World Ocean Radio - Energy
The debate over the reality of climate change is over. There is no place on land or sea that is immune from the effects of extreme weather, fire, flood, inundation, erosion, and social impacts. This week we're discussing carbon as the key culprit to our current condition, and the multitudinous methods and suggestions and investments to remove carbon from the atmosphere and the ocean. Is it possible we've made this all too complicated? Might the solutions be right there, in front of us, having already been discovered at the technological, political, and regulatory levels? What does it look like if we apply simplicity, imagination, collaboration, and energy to guide our way forward, toward solutions?
This week we are discussing two technological innovations—both bright ideas that could have huge impacts for useful, sustainable change for the future. The first is WaterCube, a machine that pulls vapor from the air and condenses it into liquid form for household use and disaster relief; the second is Sway Seaweed Packaging, a farmed seaweed application designed to create a compostable packaging that is biodegradable and chemical free.
The sun is the greatest energy source available for our needs, thought we view it more today as an enemy than a resource and friend. If we are to accept the sun as the solution rather than the problem, how do we capture its enormous energy potential at scale? This week on World Ocean Radio we explore some encouraging progress, from individual to collaborative to collective, to public and private and political, as a means to design a practical response to enable the possibility of accelerated change.
The multi-part RESCUE series continues this week with a discussion of the reality of carbon offsets, corporate accounting, and the concept of net zero. In this episode we lay out three paths forward toward a sustainable future: 1. remove subsidies 2. embrace renewable alternatives and 3. shift funds and banks to these options. RESCUE as an acronym offers a plan for specific action and public participation: Renewal, Environment, Society, Collaboration, Understanding, and Engagement.
This week we continue the multi-part RESCUE series with defined programs and relationships that apply technologies toward public good, such as a universal grid system, battery generation and storage, desalination, and better understanding of natural systems and our relationship to them. RESCUE as an acronym offers a plan for specific action and public participation: Renewal, Environment, Society, Collaboration, Understanding, and Engagement.
This week on World Ocean Radio we discuss the disruption and potential sabotage of the Nord Stream Line, the underwater natural gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea and North Atlantic that connect Poland to Norway, causing enormous leaks of methane within the ocean and atmosphere. Who did this and why? And what does it mean for future disruptions of its kind that could affect all of us here on Earth?
This week on World Ocean Radio we're discussing energy present and energy future, and the ways that alternative energy technologies are changing the landscape as our energy needs grow. We offer examples of proven alternative fuels such as wind, solar, wave and tidal energy and share some lesser-known technologies such as salinity gradient power and geo-thermal energy that could use the power of the ocean to meet global electrical demand.
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 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.
Alternative energy is needed more today than ever before. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill asserts that the fossil fuel era is over, and it is time to look toward ocean energy, wind, hydropower, salinity gradient power, and further inventive blue energy technologies newly and not yet discovered to get on toward our clean energy future.
Carbon offset programs offer ways for retailers and consumers to help address the challenge of climate impacts and environmental consequences, and can provide an effective means of contributing to conservation and sustainable practices . In this episode of World Ocean Radio we share a carbon offset initiative in partnership with South Pole and UCapture that supports progressive action toward a carbon-diminished future.
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.
Solar energy has emerged worldwide as a serious and viable alternative to fossil fuels, and can now be found in many places around the world. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we argue that solar power must be recognized as the most powerful energy technology available to us today.
Carbon offsets offer ways for retailers and consumers to help meet the challenge of climate impacts and environmental consequences, and can be an effective means of contributing to conservation. In this episode of World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill introduces a new W2O carbon offset initiative in partnership with South Pole and UCapture that supports progressive action toward a carbon-diminished future.
We live in a time when environmental regulations are being rolled back in the United States and beyond. As such, many environmental groups are turning to the law to enforce and uphold protections against industrial pollutants and fossil fuel activities such as hydrofracking that are harmful to the environment. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we share certain cases and suits brought against polluters by groups such as the Center for Biological Diversity, Our Children's Trust, and most recently by the Permanent People's Tribunal On Human Rights as a means to advocate for the natural world and the benefits to all mankind.
In late September Royal Dutch Shell announced it has terminated oil exploration and drilling efforts in the Arctic, citing disappointing exploratory results, high costs and strict regulations as their reasons to quit. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will assert that this is a great step forward for the protection of the Arctic and will express hope that Shell will go on to invest in other projects such as solar and wind that they might help to shift the paradigm for the sustainable benefit of us all.
The price of oil has dropped to $50 per barrel and the landscape is changing: alternative energy is growing in success and popularity, industries have cancelled plans to drill in the Polar seas, there is talk of increased efficiency, improved technology, new energy policy, and “clean energy” are the buzzwords of our day. In this episode of World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill will discuss this shift away from oil dominance and will attribute it to a number of factors, including increased public awareness and education. And he will give three examples of ways in which we as individuals, communities, and corporations can seize this moment to move away from a system which has degraded our lives and environment for far too long.
An article published by The Guardian in October provides a stark exposé of one of the largest Chinese suppliers of premium tuna to the Japanese market. The findings were alarming: a company circumventing international conservation limits by simply ignoring them; a government unwilling to crack down on illegal fishing because it does not fit past patterns of behavior; an industry that does nothing to honor catch limits set by Regional Fisheries Management Organizations. The list of revelations goes on. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will further outline the article by journalist Shannon Service, in which she discusses political ambitions, military might, shady dealings, global protein supplies, marine resources, territorial aspirations, and political action.
Everywhere you look there is a battle being waged over our energy future. Leasing plans for offshore oil have long and unsuccessfully been the target of industry groups; it has been asserted, however, that in recent months offshore exploration and development have gained public backing and may push forward. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will argue that the energy industry has transformed the American landscape and cannot be trusted with environmental stewardship of the ocean, nor should they be permitted to spoil anything more.
