By pricing the difference between low- and highemission scenarios, characterised as the distance between our hopes and our fears, the book intends to crystallise our understanding of the value of ocean services to humankind and allow policy-makers to more effectively account for these services when assessing the economic implications of global environmental change and what to do about it.

The scientific evidence that marine ecosystems are being degraded as a direct result of human activities is overwhelming; and the consequences both for the vital and valuable ocean goods and services we rely on, including for the maintenance of a healthy Earth system, are alarming. Recent assessments by the UN’s climate change panel the IPCC, for example, show that these changes are progressive and relentless: whilst terrestrial temperature increases may be experiencing a pause this is not true for the ocean, which continues to warm regardless. For the most part, however, the public and policymakers are failing to recognize –or choosing to ignore— the severity of the situation and are not taking the action necessary to address it...

...The central messages from the workshops are that the risks to the ocean and the ecosystems it supports have been significantly underestimated; that the extent of marine degradation as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts; and that it is happening at a much faster rate than previously predicted.