Being Better at Spreading the Word

Anyone who loves the oceans can help save them, and it starts with words.

In that spirit, the professionals who successfully created California Marine Protected Areas (MPA) recently offered several insights into being better at spreading the word and getting positive results. 

These can be applied on the individual level as well as to larger audiences.

It is familiar stuff but always a welcome reminder: seek to avoid doom and gloom without belittling the problem. Figure out what resonates with people (do a poll), and fashion your message per audience.

One key concept according to Resource Media is communicating the importance of starting on common ground - connecting with the audience by introducing them to something that they know and love and then add a new concept.

Resource Media also tested how well certain words resonate with people. Based on their results, "people favor words associated with 'solutions' (ex. underwater parks, safe havens, healthy, thrive) rather than negative words (ex. declined, depleted, threatened, vanished, at risk). The term 'underwater parks' resonated well with people because they have a good idea of what a park is (ex. Yosemite), thus creating this 'common ground' discussed above.

They found out too that talking about future generations and outdoor recreation in MPAs as a way of life for Californians resonated well with the audience."

Finally, keeping it simple and consistent are the bread and butter of these things.  So speak up, follow your passion, and take action.

More: 9 Tips on Communicating the Climate Challenge

To the Gulf Stream Waters

Even though this song was written seventy two years ago, it still sounds good.

It resonates with the sense that nature is for all of us to enjoy, celebrate, and protect.  The rambling spirit bathed in inspiring beauty is hard to miss, too, out there under the stars and in his words.  Turn it up.  Happy Birthday, Woody.

This Land is Your Land 
by Woody Guthrie

This land is your land, this land is my land
From California, to the New York Island
From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters
This land was made for you and me

As I was walking a ribbon of highway
I saw above me an endless skyway
I saw below me a golden valley
This land was made for you and me

I've roamed and rambled and I've followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts
And all around me a voice was sounding
This land was made for you and me

The sun comes shining as I was strolling
The wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling
The fog was lifting a voice come chanting
This land was made for you and me

As I was walkin'  -  I saw a sign there
And that sign said - no tress passin'
But on the other side  .... it didn't say nothin!
Now that side was made for you and me!

In the squares of the city - In the shadow of the steeple
Near the relief office - I see my people
And some are grumblin' and some are wonderin'
If this land's still made for you and me.

Ocean Mining Licks Its Chops

Gimme Gimme Gimme

Last year, deep ocean mining sounded an alarm by a woman who knows more about ocean life than most.  This week the New York Times gave us an unsettling update. 

Although the story appears balanced, the overall feel is like being blasted by some feverish gold rush bullhorn, hair blown back, ears ringing.

The undersea fire is stoked with talk of "trillions of dollars" and "bonanzas" and the gauntlet is thrown with comments like "It's first come, first get". 

The rush here is so palpable I can almost see the oceans already trampled.

When has surface mining ever favored nature?  How are mining companies going to treat the thousands of unknown species in a technologically-challenging undersea environment?

This isn't trace amounts either -- this is digging up thousands of tons of earth from the seabed, which serves as home to many creatures we hardly understand.  History shows that even the smallest creatures are important to the overall ecosystem and the health of the oceans.  It seems there are many questions.

What kind of mining wastes will be dumped back into the sea?  Will we even know what's really going on out there with underwater mining operations in international waters in the middle of the vast ocean?

Less Rush More Thought 

The Deep Sea Mining Campaign, a group putting the ocean before the gold, advocates for caution and full assessments before mining -- less rush more thought.  But their voice seems drowned out by the bullhorn.

Everyone is watching Nautilus mining company as they are the most aggressive, unfortunately aided by the people who found the Titanic, Odyssey Marine Exploration, and backed by the biggest economy in the world -- China.  They're going after places all over the planet starting with a site near Papua New Guinea; such sites are full of sea life.

Cindy Lee Van Dover,  a marine biologist at Duke University, asks us to hang on and apply the precautionary principle -- to defer "wholesale commercial mining" of the seabed until conservation plans are in place, according to the Vancouver Sun.

In the cross hairs

Seems like the big players cannot hear her voice over the rapacious sounds of collective chop licking.

The International Seabed Authority, which has jurisdiction over mineral resources in international waters, has also received applications for mining exploration of other sea-floor deposits.  The China Ocean Mineral Resources Research and Development Association has its sights on the Southwest Indian Ridge, and Russia has applied to work on the mid-Atlantic Ridge, according to the story.

This is a good fight. As Van Dover said, "There are creatures of extraordinary beauty down there, exquisitely adapted to their environment." 

