Tag: environmental non-profit org (Page 1 of 3)

For the Love of the Ocean

Ocean/consciousness

By Suzanne Maxx ©World Team Now

June 21, 2018, Summer Solstice Malibu, California, USA

I know I’m not alone when I say I love the ocean! I think there is value in organizing people to focus around the action in a day like “World Oceans Day,” (which was June 8th) or “Earth Day” or even one’s “Birthday”!

The love for the ocean is something most of us have in common.  It’s when summer comes, (or when we go to another part of the world), that is when most people begin to build ocean consciousness.  Ocean consciousness is usually around going to the beach.  So how do we show appreciation, and celebrate the way the ocean gives to the planet, and interacts with life beyond country,  all over the world?

Last year we celebrated by participation in the United Nations Ocean Conference and registered our multi-stakeholder partnership Sustainable Solutions Ocean Opportunities on Small Island States (SOS-IS) inside the United Nations platform for the Sustainable Development Goals. We also launched the website SOS-IS.org.

World Team Now gave the “Pioneer for the Planet” Award to Aquanaut and Ocean Explorer Fabien Cousteau and had a World Team Now Gala around the ocean events with a celebration at the Grand Banks Boat/Restaurant.

It was an honor to participate in the United Nations Solutions Panel as a speaker.  Also, I covered the conference as a journalist.  With a death in the family simultaneous at the events’ climax, I learned that it was too many roles to play at the same time. Here are some past tweets, a Facebook post, and a newsletter to give you the feel of the diversity of experiences:

 

Suzanne met with and interviewed Peter Thomson, Fijian diplomat and President of the General Assembly of the United…

Posted by World Team Now on Wednesday, June 7, 2017

This year, Oceans Day was celebrated at the ocean itself: being with the ocean and holding conversations locally at the beach with people about the ocean’s meaning and importance related to islands and a myriad of solutions to plastics and individual choices. Most people at the ocean had no idea about World Oceans Day or the UN’s Sustainable Development Goal #SDG14, so this work took on a different value, and tone.

This experience brought up the question: Is the love we carry for our common home, nature, and the ocean prioritized in our daily lives now, even if we don’t live near the ocean? I thought I had prioritized the ocean until I lived on the ocean in Fiji, literally for a total of six months working on our World Team project. I lived in a villa actually out on the ocean.

From the back porch of the villa, I could dive into the ocean.  From my bedroom, I looked out on its vast, ever-changing horizon mirroring some of the most beautiful sunrises ever. From the opposite side of the bedroom, each sunset was better than the last.  The living room was actually a “living room,” with large glass circles as the floor, a window to watch the wildlife in the ocean: colorful fish swimming below my feet at high tides, and the pink and aqua blue neon florescent crabs in the sand at low tide.

I realized the ocean breathes too –inhaling and exhaling, as waves go in and out and with the high and low tides – breathing a way to organize life in and around Oceania. The two category 3 hurricanes that came through while I was there caused a great loss for people and island life. It is significant that when we consider the big picture, in the past few years, the extreme weather and tropical storms have increased globally. Do we all realize that the choices we make here in the developed region of the world dramatically affect what happens in other parts of the world with Climate Change?

Yet the stewardship of the ocean in the Pacific Island region’s culture is considerable, and there is a lot for the developed world to learn from how the native islanders interact with the ocean.  Passed on from generation to generation are ways to not just look to the stars for navigation, but to the ocean for understanding life.

“Chimneys” Photo Courtesy of “Dive 4 Life” Fiji

Prominent is the biodiversity of species and preservation; fish as a considerable food source, and coral reefs as life-sustaining.  The ocean is central in the Pacific Island Region of Oceania, and people have learned to listen and watch the ocean and its tides and species for how life can be better organized and prioritized.  By nature, the respect and love of the ocean is core to the culture and village communities I spent time within Fiji.

Next to the villa along the shore of Koro Sun Resort in Savusavu was “Dive 4 Life” where they teach and lead ocean journeys scuba diving (PADI Certification & Instruction), snorkeling, and fishing adventures.  We will share more about Dive 4 Life coming up.   Nearly every day in Fiji, one can experience a way to become more intimate with the ocean.

