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Welcome to World Ocean Radio…
I’m Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory.
World Ocean Radio is a themed continuum, a sequence of thoughts and examples, a torrent of ideas, all relating to focus on the ocean as we envision life under the rapidly changing natural, social, and political conditions we live in. Word, words, words – over 5.5 million to date and recording. No one is truly capable of comprehending them all, or understanding the total significance as described in these weekly episodes, as a complete revelation of meaning and a call to action.
And so, I have resolved today to offer a distillation, reducing the argument through a process of purification, of condensation of the essential reasons for the ocean to be accepted as the locus for our progress now through change to survival.
What are the five areas of our existence where the ocean matters most?
First, THE OCEAN/FRESHWATER CONTINUUM. The ocean begins at the mountain-top and descends to the abyssal plain. Through the planetary water cycle, by evaporation, condensation, and distribution through the aquifer, watershed, and coastal zone -- this most essential system, natural and worldwide -- every crisis on earth can be revealed, rectified, and reversed through oceanic power for connection and rejuvenation. Just as the human body cannot endure without freshwater, so our global community cannot survive without a hydraulic continuum, the ocean, as the reservoir of life.
Second, ENERGY. The ocean collects and refines the energy of the sun, as a climate controlling functionality for the biology, chemistry, physics, and all other aspects of the marine contribution to the vitality of all species worldwide. The solar heat stored in the ocean, influenced by human enterprise, drives temperature, circulation, and all other natural responses and social conditions on land and sea. That reality must be recognized, accommodated, and advantaged by changing values, structures, and behaviors on behalf of ocean conservation and sustainability.
Third, FOOD. The ocean has been, and must remain, the most important renewable resource for human vitality -- through the preservation of its diverse species at every scale, to include, beyond fisheries, microscopic plants and animals that contain, through harvest, aquaculture, aquaponics, bio-synthesis, and other applications of their potential for future use.
Fourth, HEALTH. The ocean represents the continuity of human health, at all levels of being, from clean air and water, to hygiene and sanitation, to medical treatment, disease control, and longevity, to personal security, family, and community, and to optimism and commitment to the sanctity of life.
Fifth, EXCHANGE. The ocean connects the continents through the exchange of people, goods, and ideas. The ocean facilitates international trade, financial transaction, global communication, knowledge transfer, integrated governance, and cultural achievement. It enables a system as advantageous as the cycles of water, energy, food, and health, through inter-action and as a force for renewal, harmony, and peace. We live on a blue planet, in a hydraulic society. The ocean is the constant and continuing process of distillation, the great equalizer and unifier; as the ocean goes, so goes our future.
How can I say more? What more is there to say? If we are looking for a context and motivation for action, we have in view the necessary clear focus through these five absolutes -- water, energy, food, health, and exchange – that, distilled and applied, will guide our passage through all the confusion, mis-direction, competition, and failure to center us in the connective sea and drive us, transcendent, forward.
We will discuss these issues, and more, in future editions of World Ocean Radio.
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