Ocean Optimism
October 20, 2020

This week on World Ocean Radio: part ten of the multi-part BLUEprint series. We have entered a phase in the series where we will begin to present ideas and solutions for construction of a new foundation built on fresh aspirations and new premises. In this episode: five steps forward that will affirm equity and justice as part of a new paradigm for a sustainable future.

October 13, 2020

This week on World Ocean Radio: part nine of the multi-part BLUEprint series. Myriad organizations, environmental groups and fervent individuals are advocating for the ocean by promoting the science and implications of climate change, launching initiatives, recommending policies, lobbying, advancing research based on the best science, and reaching out via podcast, blog, and social media platforms to amplify a message and agenda for reaction and change worldwide. Is anyone listening amidst all the noise?

October 5, 2020

This week on World Ocean Radio: part eight of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we propose a new framework for establishment of an ocean commons beyond the protections already in place to support the health and well-being of a larger percentage of the ocean and its finite resources. The "BLUEprint Series: How the Ocean Will Save Civilization" outlines a new and sustainable path forward, with the ocean leading the way.

September 29, 2020

This week on World Ocean Radio: part seven of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode "Inter-Generational Equity" we ask listeners to think about the inequity of the damage that we are leaving for our children: a legacy of denial and a negative inheritance for future generations. The "BLUEprint Series: How the Ocean Will Save Civilization" outlines a new and sustainable path forward, with the ocean leading the way. This week we warn of the perils of continuing to ignore the alarm bells that have been sounding for years, and the ways that we can change our way forward through solutions based on alternative behavior.

September 21, 2020

This week on World Ocean Radio: part six of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode–Climate Equity–we talk about the continued devolving U.S. response to the Paris Climate Accord and the potential pitfalls of indifference, inadequate reaction and failed governance. The "BLUEprint Series: How the Ocean Will Save Civilization" outlines a new and sustainable path forward, with the ocean leading the way.

September 14, 2020

This week on World Ocean Radio: part five of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode–Equity Challenges–we discuss the lopsided outcomes born out by government subsidies and other tax-payer incentives that have, over time, driven consumption toward depletion, the outcomes of which we are dealing with today. Global industry on land, driven by unlimited growth, is now playing out similarly on the ocean through oil and gas exploration, deep sea mining, lack of fisheries catch limits, coastal development, and much more–leaving us poised to repeat the demonstrated failures of our past. The "BLUEprint Series: How the Ocean Will Save Civilization" outlines a new and sustainable path forward, with the ocean leading the way.

September 8, 2020

This week on World Ocean Radio: part four of a multi-part series entitled "BLUEprint: How the Ocean Will Save Civilization". In this episode--Ecology, Ocean and Equity--we share findings from the High Level Panel for a Sustainable Ocean Economy and assert that the sum of an equation of ecology to ocean to equity is the total of inclusion, connection, and justice. The BLUEprint series outlines a new and sustainable way forward for civilization, with the ocean leading the way.

September 1, 2020

This week on World Ocean Radio: part three of a multi-part series entitled "BLUEprint: How the Ocean Will Save Civilization". In this episode, WHAT IS OCEAN EQUITY?, we dive into the High Level Panel for Sustainable Ocean Economy and their series of Blue Papers and subsequent report entitled "Towards Ocean Equity" released in August 2020. The Report highlights nine key points on which any future discussions of ocean equity should be based.

August 25, 2020

This week on World Ocean Radio: part two of a multi-part series entitled "BLUEprint: How the Ocean Will Save Civilization." In this episode, QUEST FOR EQUITY ON THE OCEAN, we discuss the concept of equity as it relates to ownership and share of investment, and we ask listeners to consider whether equity can be equally and inclusively shared in order for there to be security and peace for all. And we assert that if we look to the ocean as a place for equal shareholders not just to take, buy, and sell but also to give back, we may sustain our equity, and to build investment to meet the demands of diversity, inclusion, equality, justice, and survival.

August 17, 2020

This week on World Ocean Radio: part one of a new multi-part series entitled "BLUEprint: How the Ocean Will Save Civilization". In this episode, Security and Peace on the Ocean, we are asked to examine our current conventions, ideas and interests related to equity, justice, morality and resource consumption if we are to achieve true peace and security as a human race.

August 11, 2020

There are numerous examples of the ways that water consumption and use go unseen in our daily lives. From clothing to food, from paper to metal and wood products, from packaging to smart phones, automobiles to energy extraction, and so much more. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we argue for the ways that water use and consumption should be rated and labeled on every product we consume as a means to calculate the true cost of the most important and valuable resource on earth.