I wonder how it can be that when I arrived on one of the most pristine, untouched outer islands left in the world, in the middle of the Pacific Ocean with virgin sand from human footprints- there was plastic garbage from other regions of the world washing up on shore. Plastic waste, the shipping industry, nuclear hazardous and toxic wastes, ocean acidification, climate change, overfishing have all challenged the ocean we love. We all now have heard that if we keep going at this rate with plastics, by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish.  On the outer Fiji island, where our nonprofit, World Team Now, has been working, local villagers reported recently that right where sea turtles usually come up on the beach to lay their eggs, instead, there was a giant sea turtle strangled by plastic. Time for action: Here are 20 ways to plastic proof your routine.

So many of us enjoy what the ocean gives us: seafood to eat, waves to wide, sunsets to reflect upon – we think about the ocean related to fishing, surfing, swimming, sailing/boating, snorkeling, wave energy, and tidal energy – what we can get out of the ocean.  I wonder how many people are truly aware that not only is the ocean beautiful, and evokes wonder, but that it actually helps us breathe and is critical for the balance of earth systems. Oceans actually breathe in for us by the plankton absorbing carbon dioxide, as much as 50% of what we humans are polluting into the air since the beginning of the industrial age. The challenge is that the change in the temperature of the ocean influences the ability of plankton to ingest the carbon dioxide. Plankton forms the base of the food web on the ocean.  The temperature of the ocean and the atmosphere are coupled as a cause and effect; mirroring. Thus we face a dire positive feedback condition of warming, causing more CO2 to remain in the atmosphere.    It’s time to think about how to give back to the ocean.  Our World Team project is so eager to begin to show some of these solutions in real time, on an island and we are gearing up for action now.  We plan to have many of you join us at least virtually next year.

Just the same way we created this mess with plastic and other wastes, we can altogether work to clean it up.  There are innovative solutions now. In Fiji, I learned how to re-plant the ever important mangroves.  We can replant coral.  We can repopulate and protect fish.  We can create monitoring systems to address illegal fishing and protect endangered species, we can choose alternative renewable forms of transportation, and all of these systems are indeed connected.

Every morning I awoke to the sound of the ocean breathing in and out its waves as water splashes up against the villa and nearby shore.  To be put to bed by the soothing sound of the oceans gentle waves is a grace to grow living with the ocean.

Do you wonder what the world would look like if we focused our attention, to giving respect and appreciation of the ocean in each breath? Let’s consider organizing our effort by each breath, thought, word and action.  Maybe then we could make Oceans Day, Surf Day, and Earth Day be every day. What if their principles and elements at the core of these singular days happen every day?  Are you willing to consider the power of choice to aggregate the collective consciousness to take action for the ocean every day?  Could we make a world of difference?

Here is an excerpt of the lyrics of World Team’s rap song first performed at the United Nations Earth Summit/Global Forum 1992.

What’s the solution for the pollution of our ocean?

Education, information, cultivation, preservation, restoration, conservation,

It’s time to make a change and rearrange

A shift of power, now’s the hour

For peace, a big release,

World Team, it’s a dream and for finality,

Let it be reality.

 

May we remember the ocean is all of the time, ever-changing, yet consistent in gifts? On this day of Summer Solstice in the Western Hemisphere, may we see the light of perspective for oceans value; every day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fiji Pacific Island Region, Oceania Photo by Suzanne Maxx

It’s Time to End Reliance on Nuclear Power

World Team Now board members joined a coalition to give  President Obama, members of his Administration, and all members of the U.S. Congress a letter regarding the Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan.  The letter was initiated by the Sustainable Energy Network comprised of 146 safe energy advocate organizations and businesses.

Operation Upshot-Knothole, BADGER Event

Photo courtesy of National Nuclear Security Administration / Nevada Site Office

   
JAPANESE NUCLEAR ACCIDENT – A TRAGIC REMINDER;

IT’S LONG PAST THE TIME TO END RELIANCE ON NUCLEAR POWER

March 25, 2011

President Barack Obama
The White House
Washington, DC 20500

Dear President Obama:

We, the 146 undersigned safe energy advocates, have been speaking out about the risks and dangers posed by nuclear power for years – for many of us, since before the 1986 Chornobyl* and 1979 Three Mile Island accidents as well as the hundreds of other radioactive releases, unplanned shut-downs, and other mishaps that have continuously plagued both the U.S. and the international nuclear industries since their founding.

