Ocean Optimism
February 6, 2023

This week we continue the multi-part RESCUE series with a discussion about ocean policy and the myriad organizations and initiatives around the world developing guidelines that inform decisions, rules and laws for the ocean future. RESCUE as an acronym offers a plan for specific action and public participation: Renewal, Environment, Society, Collaboration, Understanding, and Engagement.

January 30, 2023

This week we continue the multi-part RESCUE series with observations about the climate future and our relationship to facts and truth, the spread of misinformation, the belief in and skepticism of science, denial, inaction, and vested interest in the status quo. If we are to enact the changes required to move toward a more sustainable climate future, how do we, collectively, turn toward acceptance of scientific fact and affirmation of a new world view? RESCUE as an acronym offers a plan for specific action and public participation: Renewal, Environment, Society, Collaboration, Understanding, and Engagement.

January 24, 2023

This week we continue the multi-part RESCUE series with a call for better communications of ocean science: translation, packaging, distribution and presentation to the millions around the world who live by and rely on the ocean for survival. The RESCUE series is outlining a new plan for the ocean and a new perspective to enable a new set of actions for the future.

January 17, 2023

This week on World Ocean Radio, part two of a multi-part series entitled RESCUE, outlining a new plan for the ocean and a new perspective to enable a new set of actions for the future of the ocean. In this episode we argue that science and technology are our best tools and the imperative foundation for any future ocean plan.

January 10, 2023

This week on World Ocean Radio, part one of a multi-part series entitled RESCUE, outlining a new plan for the ocean and a new perspective to enable a new set of actions: from the smallest to the largest solutions and inventions, to radical methods and policy changes for a sustainable future. RESCUE, a plan for specific action and public participation, stands for: Renewal, Environment, Society, Collaboration, Understanding, and Engagement.

January 4, 2023

This week on World Ocean Radio we lay the groundwork for a new and upcoming multi-part series--RESCUE--outlining a new plan for the ocean and a new perspective to enable a new set of actions: from the smallest to the largest solutions and inventions, to radical methods and policy changes for a sustainable future.

December 27, 2022

Our annual gift to World Ocean Radio listeners. In this episode, host Peter Neill reads "At the Fishhouses" by Elizabeth Bishop, a poem from 1955 that distills Bishop's seaside meditations and evokes the clarity of meaning contained in personal encounters with the ocean. A favorite of ours, with profound relevance for the New Year. Please enjoy.

December 20, 2022

This week on World Ocean Radio we have a special seasonal reading of "Christmas at Sea", an evocative poem by Robert Louis Stevenson written in 1883. Stevenson, the son of a lighthouse engineer, had intimate knowledge of extreme weather, storms, and especially nor'westers. Merry Christmas to all from the World Ocean Observatory.

December 13, 2022

This week we're examining religious beliefs around the world and religious commitment to the ocean and to the protection of natural resources, and reading from various doctrinal statements by leaders of the major religions of the world that pertain to ocean and water.

December 6, 2022

In this episode we provide three examples of initiatives, proposals and financial solutions that could change the shape of our climate future, including the Bridgetown Initiative by Mia Amor Mottley, the Prime Minister of Barbados, whose radical plan lays out specific actions to reform the global financial architecture to respond to the critical impacts of climate. Each of the initiatives discussed were cautiously embraced by world leaders and the status quo. Is change possible? What will it take?

November 28, 2022

The 27th Conference of the Parties (COP 27) closed recently in Egypt. Reactions to outcomes of the climate change conference have been mixed, and the Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan, which should have provided a comprehensive outline for concrete action, read more as a description of aspiration and suggestion: a plan to plan to plan a plan. Should we have expected more?

November 22, 2022

This week on World Ocean Radio we're discussing COP27, the annual Conference of the Parties, that took place this year in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. What should we expect for outcomes of the conference? Empty pledges and resolutions unmet? Or will actionable, lasting national commitments be forthcoming and methane emissions at last curtailed? The truth will be in the details.

