Settled science: UN chief mentions "processes that we barely comprehend, such as the great currents that affect weather patterns"

UN chief Ban ki Moon launches new initiative to protect oceans

Ban highlighted the "grave threat" from pollution,excessive fishing and global warming."Our oceans are heating and expanding," he said in a speech to a conference marking the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

"We risk irrevocable changes in processes that we barely comprehend, such as the great currents that affect weather patterns.

"Ocean acidification (from absorbed carbon emissions) is eating into the very basis of our ocean life; and sea level rise threatens to re-draw the global map at the expense of hundreds of millions of the world's most vulnerable people."