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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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?
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.
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.
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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
This summer we are revisiting some of our favorite World Ocean Radio episodes that highlight optimism for the ocean. In this episode we highlight The Catalogue of Life, an online database of the world's known species of animals, plants, fungi and micro-organisms. It holds the essential information on the names, relationships and distributions of over 1.8 million species worldwide, helping to address the concerns of sustainability and biodiversity on our fast-changing planet.
This summer we are revisiting some of our favorite World Ocean Radio episodes that highlight optimism for the ocean. This week we outline the myriad ways that UNESCO World Heritage sites both on land and at sea are an essential part of a strategy to conserve and protect the ocean’s vast contributions to our scientific knowledge, and their importance for our cultural history, for protection, conservation, diversity, sustainability, survivability, and as treasured pieces of our cultural heritage, connecting us all for generations to come.
This summer we are revisiting some of our favorite World Ocean Radio episodes that highlight optimism for the ocean. This week we're discussing visualization as a powerful tool for understanding beyond data, opening our minds and enabling transformative change through a new way of seeing. The Spilhaus World Ocean Map, a projection of earth centered on Antarctica, makes the ocean the focus of an astonishing worldview, pushing the land to the outer edges of the square and re-organizing our global geography around the true natural systems of the world ocean.
Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity consumes from Nature more than the planet can provide, either as natural or renewable resources in a year. In 2022, Earth Overshoot Day falls on July 28th, showing the start reality that we are living far beyond Nature's means to sustain our growing demands.
This summer we are revisiting some of our favorite World Ocean Radio episodes that highlight optimism for the ocean. In this episode, host Peter Neill discusses a recent full-moon rise he witnessed from an island perch in Maine. The silent, stealth-like way that it rose in the sky got him ruminating about water, tide, sun, current, power, light, nature, human emotion, and the often under-appreciated, surreal force of the moon.
This summer we are revisiting some of our favorite World Ocean Radio episodes that highlight optimism in ocean news, science and advocacy. In this episode we're discussing Tampa Bay, Florida, whose revival of seagrass and cleaner waters have served as an example of engagement, cooperation, determination, and leadership. What can be learned from this success in order to meet environmental challenges and solve today’s problems?
This summer we are revisiting some of our favorite World Ocean Radio episodes that highlight optimism in ocean news, science and advocacy. In this episode we discuss marine protected areas and their importance to biodiversity and to the mitigation of climate change and other destructive forces at work on the planet.
