Only about eight percent of the world’s oceans are protected. Expanding the number of marine protected areas (MPAs) is one of the best ways to protect marine life. Alex Muñoz, the current Dorothy S. McCluskey Visiting Fellow in Conservation at the Yale School of the Environment, was the driving force behind the creation of two new MPAs 400 miles off the coast of Chile.
A human rights lawyer by trade, Muñoz began working in ocean conservation two decades ago. “There is no question that we have to cut our emissions by a lot, and stop relying on fossil fuels,” he said. “But I think one of the most effective ways to fight climate change is to preserve our natural resources, and the ocean is our biggest carbon sink, bigger than rainforests.”
Read more about Muñoz and the work that past McCluskey Fellows have done.