Will ocean energy harm marine ecosystems?

Book chapter, 2014

Human activity tends to excavate the natural capital and degrade the ecosystem services on which civilization depends. For long-term sustainability a more proactive resource management is needed.1 Since natural and social systems are complex, environmental impacts of new technologies can be very difficult to predict beforehand, but once technical systems have spread and have become widely accepted they tend to be hard to control. Will ocean energy development be a safe path towards sustainable power production, or will it inflict additional burden on already deprived marine life? In this chapter it will be argued that the answer is much dependent on adaptive engineering and prospective planning.