World Ocean Radio

This week on World Ocean Radio we offer part two of a four-part series devoted to "The Outlaw Ocean," a new book by award-winning New York Times investigative journalist Ian Urbina. In this episode we discuss the potential for corruption not only at sea but at the many ports around the world. More than 90% of the world's goods are carried to market by sea, and bribery in ports adds hundreds of millions of dollars each year in unofficial import taxes and transport costs.

The outlaw ocean, a space apart, hidden from view, a place of rampant criminality and exploitation. This week on World Ocean Radio we offer part one of a four-part series devoted to "The Outlaw Ocean," a new book by award-winning New York Times investigative journalist Ian Urbina. In this episode we read select excerpts from this remarkable journalistic endeavor that begin to shine a light on just some of the dark side of life on the world ocean of which most of us are completely unaware.

In the United States, planning and reparation for coastal flooding and damage has been administered under a National Flood Insurance Program that since 1978 has paid more than $40 billion in claims. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we outline some of the reasons why the program is not working, especially as extreme weather becomes more prevalent and levels of destruction more severe.

In this episode of World Ocean Radio we call upon the Canadian government to amend and expand their June 2019 legislative action--the Wild Animal and Plant Protection and Regulation of International and Interprovincial Trade Act--to include a global reserve for whales, dolphins, porpoise and other cetaceans in the fertile Hudson Bay near Manitoba where an estimated 60,000 beluga whales migrate each year to feed and mate.

This week on World Ocean Radio we introduce listeners to Project Drawdown, a collective of scholars and innovators assembled to address the challenges of climate change and social confusion around the issue. In this episode we discuss Paul Hawken's book, "Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming", now in its tenth printing, and the steps required to recapture the political and social agenda for an equitable ecosystem for the future. Learn more at worldoceanobservatory.org/world-ocean-radio

A trophic cascade is an ecological phenomenon triggered by the addition or removal of top predators, involving changes in populations of both predator and prey through the food chain which often results in dramatic changes in the ecosystem. Shark, manta ray, totoaba, bahaba: all are aggressively harvested from the sea for their supposed medicinal properties and status. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we ask listeners to consider if certain endangered species do in fact contain medicinal value, are there not other, more supportive and sustainable ways to meet demand without decimating the supply?

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.

"Mother Earth has the following rights: To life, to the diversity of life, to water, to clean air, to equilibrium, to restoration, and to pollution-free living." So states the Law of Mother Earth, a Bolivian law passed in December 2010 as a binding societal duty. Bolivia is the first country on Earth to give comprehensive legal rights to Mother Nature, and in this episode of World Ocean Radio we explore the language contained in the legislation and assert that Bolivia may be inventing a social model that will show how we as a global community might transcend conflict and division toward a harmonious and sustainable future.

With the Hearts in the Ice expedition set to begin one month from now, World Ocean Radio is revisiting a special episode dedicated to the upcoming 270-day exploration of the Arctic at the Bamsebu trapper’s cabin in the high north. Hearts in the Ice is a citizen science initiative that Sunniva Sorby and Hilde Falun Strom will undertake next month as a means to create a global dialogue around changes in the Polar regions that impact us all.

How often do we think about what lies below the surface of the land, below the sea floor? This week on World Ocean Radio we're thinking about water and our reckless consumption of it for agriculture, industry, and what we consume for both our basic needs and for our survival. How long before we exhaust the supply? In this episode we discuss the value of water underland, the water melting from warming glaciers, from the ice cap, the surface water and the water from the aquifers, and we call for a response to a rapidly changing environment that will soon demand one.

In this episode of World Ocean Radio we look back at the most egregious actions and decisions taken by individuals, corporations and governments which has led to the environmental crises we now face. The big offenders on the list include the willful ignorance of the early science that foreshadowed what was to come, energy companies, corporate greed, CO2 emissions, fracking, fossil fuels, fertilizers, plastics, and our collective unwillingness to preserve natural systems for the future of all.

Visiting coastal graveyards in Ireland some years ago, World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill observed the many stones of sailors lost at sea and began to contemplate the coastal ports in the United States, and the ways that cities and ports alongshore honor--or forget--those who dedicated their lives to the seaborne pursuits of fishing, boatbuilding, the merchant trades, and international commerce.

This week on World Ocean Radio we're talking about solutions to the climate challenge by highlighting some modern examples of conversion: industries across America shifting from conventional and failing ways of doing business to an embrace of enterprising and inventive opportunities for a sustainable future.

This week we are talking about ocean calm and the ways that we are affected in mind, body and spirit by a peaceful ocean. In this episode we tell the myth of Alkyone and her transformation from woman to kingfisher, and the breathless calm required to hatch her fledglings at sea. hal·cy·on /ˈhalsēən/ 1. adjective denoting a period of time in the past that was idyllically happy, calm, and peaceful. 2. noun A bird in Greek legend generally associated with the kingfisher. There was an ancient belief that the bird nested on the sea, which it calmed in order to lay its eggs on a floating nest.

The World Ocean Observatory is partnering with Main Street Bucksport this year for the 4th annual International Maritime Film Festival, a celebration of maritime heritage, spirit of adventure, concern for the environment, and ingenuity of boats and waterborne pursuits. In this week's episode of World Ocean Radio we discuss the upcoming festival and call for submissions, and reflect on the importance and power of the written word, photographs and film to make us aware of issues and to act toward change with new conviction.