Living on a developed barrier island, Ponce Inlet Florida, USA, and floating in the ocean daily has built an even more intimate relationship with nature. What a contrast from the island of Manhattan, New York City to this island, and thinking back on the years being on the Small Island States, such as Fiji and Samoa. The opportunity to learn from biodiversity and interact with nature is immeasurable and teaches so much about how each species is organically wired to survive.
When I moved into a home on the beach during recovery to regain my health, floating with the dolphins led me to an ocean curriculum. Then two mama sea turtles chose to make their nests on the shore of the beach where I live. We have learned so much about being able to witness the life cycles of sea turtles during this time and these precious endangered species we are called to team-up with others here to help protect.
The mother lays her eggs onshore and goes back to the sea. Months later, the sea turtle hatchlings’ journey to the ocean for the first time by themselves. Watch this little leader:
The learning that is unfolding is immeasurable and inspires the sharing of the love for biodiversity with new experiences in the wild with birds, fish, crabs, whales, dolphins, and sea turtles grows from being in the ocean.
Being immersed in the ocean and island, life breath by breath strengthens that interconnection to all species. But the key is how to not merely survive, but to thrive, with interdependency on one another beyond siloed life systems, using both science, consciousness, and life’s ultimate mystery to discover how to better protect nature. Urgent action on both local and global levels to approach this change is needed, but it begins with becoming aware of the challenges and opportunities.
When we are immersed in nature, each one of us can come into a more balanced relationship, not just to the ocean, flora, and fauna, but one another. This island has a team that supports marine life, with wild species education, rehabilitation, all in the effort to support, conserve and preserve sea turtles, and more!
Actions on Biodiversity World Team Now is taking include:
From a global view, biodiversity worldwide is rapidly decreasing. Urgent action is needed as witnessed in the United Nations’ just published 5th edition its Global Diversity Outlook.
The Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 (GBO-5)
The Global Biodiversity Outlook 5 (GBO-5), published by the UN Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), offers an authoritative overview of the state of nature. It is a final report card on progress against the 20 global biodiversity targets agreed in 2010 with a 2020 deadline, and offers lessons learned and best practices for getting on track.
The report calls for a shift away from “business as usual” across a range of human activities. It outlines eight transitions that recognize the value of biodiversity, the need to restore the ecosystems on which all human activity de-pends, and the urgency of reducing the negative impacts of such activity.
There was to be a UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon Portugal in 2020 but that is moved to 2021, date TBD.
United Nations Ocean Conference
One of the Sustainable Development Goals, #14 Life Under Water, mandates the conservation of our worldwide oceans.
Leading to COP26 in Glasgow Scottland 1-12 November 2021.
HOME - UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) at the SEC – Glasgow 2020
The 26th UN Climate Change Conference will take place in November 2021, at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow.
Observing nature, and organically discovering natural-based solutions from the ocean, is leading to new pathways forward for our common future.
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?
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…
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?
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
I love celebrating “The Declaration of Independence” and this year, Independence has great meaning on 4th of July in NYC. True independence is within our vision, now evidenced by the sweeping changes abound;
Independence from Oil, now that would merit a big celebration, and fireworks.
With “Copenhagen” in December there is a true possibility of the first ever Global Environmental Treaty ratified for our world. We have more countries than ever before attempting to work together to take on the Climate Crisis, that is significant.
The USA is manufacturing electric vehicles and the automotive industry is transforming.
Serve.gov is one example of how Service, Contribution, Integrity and Environmental Responsibility are being valued as a commodity and the world of business is being reformed.
The Web, social networks, streaming media, multiple channels of TV: withviewer “Independence” and so much choice, the entertainment industry is transformed.
The ARRA creates green jobs, and funds the kind of projects that will insure our independent future, and asks for a smarter electrical grid, and Utilities are being transformed. Solutions are born.
Let us celebrate our greatest gift we have in this country-freedom. It is so exciting to live in a time of change, where the possibility of creating a future independent from the past is real.
World Team’s green building (that intends to have the option to function independent of the electrical grid is closer to reality)—and a new for profit Delaware corporation ; “World Team –Building LLC” that will contribute to World Team Now, is born.
In truth we are all dependent on the love that we need from one another and more that is ineffable: the air we breathe, water, food and something bigger and beyond each us— some call it “nature,” I say “God” (call it what you will, but let’s answer the call with reverence and respect).
May you realize the greatest gift that grows from Independence; Freedom
Freedom gives choice—how do you choose to use your resources; Time, Energy, Action and Money?
A twist of irony–to celebrate independence at a time where there is “dependence” on the Team of people who are all working on our growing World Team Now. Thank you All— and we welcome All!
What do you love for Valentine’s Day? How about a possibility for the USA to move towards transformation? It is hard to believe we may see some governmental support for Alternative and Renewable Energy & Technology: Green Building, Solar, Wind, Plug in Electric Vehicles, a Smart Grid, the fact that these are finally being recognized is a demonstration of love of our earth and humanity, consciousness growing– on Valentine’s Day in the USA. Here is what appears to be in the box of candy, but one never knows when you bite into it, what is on the inside….
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan (H.R.1), passed by Congress today is expected to be forwarded, and signed into law shortly.
Highlights from the Stimulus Package are:
Renewable Energy Incentives
$20 billion in tax incentives for renewable energy and energy efficiency over 10 years, including: extending tax credits for energy produced from wind, geothermal, hydropower and landfill gas; (This is very exciting!)
grants to build renewable energy facilities ;(hope many can benefit, this is great especially if policy comes into play to inspire people towards transformation) tax credits for purchases of energy-efficient furnaces, windows and doors, or insulation;(NYSERDA co-generation, heat coolant geothermal?) tax credit for families that purchase plug-in hybrid vehicles (finally incentives, the Electric Vehicle will indeed be resurrected, and with better batteries: A123 )
Energy About $50 billion for energy programs, focused chiefly on efficiency and renewable energy, (ok, this gets us going!) including
$5 billion to weatherize modest-income homes;
$6.4 billion to clean up nuclear weapons production sites; (this merits further discussion later)
$11 billion toward a so-called “smart electricity grid” —Yes, it is so anitquated our Grid, it’s time to reduce waste;
$13.9 billion to subsidize loans for renewable energy projects (Elation! World Team -Dream to Reality);
$6.3 billion in state energy efficiency and clean energy grants(NYSERDA’s deserves support for their programs)
$4.5 billion make federal buildings more energy efficient (“Got to be the change ….”)
Elated about most of this but, we will discuss the nuclear waste issue when we are not in a mode of gratitude…
Science
$3 billion for the National Science Foundation for basic science and engineering research; (Yes, hopefully explore the ocean and more with Tidal Energy) $1 billion for NASA;
$1.6 billion research in areas such as climate science, biofuels, high-energy physics and nuclear physics. .
Infrastructure $46 billion for transportation projects, including $27 billion for highway and bridge construction and repair;
$8.4 billion for mass transit;
$8 billion for construction of high-speed railways and $1.3 billion for Amtrak;
$4.6 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers;
$4 billion for public housing improvements;
$6.4 billion for clean and drinking water projects;
$7 billion to bring broadband Internet service to underserved areas.
Expanded college credit About $13 billion to provide a $2,500 expanded tax credit for college tuition and related expenses for 2009 and 2010. The credit is phased out for couples making more than $160,000.
It will be interesting to see what legislation actually goes into effect and becomes solid. We focused on the legislation that aligned with the core competencies of the work we have been focused on developing with World Team for almost two decades. The other issues are significant as well but, and like cells of our body all contribute to the whole of this will become emergent.
