This week on World Ocean Radio we broadcast the 31st part of the ongoing BLUEprint series. In this episode we discuss the Blue Economy and the "business as usual" operations of The Ocean 100--the largest trans-national companies that account for the most profits from the ocean while also generating the most emissions, waste and other pollutants to the ocean. We describe what is known as the Blue Acceleration and argue that current economic activity is not meeting the requirements for economic growth and improved livelihoods while simultaneously preserving the health of the ocean ecosystem, and that these Ocean 100 companies could be a force for change of the Blue Economy with help from public awareness and consumer pressure.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part thirty of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we ask, "What is the natural capital value of our human connection to the Ocean?" and we provide ten declarations concluding that the ocean is the essential place for us to imagine, implement and design a sustainable future for humankind.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part twenty-nine of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we discuss the March 2021 release by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs announcing a new statistical framework entitled the "System of Environmental/Economic Accounting" (SEEA EA) which would ensure that natural capital (the contributions of forests, oceans, and other ecosystems) are integrated into economic reporting. This move may reshape decision- and policy-making toward sustainable development: natural capital calculated as equal to financial capital, as a mandatory inclusion in the budgets and estimates for all new development projects and corporate initiatives.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part twenty-eight of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we talk about batteries, increasingly in demand as we push toward a carbon-neutral future. There is a quandary built into this solution: the extraction of rare metals, the push for mining permits on land and sea, the waste and by-product, the emissions, and the collateral damage to the environment is all reminiscent of the fossil fuel paradigm. Is this old strategy, dressed in new clothing, a mistake?
This week on World Ocean Radio: part twenty-seven of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we talk about a carbon-free future: one that requires batteries that currently rely on rare metals such as nickel, copper, cobalt and molybdenum being extracted from the sea floor in the central Pacific Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone, threatening biodiversity and the nearby Pacific small island states. Will the short-term financial profit over the long-term social and ecosystem loss be worth the trade off?
This week on World Ocean Radio: part twenty-six of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we introduce listeners to Molly Burhans, a young activist and founder of GoodLands, who is using geographic information systems (GIS) to map the worldwide holdings of the Catholic Church as an inventory of ownership and potential investment for society, health, security and ecological justice. Burhans and her group are mapping archived Vatican holdings that have never been recorded using GIS software--a revolutionary step toward committing them to ecological planning, environmental protection, climate mitigation, sustainability of natural resources, and a potential contribution to a global renaissance.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part twenty-five of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode: the importance of ocean literacy and ocean education to transform our understanding of the ocean's contributions to human health and survival. We discuss the seven principles of Ocean Literacy and some perspectives that we can use to expand those principles into a set of curricular approaches that pertain to science, climate impacts and solutions for our future.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part twenty-four of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode: the myriad ways that UNESCO World Heritage Sites—on land and at sea—are an essential part of a strategy to conserve and protect the ocean’s vast contributions to our scientific knowledge, and also their importance for our cultural history, for protection, conservation, diversity, sustainability, survivability, and as treasured pieces of our cultural heritage that connect us for generations to come.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part twenty-three of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode: the importance of including true accounting costs for natural resources extracted or exploited; for the downstream effects of industry and enterprise; for loss of revenue by destroyed habitats; and much more. We argue that ecosystem services can be easily estimated and added as we begin to calculate the true costs of all externals for inclusion in future analyses and development.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part twenty-two of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we discuss the history of resource extraction on land and sea and the ways that new modes of thinking and new alternative energy generation technologies are leading us away from old paradigms toward new sustainable patterns of production, consumption and distribution--mapping the way toward a very different future.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part twenty-one of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we introduce listeners to the concept of ocean mapping and the GEBCO Seabed 2030 project which promises to develop a high res 3d bathymetric map of the entire world ocean. And we share some new and exciting oceanographic research discoveries made by the Schmidt Ocean Institute in the waters off Australia.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part twenty of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we discuss natural capital and the true cost of things both financial and social. And we argue that the price we pay must include the cost of irreplaceable raw materials, waste, the harvest and exploitation of natural resources, workforce health, and community impacts.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part nineteen of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we discuss the financial tools such as subsidies, regulation and private investment that have historically been used to advance conventional change in the economy. We ask listeners to consider these same tools of finance used to sustain natural capital, releasing value for the benefit of all mankind.
Our annual gift to fellow ocean lovers: a reading of "At the Fishhouses" by Elizabeth Bishop, a poem from 1955 that distills Bishop's seaside meditations and evokes the clarity of meaning contained in personal encounters with the ocean. A perennial favorite of ours, with profound relevance for the New Year.
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 eighteen of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we discuss the concept of blue bonds and a new Nature Conservancy program designed for small island and coastal nations to reinvest in their natural resources by refinancing national debt in a way that secures funding for a commitment to protect near-shore ocean areas such as coral reefs and mangroves.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part seventeen of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we ask a series of questions that challenge the current insurance system in the US, including a vision for a redesign built around risk prevention and for reinvestment of premiums in systems that anticipate disruption and aggregate to larger strategies that reduce costs overall.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part sixteen of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we talk about the blue and the green economy in the context of profit motive and how it can be good business to adopt climate risk disclosure and guidelines for investment assessment standards that balance risk against opportunity. We argue that if used properly, this could result in new and transformative change toward a cleaner, more sustainable future.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part fifteen of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we look at the Federal Reserve in the USA through the lens of environmental destruction, biodiversity loss and other impacts. And we ask, "Why would any central bank enable investment that is proven to be destructive to the value of Nature--our most precious asset?"
This week on World Ocean Radio: part fourteen of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we assert that it's time to close our minds to past ways, open our eyes to new ones, and imagine a new economy reshaped from the bottom up and inside out--a process that will grow and progress in outwardly expanding concentric circles to include everyone and everything within.
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.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part twelve of the multi-part BLUEprint series. As we embark on our collective quest for a sustainable future, we argue that we must embrace science and technology as the essential tools for defining problems and imagining the multiple possibilities for solutions, innovations and alternatives that will provide us with a new way forward.
This week on World Ocean Radio: part eleven of the multi-part BLUEprint series. As we launch headlong into a new phase in the series we'll begin to present ideas for a new foundation built on fresh aspirations and new premises. This week we lay out a blueprint for the future, with the intent to realize equity through a vision for solutions and for how we can move forward to transform the world we live in today.
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.
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?
