World Ocean Radio - Reflections
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.
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.
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 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.
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 week on World Ocean Radio: reflections on the morality of nature and the ocean. How do we change the consequences of our actions, and take responsibility for what we have done to create the world we find ourselves in? Is it time for a bit of moral neutrality to return to a more accommodating, natural state?
In this episode of World Ocean Radio we take listeners to the shore, to be reminded of the importance of silence, solitude and renewal in our lives, and of the healing power of the ocean--or water in any form--that is there for us, if and when we choose to stop and listen.
This week on World Ocean Radio we're looking to the night sky, to ponder the wonder contained therein, and to explore the danger of polluting it forever in the name of modern navigation and instant communications worldwide.
This week on World Ocean Radio we reflect on "blue" and the profound stages of meaning beyond the color of the sea and sky to encompass depth, stability, wisdom, faith, truth, redemption, and the natural world.
This week, as we lean into the holiday season of giving and gratitude, World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill asks us to consider the concept of reciprocity--a give and take with the land and sea. And he provides us with three examples of ways that we can give back to Nature as part of our obligation and contribution.
This week on World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill asks us to look to the ocean during these turbulent times of social unrest, to recognize the ocean as at times a connector and circulator of slaves and refugees, but now also as the great equalizer and unifier for all who care to live collaboratively, in agreement, with equity and reciprocity.
This week on World Ocean Radio: host Peter Neill offers reflections on the word "blue" and the profound stages of meaning beyond the color of the sea and sky to encompass depth, stability, wisdom, faith, truth, redemption, and the natural world.
In this episode of World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill reflects on a landscape of special importance to him on the coast of Iceland, and the ways that the experience of visiting it for the first time shaped his future and his dedication to sharing the meaning of the ocean with others, and to its contributions for the health and welfare of us all.
This week on World Ocean Radio we highlight the innovative work of the Sasagawa Peace Foundation in Tokyo, Japan, an organization using philanthropy to stimulate practical and transformative change for ocean communities in the Pacific, innovating through community, partnership and social engagements to bring about real and lasting change for communities, fishers, harvesters and others affected by severe weather, economic uncertainty and climate change.
This week on World Ocean Radio we have a special 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 nor'westers... Merry Christmas to all from the World Ocean Observatory.
Visiting coastal graveyards in Ireland some years ago, World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill observed the many stones of sailors lost at sea and began to contemplate the coastal ports in the United States, and the ways that cities and ports alongshore honor--or forget--those who dedicated their lives to the seaborne pursuits of fishing, boatbuilding, the merchant trades, and international commerce.
The ocean, in its constant motion, offers solace and support for the human spirit and provides an immersion in nature for renewal and regeneration. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we offer thoughts on the dynamic character of the ocean as a celebration of vitality, recreation, and rejuvenation. World Ocean Radio offers you, our listeners, very best wishes for a healthy and happy new year.
As humans migrate toward the coastal zone in the next 30 to 50 years, less seaside space will be available for us to enjoy, to entice our senses, and to rejuvenate our souls. In this episode of World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill outlines some of the sensate experiences that may be at risk of being lost if and when we are deprived of our connections to the sea.
In this episode of World Ocean Radio, written during a blizzard raging off the Maine coast, host Peter Neill reflects on the vulnerability of the ocean and the implications of the aggressive destruction of natural resources. And he asks, “Are we really prepared to destroy the global ocean and all its potential for sustaining us into the future?”
World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill recently witnessed a beautiful full moon rise from an island perch in Maine. The silent, stealthy 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.
Because of persistent drought and water crises due to unsustainable practices, California is facing many challenges to its very existence. It is water that built California and opened the West to expansion; and it is water now that poses the single-most challenging aspect of its future. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will share headlines of the last few weeks related to the water crisis, and will suggest that to find a solution we must look to an entirely new value proposition built around the rightful use and distribution of water.
The Japanese word "Mottainai" refers to the essence of things, and suggests that objects do not exist in isolation, rather that they are intrinsically linked to one another. In this episode of World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill will discuss this and other Japanese words and phrases which can be used to help us describe a new strategy for our relationship to the ocean, one which respects and sustains the values of Mother Nature so that we may rely on her natural resources for our future, and for our very survival.
The water cycle is a complex system of evaporation, weather, wind, deluge, and run off, with the ocean at center and as source of supply. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will discuss the various cycles and circles on the planet that orchestrate every aspect of our lives here on Earth. And he will compare the cycles and circles of history and human kind, the rise and fall of civilizations, and the ways in which circumstances force turns and change—sometimes gradually evolving over time and others suddenly, without warning.
In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill uses lyrics composed by a 20th century musical legend to reflect upon the challenges we face in response to a planet succumbing to exhausted land, poisoned air, and polluted sea.
The world ocean is sick. The symptoms are no longer deniable: reported oil spills, leaks, runoff, dying reefs, warming temperatures, melting ice, changing pH, depleted fisheries, and hypoxic zones. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will talk about the state of the world ocean, will discuss “sea blindness” as a symptom of our current condition, and will ask, “What will it take?”, suggesting that we know what must be done but we are not yet aware enough, mad enough, or desperate enough to do enough about it.
