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.
This week on World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill reflects on the magic of water and the ways it defines our urban spaces. This episode focuses on Tokyo and its network of often unseen and forgotten rivers, streams and canals, and a budding plan for their restoration and revival.
Increasingly, people around the world are experiencing a fresh water crisis. More than 17 countries are under high water stress, and one fourth of the world's population faces running out of water. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we discuss the ramifications of continued and increased disruption if we cannot solve the water supply crisis through local action, conservation, protection, infrastructure improvements, and regulatory enforcement.
There has never been a better time to become a citizen scientist: curious individuals interested in collecting data to build toward solutions, expanding public awareness and to help develop concrete actions for the protection of the ocean. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we list some interesting examples of ocean science initiatives for the curious at heart: from penguins to clouds, phytoplankton to whales, and many other fascinating features of the ocean world.
How do we describe the relationship between human society and nature? This week on World Ocean Radio we discuss what it means to be a stakeholder, and how the word itself has evolved from one of business, ownership and investment to that the larger context of environmentalism and ecological connection. We argue that we must understand the interactions between humanity and natural systems, using collaboration, partnership and integration if we are to invent a new way forward toward a sustainable future.
This week on World Ocean Radio we conclude our four-part series devoted to "The Outlaw Ocean", a new book by award-winning New York Times investigative journalist Ian Urbina. In this episode we ask, "After four years of reporting across the world on vivid and corrupt aspects of the ocean, what comes next? What conclusions can be made? How can we apply what is to be learned from this remarkable adventure?"
This week on World Ocean Radio we offer part three of a four-part series devoted to "The Outlaw Ocean", a new book by award-winning New York Times investigative journalist Ian Urbina. In this episode we discuss the crime of ocean dumping--oil and waste, spent munitions, nuclear material, malfeasance in the cruise ship industry, plastics and airborne pollutants such as mercury and carbon dioxide.
This week on World Ocean Radio we offer part two of a four-part series devoted to "The Outlaw Ocean," a new book by award-winning New York Times investigative journalist Ian Urbina. In this episode we discuss the potential for corruption not only at sea but at the many ports around the world. More than 90% of the world's goods are carried to market by sea, and bribery in ports adds hundreds of millions of dollars each year in unofficial import taxes and transport costs.
The outlaw ocean, a space apart, hidden from view, a place of rampant criminality and exploitation. This week on World Ocean Radio we offer part one of a four-part series devoted to "The Outlaw Ocean," a new book by award-winning New York Times investigative journalist Ian Urbina. In this episode we read select excerpts from this remarkable journalistic endeavor that begin to shine a light on just some of the dark side of life on the world ocean of which most of us are completely unaware.
In the United States, planning and reparation for coastal flooding and damage has been administered under a National Flood Insurance Program that since 1978 has paid more than $40 billion in claims. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we outline some of the reasons why the program is not working, especially as extreme weather becomes more prevalent and levels of destruction more severe.
In this episode of World Ocean Radio we call upon the Canadian government to amend and expand their June 2019 legislative action--the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act--to include a global reserve for whales, dolphins, porpoise and other cetaceans in the fertile Hudson Bay near Manitoba where an estimated 60,000 beluga whales migrate each year to feed and mate.
This week on World Ocean Radio we introduce listeners to Project Drawdown, a collective of scholars and innovators assembled to address the challenges of climate change and social confusion around the issue. In this episode we discuss Paul Hawken's book, "Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming", now in its tenth printing, and the steps required to recapture the political and social agenda for an equitable ecosystem for the future.
Earth Overshoot Day marks the date when humanity's annual demands on Nature exceed the capacity for Earth's ecosystems to regenerate those resources within that year. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we discuss the red alert that is this overshoot day, 2019, showing that we are living beyond nature's means to sustain our growing demands.
This week on World Ocean Radio we're discussing trophic cascade: an ecological phenomenon triggered by the addition or removal of top predators, involving changes in populations of both predator and prey through the food chain which often results in dramatic changes in the ecosystem. Shark, manta ray, totoaba, bahaba: all are aggressively harvested from the sea for their supposed medicinal properties and status. In this episode we ask listeners to consider this: if certain endangered species do in fact contain medicinal value, are there not other, more supportive and sustainable ways to meet demand without decimating the supply?
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.
With the Hearts in the Ice expedition set to begin one month from now, World Ocean Radio is revisiting a special episode dedicated to the upcoming 270-day exploration of the Arctic at the Bamsebu trapper’s cabin in the high north. Hearts in the Ice is a citizen science initiative that Sunniva Sorby and Hilde Falun Strom will undertake next month as a means to create a global dialogue around changes in the Polar regions that impact us all.
How often do we think about what lies below the surface of the land, below the sea floor? This week on World Ocean Radio we're thinking about water and our reckless consumption of it for agriculture, industry, and what we consume for both our basic needs and for our survival. How long before we exhaust the supply? In this episode we discuss the value of water underland, the water melting from warming glaciers, from the ice cap, the surface water and the water from the aquifers, and we call for a response to a rapidly changing environment that will soon demand one.
This week on World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill highlights the dark side of what happens at sea in the context of a forthcoming book by Pulitzer Prize winning Investigative Journalist, Ian Urbina. Titled "The Outlaw Ocean", this compelling new book profiles the most urgent ocean issues facing us today: illegal fishing, human and arms trafficking, slavery at sea, illegal dumping, piracy, and so much more. Ian Urbina has spent the last several years reporting on lawlessness at sea for #TheOutlawOcean project. "The Outlaw Ocean", available for pre-order now, is the culmination of that investigative exploration.
In this episode of World Ocean Radio we look back at the most egregious actions and decisions taken by individuals, corporations and governments that have led to the environmental crises we now face. The big offenders on the list include: the willful ignorance of the early science that foreshadowed what was to come, energy companies, corporate greed, CO2 emissions, fracking, fossil fuels, fertilizers, plastics, and our collective unwillingness to preserve natural systems for the future of all.
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.
This week on World Ocean Radio we're talking about solutions to the climate challenge by highlighting some modern examples of and possibilities for conversion: industries across America shifting from conventional and failing ways of doing business to an embrace of enterprising and inventive opportunities for a sustainable future.
This week we are talking about ocean calm and the ways that we are affected in mind, body and spirit by a peaceful ocean. In this episode we tell the myth of Alkyone and her transformation from woman to kingfisher, and the breathless calm required to hatch her fledglings at sea.
The World Ocean Observatory is partnering with Main Street Bucksport this year for the 4th annual International Maritime Film Festival, a celebration of maritime heritage, spirit of adventure, concern for the environment, and ingenuity of boats and waterborne pursuits. In this week's episode of World Ocean Radio we discuss the upcoming festival and call for submissions, and reflect on the importance and power of the written word, photographs and film to make us aware of issues and to act toward change with new conviction.
This week on World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill gets us thinking about seawater: as a resource for fresh drinking water, as a means for robust renewable energy, and perhaps so much more; and he discusses the potential for inventive ideas using ocean systems that have yet to be imagined or explored.