While nuclear power’s unacceptable safety, environmental, public health, economic, and national security risks should have been self-evident long before now, the latest unfolding nuclear disaster in Japan once again underscores the following:  

Nuclear plants can never be designed to withstand all potential “acts of God.”

Nuclear plants can never be designed to withstand all instances of “human error.”

Nuclear plants can never be designed to withstand all types of “mechanical malfunction.”

Nuclear plants can never be designed to withstand all forms of “terrorist attack.”

There is no such thing as “safe” nuclear power.

There is no such thing as “clean” nuclear power.

There is no such thing as “cheap” nuclear power.

Consequently, the Price-Anderson cap on liability in the event of an accident should be repealed, all proposed governmental financial and regulatory incentives for new nuclear plant construction – including loan guarantees, accelerated licensing, and inclusion in a “clean energy standard” – should be rejected, and no new reactors should be built.

Existing nuclear reactors should be phased out as rapidly as possible, beginning with the oldest and/or most unsafe, and no presently-licensed reactors should have their operating lives extended.

Safety standards for existing reactors should be substantially tightened while they continue to operate and federal nuclear funding should be redirected to the orderly phase-out of those reactors as well as the safe decommissioning of closed reactors and disposal of radioactive waste.

National energy policy and funding should be refocused on greatly improved energy efficiency and the rapid deployment of renewable energy sources which are far cleaner, safer, and cheaper than nuclear power.

—————-

This letter was signed by World Team Now Board Members; Albert Boulanger, Director of Technical Strategy; Walter Andrews  Director of Energy and the Environment and Suzanne Maxx Founder,President, Exec. Director.

To see the press release, the letter with signatories, and the  list of  initial recipients- click here.  A copy of the letter also went to media outlets and these governmental representatives;

cc.      Steven Chu, Secretary – U.S. Department of Energy

            Ken Salazar, Secretary – U.S. Department of Interior

           Gregory Jaczko, Chairman – U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

           Kristine Svinicki, Commissioner – U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

            George Apostolakis, Commissioner – U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

            William Magwood, Commissioner – U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

            William Ostendorff, Commissioner – U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission

            Lisa Jackson, Administrator – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

            Jon Wellinghoff, Chairman – Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

            Philip Moeller, Commissioner – Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

            Marc Spitzer, Commissioner – Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

            John Norris, Commissioner – Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

            Cheryl LaFleur, Commissioner – Federal Energy Regulatory Commission

            John Holdren, Director White House Office of Science & Technology

           Nancy Sutley, Chair – White House Council on Environmental Quality

            Peter B. Lyons, DOE Acting Assistant Secretary for Nuclear Energy

 * Chernobyl  is the correct Ukrainian spelling of what many of us know as “Chernobyl,” the Russian spelling.  Since the nuclear accident site is in Ukraine and the official spelling in that country is “Chornobyl,” that is what we opted for here, as it is the most authentic.    


Time for Global Climate Action

We may end up with a Climate Event in every country in the world, by Global Climate Action Day, this Saturday the 24th of October, thanks to the team work, lead by Bill Mc Gibbens and 350.org. Our participation at World Team Now started local this year, with events on both coasts in our home communities — New York, and California.


World Team Now (WTN)has teamed up with others to make our happen 3,5, & 0 happen: 350.org, SpectralQ, Unite Now, Central Park Dance Skaters Association (CPDSA), Crazy Legs, The Salvation Army in Brooklyn, and Our Lady of Malibu School. It’s exciting to align with people from all over the world demonstrating their passion for our future.

Posted on 350’s website is one extraordinary event after another.

 

Bill Mc Gibbens and Suzanne Maxx

Bill McKibben & WTN's Founder Suzanne Maxx

Bill McKibben 350’s founder says, “It is the single most widespread day of political action that the earth has ever seen.” Here are some highlights from around the world:

  • A Global 350 Mosaic: Organizers in Sydney and Beijing are forming giant human 3’s, while activists in London and Delhi make huge 5’s, and citizens in Copenhagen and Quito form enormous 0’s, together making a global 350, a symbol of the need for all of us to work together.
  • In Kenya, 350 Maasai children will perform a jumping dance, highlighting that for their pastoral lifestyle, climate change is already underfoot.
  • Across China, over 200 events are planned at iconic locations like wind-turbine farms, coastal cities, and at melting glaciers.