November 15, 2022

This week on World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill reflects on a recent trip to Egypt, a dry desert land in the heart of Africa, the civilizations of which are clustered along the Nile, the longest river in the world. The desertification on display there offers clues to universal threats and our climate future: freshwater disruption, loss of land and wetland, urbanization, saltwater intrusion, and rising temperatures.

November 7, 2022

How do we govern the ocean? This week on World Ocean Radio we introduce a concept that advocates for a centralized Ministry for the Ocean, a voice at the highest level of government to champion for ocean policy and protection.

November 1, 2022

This week on World Ocean Radio we're discussing the harsh realities of 21st century storms in the face of climate change: hurricanes more powerful, more destructive, and more impactful on our ways of life. And we're asking, what will we pay if we continue to deny the realities of our climate challenges, and when will we accept responsibility for such disasters now and into the future?

October 25, 2022

This week on World Ocean Radio we're discussing an Executive Order entitled "Change in Natural Asset Wealth" signed by US President Joe Biden on Earth Day in April 2022, and the recommendations laid out in the 15-year plan that will measure economic value of natural resources, recognizing that a robust economy depends on a healthy natural environment.

October 17, 2022

This week on World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill shares observations from a recent trip to Greenland in collaboration with the Arctic Futures Institute. While visiting the four major coastal towns along the western coast, the melting glaciers that cover most of Greenland were dramatically visible. In this episode he discusses the several consequences of climate change and the rapid loss of sea ice.

October 10, 2022

This week on World Ocean Radio we discuss the disruption and potential sabotage of the Nord Stream Line, the underwater natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea and North Atlantic that connect Poland to Norway, causing enormous leaks of methane within the ocean and atmosphere. Who did this and why? And what does it mean for future disruptions of its kind that could affect all of us here on Earth?

October 4, 2022

This week on World Ocean Radio we're talking about the circulation of water worldwide, and the importance of canals and waterways to bring us together and sustain us into the future.

September 27, 2022

This week on World Ocean Radio we're offering two extremely important ocean examples where the opposition of sovereignty and commonality collide. This first is the UN Treaty for the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), and the second is a treaty for the management of the high seas and seabed--the vast areas that make up the boundaries beyond national jurisdiction.

September 20, 2022

This week on World Ocean Radio: a summary of fifteen new ocean challenges as identified by the conclusions of thirty conservation experts around the world, published in a July 2022 report in the journal "Nature Ecology and Evolution."

September 12, 2022

This week, part two of a two-part series laying out steps with examples that represent a coherent and provocative way forward toward a plastic-free future. In this episode we discuss the list of specific recommendations from the Pew Foundation / SYSTEMIQ Report, actions to redress the plastic pollution crisis--in effect a coherent Plan for Plastic.

September 6, 2022

A new analysis by The Pew Charitable Trusts, in association with SYSTEMIQ, finds that without immediate and sustained action, the annual flow of plastic into the world ocean could nearly triple by 2040. The study also identifies solutions that could cut this volume by more than 80% if we use technologies available today and if key decision-makers are willing to make the changes required. This week and next on World Ocean Radio we are laying out steps with examples that represent a coherent and provocative way forward toward a plastic-free future. Part one of a two-part series.

August 29, 2022

This summer we are revisiting some of our favorite World Ocean Radio episodes that highlight optimism for the ocean. This week we are discussing an innovative company in Iceland that has developed a product from fatty acid-rich fish skin to treat chronic wounds so that new skin can grow. Called Omega 3 Wound and developed by Kerecis Limited, this FDA-approved skin is grafted onto damaged human tissue such as a burn or a diabetic wound, and is ultimately converted into living tissue. This product illustrates the capacity to use 100% of the fish, thereby maximizing the value of the catch and accelerating economic opportunity around the globe.

August 22, 2022

This summer we are revisiting some of our favorite World Ocean Radio episodes that highlight optimism for the ocean. In this episode we discuss two examples of innovative practices and their relationships to each another: 1. ocean research and data collection and the connection to geothermal energy generation, and 2. offshore wind energy and its relationship to desalination plants and the energy required to operate.