The Future: The Blue Economy

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Published on Friday, 30 April 2021 06:35
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The Empty Sea pp 129-173| Cite as

 

 

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  • Ilaria Perissi
  • Ugo Bardi
  1. 1.
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First Online: 13 February 2021
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Abstract

The concept of “Blue Economy” is popular nowadays, with its promise of an abundance of resources that could be harvested from the sea not just in terms of food, but also as energy and minerals. This chapter describes these concepts and discusses their feasibility. It turns out that, in many cases, we are seeing a good deal of unjustified optimism. The main element of the blue economy, nowadays, is fish farming, or “aquaculture,” an industry that has been growing and raising many expectation. It is true that the sea could be exploited for food more than it is now, but we seriously risk to cause a global collapse of the whole marine ecosystem. Similar problems exist for other schemes: the sea can produce energy and minerals, but it is not going to be the bonanza that some people describe.

Keywords

Blue economy Aquaculture Minerals from the sea Energy from the sea Food from the sea Plankton as food Marine ecosystem 
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