Welcome to World Ocean Radio… I’m Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory. The ocean is climate. Climate is ocean. One simply cannot discuss either without the inclusion of both. That does not always occur. Often, in science, policy, and politics, they are viewed as independent entities, a reality that diffuses attention, jurisdiction, effect, and progress. In some non-governmental organizations, in the United Nations, and in some particular acts by particular governing bodies, however, a de facto integration occurs and forward movement achieved. The United Nations Climate Change Secretariat, for example, sponsors a Movement for Change Initiative to acknowledge “Lighthouse Activities,” some of most innovative, scalable, and replicable examples of what people worldwide at every level of society are doing to address climate change and to benefit the environment, ocean and otherwise. The 2016 Awards represent many of the kinds of projects, locally and nationally, that will transform behavior in the name of climate mitigation goals, a source for optimism by virtue of successful action taken. The thirteen awards fell into three categories: Women for Results, Financing for Climate Friendly Investment, and Information and Communications Technology. Some examples for Women for Results include “The W+ Standard” in Nepal, a rural distribution network of 1100 women entrepreneurs facilitating access to clean energy, water, and sanitation products and services in several communities; a “Woman-Led Fog Harvesting for a Resilient, Sustainable Ecosystem” in Morocco that introduced a technological innovation inspired by ancient dew-collecting practices, providing potable water to the local community; and a “Women’s Empowerment for Resilience Against Climate Change” in Uganda, that establishes women-led groups that pool their savings into a fund from which they borrow and invest into climate-friendly, income-generating activities. . Some examples for Financing for Climate Friendly Investment include “Gothenburg Green Bonds” in Sweden, the first municipal issue of bonds specifically for loans and investments that benefit the climate and the environment, and “Revenue-Neutral Carbon Tax” in British Columbia in Canada, the first in North America covering more than 70% of the provincial CO2 emissions with revenue returned to citizens in the form of personal and business tax credits and other financial measures. Examples from Information and Communications Technology Solutions include “Connected Mangroves” in Malaysia, a system the combines cloud, machine to machines, and mobile broadband to help the local community restore mangrove plantations, and “SOLshare” in Bangladesh, the world’s first technology enabled peer-to-peer trading network for rural households with or without solar home systems. These projects are astonishingly large and small at the same time; they are first of a kind, applied in small villages and large cities, and catalyze investment, local talent, community collaboration, and exemplary implementation that can be duplicated and adapted to other places with similar circumstance. At first glance, they may seem far distant from the ocean, but not so if your remember our initial observation that the ocean and climate are synergistically entwined, that every action taken to meet the challenge of one is by definition an action to meet the challenge of the other. The global switch to solar power will reduce reliance on fossil fuels, their extraction and burning, with all the negative climate/ocean consequences we already know. The experiments with new forms of investment and trading will augment and change conventional finance structures and corporations that may not be as adaptable to innovation. The collection of fresh water, renewal of mangroves, the empowerment of women as agents of change within our communities – everyone of these contributes to the larger question and its answers. Let’s be real. Will any one of them really make a difference? Absolutely, yes, without doubt -- individually, in each specific place; collectively, as an amalgam of possibility, real solutions, and commitment to new ideas and progress; and, internationally, as a demonstration that great things in difficult times can be achieved by the power of imagination and will – and that is a telling expression of optimism from which we can all take heart. We will discuss these issues, and more, in future editions of World Ocean Radio. - - - WORLD OCEAN RADIO IS A PROJECT OF THE WORLD OCEAN OBSERVATORY IN ASSOCIATION WITH WERU-FM, BLUE HILL, MAINE. WORLD OCEAN RADIO IS DISTRIBUTED BY THE PUBLIC RADIO EXCHANGE AND THE PACIFICA NETWORK. FIND OUR PODCAST ON ITUNES AND AT WORLD OCEAN OBSERVATORY DOT ORG.
