For life on Earth, the oceans are essential. Already facing an onslaught of human pressures—including overfishing, pollution, rising temperatures, and acidification—the world’s seas could see the burden placed on them double over the next couple of decades. An international team, led by the National Center for Ecosystem Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) at the University of California, Santa Barbara, has modeled how the pressure placed on the world’s oceans could change in the future. Their analysis projects that by around 2050, the cumulative pressure on the oceans could increase 2.2- to 2.6-fold compared to today. In equatorial regions, the impact of human activities could increase nearly three-fold between the 2040s and 2050s.