Read the full Vancouver Sun story here.

Ocean Victories to Leap Over

Two ocean victories to celebrate.  Keep these in mind when it feels particularly bleak out there for big blue.

In China, shark fin soup has been banned from official functions such as banquets.

With hundreds of millions of sharks killed for their fins (for soup, people, for soup) and most of the demand for those fins coming from China, this is really good news.  If the fishermen do not have a market for their fins, they will hopefully stop the practice.

In New England, forage fish get a break as mid-water trawlers get new, long overdue rules. 

With these trawlers taking much more than their share and forage fish a vital ocean resource, this is really good news.  A recent study showed that forage fish are worth far more in the water than out as food for other marine life including seabirds and bigger fish that we all like to eat.

The New York Times story about the win came with one disappointing quote:

"Eoin Rochford, who used to operate trawlers and now runs a factory that freezes herring, said that the assault on this corner of the industry amounts to a “witch hunt” and that the midwater trawler fleet is actually good for the ocean.

'These fish are the most abundant fish in the ocean. To keep the ecosystem in balance, somebody has to harvest them,' he said."

Talk about miscommunicating, or rather, misrepresenting science.  Surprising to see such a clueless comment from a person who is supposed to know the resource.  That is just not how it works.

Carl Safina, marine ecologist and author, replied to that quote on Twitter: Herring mega-trawlers think they "balance" the ocean by fishing. Baloney say whale-watchers and tuna fishers.

Here's to some solid victories to leap over. 

Image: treehugger.com

Walking Across the Atlantic

Walking Across The Atlantic
By Billy Collins

I wait for the holiday crowd to clear the beach
before stepping onto the first wave.

Soon I am walking across the Atlantic
thinking about Spain,
checking for whales, waterspouts.
I feel the water holding up my shifting weight.
Tonight I will sleep on its rocking surface.

But for now I try to imagine what
this must look like to the fish below,
the bottoms of my feet appearing, disappearing.

Another Kind of Independence

"From the redwood forest, to the gulf stream waters,
This land was made for you and me."  -- Woody Guthrie

Happy 4th.  Today is a day to ponder independence in the US of A. 

There's the famous revolt by a young upstart republic against the biggest guys on the block, those wearing those red coats, over two hundred years ago.  That's the reason for the day in the first place; an inspiring kind of independence. 

We hear a lot about energy independence.  That's where the US creates all its own energy; doesn't have to import any from faraway places, and doesn't have to send young Americans with guns to make sure it keeps coming.  That's definitely a good kind of independence. 

How about one glorious step further -- independence from fossil fuels?  That would be inspired. There are pockets of freedom, where people in the US can choose an alternative when they turn on a light switch or fill up their car's tank.  And these pockets are growing, but slowly, maybe too slowly.

Many people in most places in the country still don't get much choice.  The fossil fuel industry is fine with that.  An uneducated consumer is their favorite kind.  Meanwhile, even the educated consumers cannot escape their oppressive tactics.

The hundreds of millions spent on spin and lobbying and buying elected officials berate all of us relentlessly.  The fossil fuel industry repeats their favorite lie -- that Americans cannot have prosperity and live our lives without their pollution. 

They monger fear and shout down real innovation so vehemently it is hard to think clearly.  They strive to keep us in the past telling us fossils are the future.

They turn things upside down to such a point that some Americans believe (or almost believe) that clean alternatives are a way for the government to take our choices away when actually, clean energy represents the freedom to choose.  Sounds like a foundation of that young country scratched onto parchment over two hundred yeas ago.

Clean energy represents a chance to get out from under the slow crush of an industry so cynical and so lost that it is willing to jeopardize the health of everyone, including themselves and their children, to make more money and maintain their hegemony. 

Breaking free from this clenched fist of energy would truly be a great kind of independence.  That's the next revolution we can be proud to pass onto the world. 

So let's do it.  Make some noise.  Support clean energy.  Be free.

Wide Eyed Oceans by the Numbers

As we begin to see the monetary value of the oceans, the numbers are eye opening.

Thanks to a very easy-to-read Infographic from the Global Partnership for the Oceans, we have some more ocean numbers. 

Lots of good stuff here but what caught my eye was:

• Eco tourism related to reefs is worth $9 billion 
• $2.2 trillion lost to fisheries mismanagement 
• 350 million jobs linked to oceans globally

Aren't the oceans priceless you might say?  Sure, yes, of course, to me and many others that's a given but ocean lovers sometimes have to speak the language of business and government to help save what we hold so dearly.  

Check out the totally cool graphic here.

Image: photodune.net