August 7, 2020

In World Ocean Radio's Slavery: Heritage and Identity series we discuss the maritime origins of slavery; the last slave ships that ran kidnapped cargo from Africa to North America; the atrocities of the slave trade and the continuity of structural racism within the U.S. and elsewhere; examples of people of African origin taking back their history and cultural interpretation; the ways in which our shared identity have been shaped by an amalgamation of cultures; projects around the world established to liberate the history surrounding slavery and the slave trade; the conservation and protection of submerged heritage resources; and educational curriculum in Africa and beyond designed to promote connection and ocean literacy. This episode represents the five-part series in one 25-minute episode

August 3, 2020

This week on World Ocean Radio we share the final episode of the five-part Slavery: Heritage and Identity series. In this broadcast we look at the ways we as global citizens can promote and connect with the ocean community to advance understanding of the African experience as part of our shared maritime history. We highlight two examples of projects in Africa promoting connection and ocean literacy.

July 28, 2020

This week on World Ocean Radio: part four of the five-part Slavery: Heritage and Identity series. In this episode we discuss the history of La Amistad , the 19th century Spanish slave ship that ran kidnapped human cargo to Cuba to support the sugar plantations. La Amistad is famous for the 1839 slave uprising and capture of the vessel, the ensuing legal battle for their freedom, and the construction effort of a replica ship launched in 2000 to continue an international conversation about slavery and its impacts on African Americans' past, present and future.

July 20, 2020

In this episode of World Ocean Radio, part three of the five-part Slavery: Heritage and Identity series, we introduce listeners to Diving with a Purpose, an organization dedicated to the conservation and protection of submerged heritage resources by providing education, training, certification and field experience to adults and youth in the fields of maritime archaeology and ocean conservation, and to document and protect African slave trade shipwrecks and the maritime history and culture of African Americans.

July 13, 2020

In this episode of World Ocean Radio, part two of the five-part Slavery: Heritage and Identity series, we discuss trans-Atlantic slavery in the context of the UNESCO Slave Route Project: Resistance, Liberty, Heritage that was established to break the silence and liberate the history surrounding slavery and the slave trade.

July 6, 2020

What were thought to be the remains of America's last slave ship--the Clotilda--were unearthed on a muddy river bank in the Mobile-Tensaw Delta in Alabama in 2018. These purported remains, and the artifacts from another slave ship, the São José-Paquete de Africa, are important symbols of the cultural relationship and interconnected history of the trans-Atlantic slave trade. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, part one of a five-part series entitled Slavery: Heritage and Identity, we discuss maritime culture, the last slave ships, the atrocities of the slave trade, and the ways in which our cultural identity in the United States has been shaped by an amalgamation of cultures.

June 29, 2020

This week on World Ocean Radio we review a new book by photographer George Steinmetz with essays by Andrew Revkin. "The Human Planet: Earth at the Dawn of the Anthropocene" is a collection of stunning photographs of our planet taken from above. The photos are evocative, powerful, emotional and stunning encapsulations of Nature and, for better and for ill, the aspirations of civilization. Published by Harry N. Abrams, April 7, 2020. Available at your local bookseller.

June 23, 2020

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.

June 15, 2020

This week on World Ocean Radio we discuss the Sargasso Sea--a verdant, vital ecosystem that supports a great diversity of life, provides shelter for marine mammals, and serves as a repository for much of the spoils of human endeavor: shipping, fishing, harvesting, and pollution. And we discuss conservation efforts including the Hamilton Declaration and the formation of the Sargasso Sea Commission, protection measures working toward the establishment of an International Marine Protected Area.

June 8, 2020

World events have made 2020 a more difficult year than it was already shaping up to be. Ocean systems have never been more challenged than today, and the ocean has never been more essential as we plan for change. The World Ocean Observatory is a major utility for ocean communication, and we are dedicated to our work as a means to advance public awareness and political will. On this World Oceans Day--and every day--we are advocating for the health of the ocean through education, public connection and relentless communications. We hope you will take a moment today to think about the ways that the ocean is influenced by you, and the ways that you are influenced by the ocean. Enjoy this week's episode of World Ocean Radio: a celebration of World Oceans Day.

June 1, 2020

In 2019 a partnership was announced between The Nippon Foundation and the International Hydrographic Organization to undertake the GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project that aims to bring together all available data to produce A General Bathymetric Chart of the Ocean by 2030. This week on World Ocean Radio we outline the purposes of the project, seen as a major contribution to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 14): to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas, and marine resources for sustainable development.

May 26, 2020

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.

May 19, 2020

This week on World Ocean Radio we assert that the age of oil is over: from the rise of renewable energy production worldwide to the reevaluation of oil based plastics and fertilizers, to the increased recognition of the effects of climate change, instability, and social disruption--the tide has turned on fossil fuel extraction and the corruption of natural resources worldwide.

May 11, 2020

This week concludes the nine-part ocean literacy series, a framework for formal and informal education to help us better understand the ocean's influence on us and our influence on the ocean. We are challenging the existing methods for teaching and learning about the ocean, suggesting that traditional curricula could be re-examined and multi-disciplinary approaches explored so that we all may begin to understand the ocean as the defining feature of our planet and the influence it has on all things living on earth.