World Ocean Radio - Solutions
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. 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 week on World Ocean Radio we are discussing the work of the Sustainable Ocean Alliance and their "222 Solutions to Heal, Restore and Sustain Our Ocean". We break down the report's accomplishments, results, facts and figures. The full report can be read at impact.soalliance.org.
This week on World Ocean Radio, we're discussing the final declaration of the climate pact post-COP26, in which the ocean was finally acknowledged as the intangible link between climate and biodiversity, and recognition of the need for integration of ocean-based actions into mandates and work plans. For the first time, the ocean is finally included in discussions about our climate future. While this is a start, it's too little. We argue that we must dare to envision a dramatic restructuring of law and focus that envisions the ocean as the blueprint for all further action.
In this episode, part thirty-nine of the multi-part BLUEprint series, we follow up on last weeks' examination of China's response to the climate crisis and ask readers to consider whether a democracy as vocal and divided as the United States can make meaningful change. We discuss bottom-up solutions beginning at the local level, where real transformative action and societal regeneration toward sustainability begins.
In this episode, part thirty-eight of the multi-part BLUEprint series, we examine some statistics that show steps China is taking to confront the climate crisis—one of the only nations in the world whose government has recognized the realities of climate change and all of its manifestations as measured by environmental degradation, the corruption of land and water, and the inevitable decline in economy and community, and the steps the nation has taken to develop policy, incentive, and frameworks toward ecosystem health and sustainability.
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: part thirteen of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we ask listeners to consider implementation of a new paradigm of managed growth based on the conservation and sustainability of all natural resources—particularly the ocean-fresh water continuum—if we are to experience attitude shifts and innovations that will enable progress toward a sustainable future.
A scientific paper published in May 2019 states that eight urgent, simultaneous actions are needed to head off potential ecological disaster in the global ocean. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we discuss the questions and priority actions laid out in the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) report and the warning contained therein that failure to act within the next ten years to halt the damage caused by human activities could result in catastrophic change to how the world ocean functions and pose imminent threats to vital ocean ecosystems.
As we are increasingly reliant on energy to power our grids, our devices, our batteries, our electric vehicles, our computers and our systems, the requirement for storage increases exponentially. We currently derive a significant portion of this energy storage from extraction--mining for rare earth metals and uranium. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we ask, "Where are the inventive and novel ways to generate energy and store it?" And in response we propose OTEC--ocean thermal energy conversion--as a new way for nature to generate and store our energy needs into a sustainable future.
"Mother Earth has the following rights: To life, to the diversity of life, to water, to clean air, to equilibrium, to restoration, and to pollution-free living." So states the Law of Mother Earth, a Bolivian law passed in December 2010 as a binding societal duty. Bolivia is the first country on Earth to give comprehensive legal rights to Mother Nature, and in this episode of World Ocean Radio we explore the language contained in the legislation and assert that Bolivia may be inventing a social model that will show how we as a global community might transcend conflict and division toward a harmonious and sustainable future.
Invention and management of energy systems have led to increased efficiency and less reliance on unsustainable supplies of fossil fuels. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we discuss Statkraft, a Norwegian energy conglomerate that has begun to implement digital market platforms and smarter grid technology to help build more dynamic, efficient and sustainable energy systems worldwide.
Waste and waste management are new and increasing challenges in recent decades. How do we dispose of toxic waste, plastic packaging, electronics, and other discards of modern society? Where does it all go? In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill outlines current efforts to recycle and repurpose trash in efforts to slow the contribution to the waste stream, and he suggests some new ideas for turning waste into profit.
In this episode of World Ocean Radio we ask who benefits from current solutions to ocean acidification, co2 emissions, and plastic pollution, and if there might be simpler ideas that involve investments in green technologies, demand for alternatives, and a shift in attitudes and behaviors away from a bankrupt system of fossil fuels toward one of sustainability and solution.
In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill shares a technology first developed by a team of scientists from MIT and UC Berkeley that could radically change the world by mitigating the global water crisis.
An innovative company in Iceland has developed a product from fish skin to treat chronic wounds so that new skin can grow. Called Omega 3 Wound, developed by Kerecis Limited, and approved by the FDA, this product illustrates that we have the capacity to use 100% of the fish, thereby maximizing the value of the catch and accelerating economic opportunity around the globe.
In the face of an all-out attack by the Trump administration on environmental regulations and values, how do we create a new strategy for Nature? In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill posits this question and lays out a new organizing strategy for our natural systems, including and foremost our relationship with the global water cycle.
In September of 2016, World Ocean Observatory began a collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution's Ocean Portal to promote the Earth Optimism Summit in Washington, D.C. during Earth Day weekend in April. For the past six months we have searched for and reported on examples of ocean optimism and innovative projects around the globe. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, our final episode in the Earth Optimism Series, host Peter Neill hails the work of the Smithsonian Institution and the Ocean Portal in their preparation for this global event, and outlines the mission of the summit as well as the need for optimism and why it should be celebrated.
This week we continue the Earth Optimism Series, a 24-episode project in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution's Ocean Portal, to celebrate ocean solutions and innovative projects in the context of the Earth Optimism Summit, April 2017. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we argue for the ocean as contributor to the resilience, enhancement, biodiversity, and health of the planet. And we assert that the green economy does not succeed without the blue economy, and when we begin to see the ocean as integral to the land rather than a place apart from it, we may begin to build a world that is truly sustainable.
This week we continue the Earth Optimism Series, a 24-episode project in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution's Ocean Portal, to celebrate ocean solutions and innovative projects in the context of the Earth Optimism Summit, April 2017. 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, which require high volumes of energy to operate.
This week we continue the Earth Optimism Series, a 24-episode project in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution's Ocean Portal, to address ocean solutions and innovative projects in the context of the Earth Optimism Summit, April 2017. In this edition we discuss some of the winners of the Movement for Change Initiative's "Lighthouse Activities"--some of most innovative examples of what people around the world are doing to address climate change and to benefit the planet.
In the 20th century, U.S. waterways had become dumping grounds for industrial, urban, and agricultural waste. Today many of these waterways are getting cleaner. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we highlight Tampa Bay, Florida, whose revival of seagrass and cleaner waters serve as an example of engagement, cooperation, determination, and leadership. What can be learned from this success as a means to meet environmental challenges and solve today’s problems?
World fisheries are in crisis, with many species pushed to the edge of extinction. The current system is a recipe for disaster: demand is up; external suppliers operate outside of management regimes; sustainability seems an impossibility. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will discuss inadequate and controversial management regulations and a new approach called “catch shares” which aim to establish incentives to promote the long-term sustainability of fish stocks. And he will introduce an imaginative concept by some marine-based companies to utilize 100% of every fish caught: for supplements, food products, medical products, clothing, and more, thereby increasing the return of an existing resource.
The Arctic conversation concludes this week with "An Arctic Vision." In this episode, host Peter Neill focuses on the indigenous Arctic community and how a sustainable economy might be developed based on new policies, practices, employment opportunities, and benefits for the people who live there. And he outlines three key areas in which a sustainable approach might succeed in the Arctic: fishing, shipping, and energy.
In this fourth and final episode of a multi-part series on the final report released by the Global Ocean Commission, From Decline to Recovery, A Rescue Package for the Global Ocean, World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill addresses the report's concluding recommendations: Proposal 7, Global Ocean Accountability Board: Monitoring Progress toward a Healthy Ocean; and Proposal 8, Creating a High Seas Regeneration Zone.
