World Ocean Radio - People
This week on World Ocean Radio we're talking about global communication, asking how we as ocean communicators break through, and how we create messaging that resonates and reaches the millions of citizens whose lives are so dependent on the ocean’s bounty. And we highlight two ocean heroes, Dr. Sylvia Earle and Sir David Attenborough, whose quiet successes have combined to communicate with and to reach millions of citizens of the ocean worldwide.
This holiday season on World Ocean Radio we return with a special reading of "Christmas at Sea", an evocative poem by Robert Louis Stevenson written in 1883. Stevenson, the son of a lighthouse engineer, had intimate knowledge of nor'westers... Merry Christmas to all from the World Ocean Observatory.
Christmas at Sea
A poem by Robert Louis Stevenson
Christmas at Sea is an evocative seasonal poem published in 1888, five years after Robert Louis Stevenson’s beloved novel, Treasure Island, was published. The Scottish writer was the son of a lighthouse engineer and had intimate, first-hand knowledge of extreme weather, storms and nor'westers. Christmas at Sea appears in an anthology of poems compiled by the Radio4 program Poetry Please: The Nation’s Best-Loved Poems, with a forward by Roger McGough, published in 2014 by Faber & Faber Books.
Christmas at Sea is in the public domain.
Our annual gift to World Ocean Radio listeners. In this episode, host Peter Neill reads "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 favorite of ours, with profound relevance for the New Year. Please enjoy.
This week on World Ocean Radio we have a special seasonal reading of "Christmas at Sea", an evocative poem by Robert Louis Stevenson written in 1883. Stevenson, the son of a lighthouse engineer, had intimate knowledge of extreme weather, storms, and especially nor'westers. Merry Christmas to all from the World Ocean Observatory.
This week we're examining religious beliefs around the world and religious commitment to the ocean and to the protection of natural resources, and reading from various doctrinal statements by leaders of the major religions of the world that pertain to ocean and water.
How do we govern the ocean? This week on World Ocean Radio we introduce a concept that advocates for a centralized Ministry for the Ocean, a voice at the highest level of government to champion for ocean policy and protection.
Moken is a Thai word meaning sea people, people of water, sea nomads or sea gypsies. The Moken are a group of Austronesian people of an archipelago claimed by both Myanmar and Thailand. Their way of life is under pressure by assimilation, subversion, suppression, climate change, and corporate greed. This week on World Ocean Radio we discuss their way of life, the challenges the Moken face, and the ways that some in Western civilizations are seeking a similar, simpler way of life, opting out of consumerism in pursuit of a deeper engagement with nature, land and sea as a means to achieve sustainability and community connection.
This week on World Ocean Radio we conclude our 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 ask, "After four years of reporting across the world on vivid and corrupt aspects of the ocean, what comes next? What conclusions can be made? How can we apply what is to be learned from this remarkable adventure?"
This week on World Ocean Radio we offer part three 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 crime of ocean dumping--oil and waste, spent munitions, nuclear material, malfeasance in the cruise ship industry, plastics and airborne pollutants such as mercury and carbon dioxide.
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.
This week on World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill highlights the dark side of what happens at sea in the context of a forthcoming book by Pulitzer Prize winning Investigative Journalist, Ian Urbina. Titled "The Outlaw Ocean", this compelling new book profiles the most urgent ocean issues facing us today: illegal fishing, human and arms trafficking, slavery at sea, illegal dumping, piracy, and so much more. Ian Urbina has spent the last several years reporting on lawlessness at sea for #TheOutlawOcean project. "The Outlaw Ocean", available for pre-order now, is the culmination of that investigative exploration.
The word 'indigenous' is used a lot these days, especially in terms of territorial rights to land and of invasive species of flora and fauna. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we discuss the origins of nature, especially in terms of the interaction between humans and the natural world, the rights of nature, and the world's most invasive species and biggest threat to biodiversity: homo sapiens.
This week on World Ocean Radio we introduce listeners to two women who are planning to embark on an unsupported exploration in the Arctic: 270 days 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 in August 2019 as a means to create a global dialogue around changes in the Polar regions that impact us all. We invite you to join the conversation at heartsintheice.com.
