial interests, military strategists, and neoliberal policymakers. It is proposed that this apparent marine environmentalist consensus has its roots in two aspects of our relationship with the sea. On the one hand, there is an increasing sense that the ocean is being ‘overused’, as marine resources are extracted at ever greater rates and as the ocean becomes increasingly important to contemporary economies. On the other hand, the ocean is suffering from ‘underexposure’, as fewer individuals’ livelihoods involve material interaction with the sea. By adopting a specifically geographical lens that is attuned to the multifaceted nature of the ocean as a space, this article suggests that the confluence of these two factors – overuse and underexposure – informs our present perceptions of and policies toward the marine environment and proposes alternative perspectives for understanding and intervening in the world ocean.