According to the US Geological Survey, 70% of the available freshwater worldwide is used for irrigation. Industrial agriculture and modern irrigation practices have today brought us to a global water crisis. This week we're discussing what has been called the “irrigation efficiency paradox,” when farmers use more water, even as they are becoming more efficient in their irrigation practices. What will happen when the water cycle fails because we won’t change our water wasting ways?
Intense weather events are calling attention to not just local but worldwide water crises caused by climate. Coastal inundation, community disruption, dislocation and recovery are problems that we seem increasingly unable to withstand. This week on World Ocean Radio: the Danish Hydraulic Institute and their experiments with the concept of "sponge cities", a revolutionary planning tool to integrate urban design with water management strategies such as ground conditions, road and construction patterns and more, to create responses to rapidly changing coastal conditions.
Visualization is a powerful tool for understanding beyond data, opening our minds and enabling transformative change through a new way of seeing. This week we're discussing the Spilhaus World Ocean Map, a projection of earth centered on Antarctica that 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.
This week on World Ocean Radio we are discussing hydrology, the "hydrospatial" perspective, and the importance of multi-dimensional analyses and visualizations for planning and decision-making that break down the artificial disciplinary boundaries of science to allow for comprehensive inclusion of multiple perspectives and better understanding of complex ocean systems for international goals and objectives.
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.
Four Essential Steps toward a Responsible U.S. Ocean Policy
International agreements are essential if we are to sustain natural resources as natural capital for our future. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we outline four major environmental treaties the United States never ratified—but should.
This week on World Ocean Radio we're discussing Earth Overshoot Day 2021 which landed on July 29th, meaning we are running an ecological deficit between now and the end of the year. The calculation is clear: we are consuming more than the earth can produce, overshooting our sustainable capacity by exhausting the resources upon which we all depend.
This week on World Ocean Radio: an idea to confront the big polluters of the fossil fuel industry for their indifference to redress, by attaching reparations for the exploitation of natural resources over time, thereby providing incentives for new, non-polluting technologies of energy generation, storage and distribution toward a more sustainable future for our climate and ourselves.
This week marks the 600th episode of World Ocean Radio. It was in 2009 that the show first began with encouragement from WERU-FM Community Radio in Blue Hill, Maine. Today World Ocean Radio is heard via countless college and community radio stations around the United States and in select regions in New Zealand, Hong Kong and Africa. Thanks to the rise in social media these last number of years we are now broadcast worldwide, reaching millions of listeners connected by the sea. In this week's special anniversary edition we look back to the state of the ocean when this show first began, where we are now, and where we could be headed if we so choose to employ the many tools at our disposal to sustain our water planet.
This week on World Ocean Radio we are discussing the challenges of excess carbon dioxide in the air and some of the engineered solutions now being employed to sequester carbon from the ocean and transform it into a solid.
To execute transformative response to the challenges of the 21st century we will need a new style of leadership action: from governance and corporate consciousness to manufacturing, engineering and design, from research to education to new moral standards at all levels of society. What are the change agents that will allow us to realize change? What are the financial tools that will include equity and justice? This week on World Ocean Radio, part 44 of the BLUEprint Series, we discuss macro-ethics and leadership in the fields of engineering and the planning, design and construction of sustainable, socially responsible, environmentally sound and politically fair systems of development.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part 43 of the BLUEprint Series outlining a new and sustainable path forward with the ocean leading the way. In this episode we introduce listeners to The Transition Network, highlighting some of their 1,150 global initiatives that reflect the principles and practical actions of community, sustainability, resilience, justice and change.
Since the origins of planet earth, through the foundation of civilization, to the exhausted land we live in today, we are faced with a Third Nature. If we can abandon the old paradigms, we can make the shift toward water--our watersheds, rivers, lakes and primarily coasts and ocean--the places we will turn for our energy, our fresh water, our food and all of the things that contribute to our sustainability and survival. This week marks week 42 of the BLUEprint Series: How the Ocean Will Save Civilization, outlining a new and sustainable path forward, with the ocean leading the way.
How can ecological resistance be sustained? This week on World Ocean Radio, part 40 of the BLUEprint Series, we outline various tools to confront the challenge of stressed ocean systems: coastal zone management, pollution reduction, marine spatial planning, and other active restoration programs that may serve to diminish the negative decline and define a new, sustainable way forward.
Ocean systems are as challenged as ever, and the ocean remains 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 advocate for the health of the ocean through education, public connection and relentless communications. We hope you will take a moment on World Oceans Day 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.
The Blue Economy is providing new investment in ocean resources. How might individual investors do blue economy investing the right way, and which investments meet the criteria for true blue investing? This week on World Ocean Radio, part 40 of the BLUEprint Series, host Peter Neill dives into the true meaning of the often over-used "blue economy" terminology and describes his recent discovery of a strategic initiatives portfolio conceived by JPI Oceans in Europe that strives to increase the impact of national investments in marine and maritime research and innovation. And he shares the values, goals and objectives that propose a structure around which specific investments could be made to achieve social and monetary return while achieving a commitment to sustainability and the ocean.
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.
In this episode, part thirty-seven of the multi-part BLUEprint series, we continue to discuss the take-aways from the recently published 2nd United Nations World Ocean Assessment, a report that looks at the social, environmental, demographic and economic trends, as well as a review of the integrated sustainable management of coasts and oceans as driven by science, technology and innovation. In this episode we look at the report through the lens of ecosystem service analysis, the ways in which we view and value Nature, and some examples of projects globally that are based ecosystem service accounting that are preserving places and biodiversity.
In this episode, part thirty-six of the multi-part BLUEprint series, we outline the key state of the ocean and ocean science take-aways from the recently published 2nd United Nations World Ocean Assessment, a report that looks at the social, environmental, demographic and economic trends, as well as a review of the integrated sustainable management of coasts and oceans as driven by science, technology and innovation. Additionally, we give credit to the Ocean Health Index, another important metric for providing baseline measurements and updates toward ocean sustainability year by year.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part thirty-five of the multi-part BLUEprint series. This week, as part of our focus on new approaches and ideas to simplify our strategies for living sustainably on earth, we are continuing our discussion of the ocean genome with an outline of the global protections required if we are to equitably protect natural resources derived from the ocean.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part thirty-four of the multi-part BLUEprint series. This week, as part of our focus on new approaches and ideas to simplify our strategies for living sustainably on earth, we are continuing our discussion of the ocean genome as well as the commercial interests, applications and marine drug and health discoveries made and yet to be discovered. We also warn that marine protected areas remain vulnerable to limited enforcement and over-exploitation of their natural resources.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part thirty-three of the multi-part BLUEprint series. This week, as part of our focus on new approaches and ideas to simplify our strategies for living sustainably on earth, we discuss RNA, DNA, the concept of the genome as an encyclopedic catalog for Nature as a way to provide guidance and explanations for how life works, and the various implications of eDNA on the ocean.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part thirty-two of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In the next few weeks we'll introduce new approaches that have the potential to bring order to the chaos around us: ideas to simplify our strategies for living sustainably on earth, fresh approaches, new technologies, novel ideas and examples of ingenuity and invention.
