The Observatory for Responsible Innovation is getting ready for a new focus: the problematic field of ocean noise pollution. The management and engineering of oceans is (or should be) at the center of environmental policy agendas and wider political, industrial and societal concerns. Noise is a particularly hot problem here. The European Commission is putting it on its radar, and so are doing numerous stakeholders throughout the globe. Concerns expressed within the scientific community are communicating with preoccupations voiced in civil society and political arenas. Anthropic sonic perturbations of marine environment are varied (from sonars and explosions to marine traffic and offshore energy technologies) and contribute to a complex array of harmful effects (especially in animal behavior and species survival). The stakes are high on the responsible innovation front!
Debating innovation in this delicate field becomes an urgent task. In order to facilitate debate, contribute to policy measures and steer industry mobilization, the Observatory for Responsible Innovation is forming a working group on Responsible Innovation in Ocean Engineering with this problem as primary focus, in collaboration with other policy initiatives and industrial ventures. Héloïse Berkowitz and Hervé Dumez, from the Centre de Recherche en Gestion of the Ecole Polytechnique take the lead in this exciting and promising initiative. More on this soon!