If you don’t want to see for yourself now, Saturday afternoon you will be able to view on a gigantic screen in Times Square and broadcast around the world. Like the Ball dropping to begin the New Year, this time the world will begin to count down the day to U.N. Climate Conference in Copenhagen (COP15) and hopefully we all will be reminded we have to really pay attention to time, and living in balance with our environment.

Here is a sneak preview of one of our images we shot in Central Park last Saturday 17th “Rollin the “O”  .

Rolllin the O

Skaters for World Team Now in Central Park New York, USA

One image from this shoot with photographer Fred George will be put in a montage made by SpectralQ. Normally we have several hundred people there for the skate circle in the park and we were happy that there were a few that came out  to skate, despite what NYC skaters consider to be bad weather.  This was our first Aerial art piece and made us really appreciate artists like John Quigley of Spectral Q.  Skaters’ love to inspire others to get rolling, so we had fun out there! But we wanted to continue with our aerial art attempt on skates so we did an impromptu piece  at the Salvation Army in Brooklyn, NY.

DSC01238

Skaters for World Team Now at the Salvation Army in Brooklyn, NY after Crazy Legs “O”

Tomorrow World Team Now and Our Lady of Malibu School are joining together for an Aerial Art Piece lead by Spectral Q.  Students will make the 350, and it coincidences with two other events.  They will be wearing red because it is the “Just say NO to drugs week” as well.  Also two years ago during the Malibu fires, our Lady of Malibu School’s computer building had burnt down and tomorrow is also the launch of the new computer room opening.  When we pitched the idea to Our Lady of Malibu School’s principal Edie O’Brien, with our Solar Roof project at the Sunset Restaurant, we had the idea to start a Solar Roof Campaign for the school and Mrs. O’Brien loved it.  World Team Now is making the first donation for the Solar Roof Campaign at our Lady of Malibu School.

And if you haven’t found an event to join yet, you can find one here,

Or  hopefully by seeing some of our ideas you will be inspired to create your own event, it’s not too late.  No 350 is too small.

A global campaign of action based on sound scientific evidence is something that is all inclusive, so let’s join!

It takes a team!


350 Climate Policy Rollin’ Forward

By Suzanne Maxx ©

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CPDSA and World Team Now will team up to organize a human zero,  “O”,  made up of in-line and roller skaters in New York City’s Central Park.  Saturday, the 17th from 4:00-5:00 we plan to be part of a global action for the upcoming U.N. Climate Conference in Copenhagen in December, and to make a zero, “O” on skates, to get back to 350 CO2 emissions levels.  We will be on wheels, that are a “clean” form of transportation.  It will be shot from above, and when we start moving, rolling along, it will symbolize the movement we need to have with world leaders to ratify an international Climate Treaty, and for the Energy Bill stuck in the Senate. CPDSA and World Team Now will team up with 350.org, Spectral Q., for a human montage to post on Unite Now part of the global Climate Action Day-October 24th .

Our “movement” will symbolize the environmental movement and demonstrate the importance of the Energy Bill moving through the USA Congress, and encourage world leaders attending the upcoming international COP15 UN conference to move to create a global Climate treaty. We will team up to make the “O” for SpectralQ’s 350 human montage, .  The other 3 and the 5 will be made in cities like Copenhagen and Kyoto.  Scientists say that 350 parts per million CO2 in the atmosphere is the safe limit for humanity. Skating is a zero emissions form of transportation, we are more than a stand, we are a movement, for net zero buildings,  Zero emissions, for meeting the 350 emissions target, plus national international Climate Action, and for a World Team Now.


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Copenhagen”Off Sets” –The Big Picture Game

Courtesy of NASA

Courtesy of NASA

Copenhagen Cont’d. 