2018 was a summer of extremes: hurricanes, wildfires, drought, floods, heat, earthquakes, tsunami. It's increasingly evident that human intervention is largely responsible for these natural disasters and their outcomes. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we talk about the distribution of loss, recognizing the poorest among us to be the least resilient in the face of such disasters, and most likely to be affected by them. We discuss the growing likelihood that climate change will cause increased displacement around the planet and will make refugees out of many of us. Where will we go? What will we do when we get there? How will we survive?
Humankind has for centuries been connected to the cycles of the year for sustenance from land and sea. We have built our communities and our spiritual and social celebrations around the observations of the seasons and the changing light. In this episode of World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill discusses this rich history and today's troubling impacts of scale, global food production, climate change, and the resultant consequences of our consumption. And he praises the recent trends pointing toward a revival of local fishing and agriculture and the ways that we can benefit from investing in the health of our communities.
Summertime along the coast offers us the opportunity to reflect on why the ocean matters, and its importance in our lives. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill shares insights from the great American naturalist and author Rachel Carson, by reading from her seminal book "The Edge of the Sea."
Mario Soares, former PM and President of Portugal, statesman, exile, political prisoner, "father of democracy", passed away last week at the age of 92. In this episode, host Peter Neill pays tribute by discussing his many political and environmental achievements as contributions to the 20th century, most notably the creation of the Independent Ocean Commission's report “The Ocean, Our Future” and the Global Water Contract, both important policy documents with requirements and recommendations to guide the international community for the preservation of earth’s ocean resources.
In this fourth and final episode in a series on writers who have shaped his interest in the ocean and the natural world, host Peter Neill discusses the work of American author, essayist, and fiction writer Barry Lopez, whose “Arctic Dreams: Imagination and Desire in a Northern Landscape” stands as a classic--one of the most encompassing and evocative portraits of a natural place ever written.
In the third of a four-part series on writers who have shaped his interest in the ocean and the natural world, host Peter Neill reads from essayist Robert Macfarlane's best selling non-fiction work "The Old Ways: A Journey on Foot", a blend of natural history, travel writing, and more. In it, Macfarlane encourages an understanding of the natural world as a means to discover better paths, new imaginings, and inspirational ways forward.
In the second of a four-part series on writers who have shaped his interest in the ocean and the natural world, host Peter Neill highlights the work of American author, poet, essayist, and literary critic Annie Dillard. As one of the preeminent naturalists of our time, Dillard’s close observations of nature remind us that to grasp the micro and macro cosmic elements of our lives requires a willingness to immerse oneself, to listen, and to observe.
In the first of a four-part series on writers who have shaped his interest in Nature and the ocean, host Peter Neill highlights the work of 20th century American writer Loren Eiseley. Eiseley was a researcher, teacher, scholar, essayist, and poet. He was an academic who was both a scientist and a humanist, one who maintains a place of eminence in the literary world, now more than 30 years after his death. His work was once described as delivering “science to non-scientists in the lyrical language of earthly metaphor, simile, and narrative…”
In this half hour interview with Amy Browne, host of WERU-FM's "Maine Currents", Peter Neill discusses his new book, "The Once and Future Ocean: Notes Toward a New Hydraulic Society." During the interview they discuss fresh water, climate change, ways in which the sea connects all things, plastic pollution, why the ocean matters, and having hope and optimism for the future.
In October 2015 Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau overwhelmingly won the Canadian election for Prime Minister. In advance of the election, Premier Taptuna of the Arctic territory Nunavut wrote an open letter to the candidates. In it, he asked each to outline their vision for the future of the Arctic. The indigenous people of Canada have long endured unresolved discussions about issues such as environmental sustainability, economic and educational opportunity, access to technology and basic services, and more. Taptuna’s letter may have helped shape an election, further a debate, and generate a response toward a more sustainable Arctic.
Record numbers of migrants are taking to the seas to escape political strife, sectarian conflict and war, crossing the Aegean and Mediterranean seas aboard inadequate vessels in search of better and safer lives for themselves and their families. Many are struggling to cope with the sheer numbers: from the coastal nations receiving desperate refugees, to the border management agencies, to the UN and the IMO, to the mariners at sea obligated by maritime tradition to rescue those in crisis on the water. In this episode of World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill will discuss the complicated geopolitical, maritime and humanitarian crisis we now face.