Think Global: Act Local Act for ALL

by Suzanne Maxx

We put the countdown to Copenhagen’s Climate Conference up on World Team Now’s website with exactly how much time we have left, because of the mounting pressure to have some specific measurable results in Copenhagen (UNFCCC).  The importance of raising awareness about this critical global treaty for our world is palpable — especially now before the Kyoto Protocol expires in 2012 as per the road map created in Bali, approved by the 2007 UN Climate Change Conference.  There are several events designed to increase the chances of Copenhagen’s success from the UN’s framework; one announced at G20 by President Obama.  The USA will host a “Major Economies Forum on Energy and Climate” in a preparatory session with 16 major economies, April 27th & 28th in Washington DC. to help facilitate a U.N. agreement on global warming according to The White House, inviting both “developed” and “developing” counties. The U. N. scheduled events leading up to Copenhagen, the first round was March 29th –April 8th, the others are June 1st-12th and then August 10th-14th all of these in Bonn, Germany; September 28th-October 9th in Bangkok and last November 2nd-6th with the location to be confirmed.  In addition to these events Media Mogul turned Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi will host a conference in La Maddalena, Italy in July, riding G8. These events intend to strengthen communications, and step up points of agreement such as deforestation and clear-cutting of tropical rainforests, global levels we can cut carbon emissions that will at least create sustainability, a deadline date, and a plan for enforceability, all so the Summit in Copenhagen we will end up with a global treaty with targets that are reasonable.  So far the areas of agreement are around clear-cutting our trees and rainforests, the precious lungs of our planet — the logging and burning of which accounts for a fifth of CO2 pollution. When I flew over these sites of deforestation I wept with the pain of bearing witness to a massacre.

There is a need for a leadership position here amongst all the countries that are members of the UN that demand “the lead by example” model of accountability. With the help of some behind the scenes experts and people who have spend years in the financial world designing a market made of “carbon offsets”, or the cost of pollution, like the UK & USA team, Blood and Gore-they have a first movers advantage as does the USA now with “green” opportunity.  I am not sure if China’s push for a global currency reserve should be dismissed easily. This is one of the first times in my life since beginning World Team in 1989, which I have not been embarrassed about being born in the United States, since embarking on this mission.  Obama’s stand for change shows he is willing to pick up where Gore left off with regards to the environment, and to carve out an action plan by 2012 on the premise of the Carbon offset game that would auction the U.S.’ emission trading credits and cut back to 1990 emission levels by 2020. The Dec 7-18 conference will map out what is next for the future with an emission reduction plan, and hopefully spell out a game of carbon credits, wherein the caps-and-trade are offsets and will become a global market with commodities that will re-value and transform our monetary system, but with new legislation, if all goes according to plan.

In time for the events that happened in Bonn this March and perhaps going by the “big picture” plan, Chairman Henry A. Waxman of the Energy and Commerce Committee and Chairman Edward J. Markey of the Energy and Environment Subcommittee drafted clean energy legislation for the USA. The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009 (ACES) is a comprehensive approach to America’s energy policy that charts a new course towards a clean energy economy.  According to Waxman, “The American Clean Energy and Security Act” will create millions of new clean energy jobs, save consumers hundreds of billions of dollars in energy costs, enhance America’s energy independence, and cut global warming pollution and for more detailed information visit the Committee on Energy and Commerce’s site,

The stakes are high, it is our future and if you still don’t believe all the scientists who have proven that our planet is warming by human activities, NASA‘s look and this new report from the National Snow and Ice Data Center shows the decade-long trend of shrinking sea ice cover is continuing at a surprisingly fast rate. New evidence from satellite observations shows ice caps thinning as well. Researchers from the Snow and Ice Center report the largest cover this winter was 278-thousand square miles less than the average largest cover for 1979 to 2000, making this winter’s maximum ice extent the fifth-lowest on record. They explain, “Arctic sea ice works like an air conditioner for the global climate system. It naturally cools air and water masses, plays a key role in ocean circulation, and reflects solar radiation back into space. Scientists believe ice cover to be an important measure of the health of the Arctic.  Look at the vanishing ice to bear witness to the change of our earth.

If you are wondering what you can do about all of this besides trying to understand it, join World Team Now, and allow the synergy of team to move us all into a responsible future, and join us in celebrating Earth Day,

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