BajaNomad
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Release: Teens Launch "Ocean Revolution"
http://www.oceanrevolution.org/OR_PressRelease_Launch.pdf
NORTH AMERICAN TEENS LAUNCH AN ?OCEAN REVOLUTION?
YOUTH PROGRAM INSPIRES AND CONNECTS OCEAN-LOVING YOUTH FROM AROUND THE CONTINENT
June 8 th , World Ocean Day, 2005 ? Washington D.C.
?We love the ocean and need to know how to save it.?
So went the thinking among the Ocean Revolution Youth Leadership Council, a group of high school students from all over North America, as they set out
to sea last January on the Sea of Cortez for their first meeting.
They began the voyage with a clear mission: creating a revolution in the way their peers think about their relationship with the ocean.
Ocean Revolution is the new bilingual youth outreach program that sets its goal at nothing less than creating a sea of change among North American
youth. At the helm of this revolution are twelve teens chosen from a large pool of applicants for their creativity and passion for the ocean.
?This group of young people gives us hope for the future of our oceans and coasts,? says program Co-director, Dr. Wallace J. Nichols. ?They are a
diverse group of talented, energetic, ocean-loving young Jacques Cousteaus and Sylvia Earles?they are going to jump start the Ocean Revolution and
change the world.?
The objective of Ocean Revolution is to build a continent-spanning network of like-minded youth, with a shared interest in solving the problems facing
our oceans and coasts.
Overfishing, destructive fishing practices, pollution, excessive coastal development, and habitat destruction have all taken their toll on our oceans.
?The research is clear?our oceans are in trouble and this generation will be tasked with the challenge of restoring and protecting marine resources
and cleaning up the mess weve made,? says Dr. Carl Safina, President of Blue Ocean Institute. ?That will require a fundamental change in our
relationship with the ocean?a new sea ethic.?ഊThe Ocean Revolution Youth Leadership Council spent a week at sea and along the shores
of Baja California learning, discussing and designing their outreach strategy with Program
Directors Dr. J Nichols and Tim Dykman. Conservation writer and MacArthur award winner Dr. Carl Safina and photographer and artist Jon Snow advised
the group on ways to get their findings and observations on film and into written form. They snorkeled in Mexicos premier National Marine Park in
Loreto and got up close and personal with blue and gray whales, manta rays and sea lions. They gave a ?community report? at an international
grassroots Sea Turtle Conservation forum sponsored by Groupo Torteguero and ProPenninsula to learn first hand from conservationists and fishermen what
it takes to create social change.
?Expeditions into these wild ocean places will change these students in ways that the class room never will?, says Zach Rabinor, President of Journey
Mexico, an adventure and ecotourism company that guided the group on a whale watching trip. ?These experiences help kids see amazing places and
animals and learn why we must work to protect them.?
?The best way to reach young people with a sea ethic message is peer to peer, thats what Ocean Revolution is all about,? says Nichols.
The group will launch its ambitious interactive website, http://www.oceanrevolution.org/ on June 18 th 2005 in Santa Cruz, California at an Ocean Revolution Benefit Concert.
Council member and high school sophomore Ian Simon explains that the website will ?be like Friendster for the ocean, a high-tech place for budding
conservationists to find each other and share their passion and knowledge.?
?We have a network of mentors we can use to connect our kids to experiences they couldnt get anywhere else. It doesnt matter if they want to be
biologists, artists, lawyers or Shamen. If theyre interested in the health of our oceans and in working on conservation problems we can hook them up
with somebody whos an expert. This is a movement more than an organization and all Ocean Conservation groups will see our kids working on their
projects eventually? says Tim Dykman the groups Atlantic Region Director.
Since their first meeting in Loreto, the Leadership Council has sold over 20,000 Ocean Revolution wristbands, an idea hatched by New York City Ocean
Revolution Leadership Council member Pia Freedman.
Three of the Council members participated in ?Women in Science? sponsored by the California Academy of Science on May 16, 2005. Ocean Revolutionary
Amanda Farr of Santa Cruz, California, was interviewed on Morning Edition on National Public Radio:
?Biology is what really fascinates me so I was completely enthralled. I don't know a whole lot about these topics, but now I'm hooked. It was like
being played the first 20 seconds of your favorite song; you have to hear the rest or you won't be able to get it out of your head.?
On June 18 th , Amanda and fellow Revolutionaries Roxie Dickinson and JoAnna Rickard will receive an achievement award from Congressman Sam Farr,
author of the Oceans 20 Act passed by Congress and signed into law in 2000 and the Oceans 21 Act. Congressman Farr is a League of Conservation Voters
?Environmental Hero.?ഊOcean Revolution announced yesterday that Tohanash Tarrant, blood member of the Shinnec-ck Nation in Southampton, New
York, has been awarded the first annual Native Oceans Initiative Award to jump start her program to insure coastal indigenous peoples cultural and
environmental survival. She will initiate an exchange program between teenagers of the Shinnec-ck Nation and the Miskito of Nicaragua.
The second annual meeting of the Ocean Revolutionary Youth Leadership Council will take place in Loreto in January, 2006 and will include indigenous
youth from Baja, Nicaragua, Belize and the United States.
Quotes from Ocean Revolutionary Council Members:
?Were going to grow a creative network of young people and mentors who are intrigued by ocean conservation. This network will reach not only
conservationists, but those who are new to conservation, by helping them find their own connection to the ocean, alerting them to the danger our
oceans face, and sharing practical solutions. One part of this OR network is the interactive website being launched this summer. It will be a means of
connecting ocean advocates and also be an easy way for someone to look up ocean related activities in their area. The online network has been
described as "Friendster for the Ocean," because of the online ocean oriented community it will create,? writes Ian Simon, Santa Monica high school
sophomore and Ocean Revolution Youth Leadership Council member.
?Even in the Rocky Mountains, we are connected to the ocean through what we eat and where our water ends up. We all have to work together to save the
oceans,? sophomore Emily Munday of Butte, Montana explains.
Antonia Sohns, a junior at the Hackley School in New York, says that she has a soft spot for sharks. ?I can not just stand by and watch these
populations continue to decrease annually, I want to motivate Americas youth to become active and participate in the greatest revolution of our time!?
Oswaldo Martinez-Perez, a junior from Bahia Magdalena, Mexico, hopes to help ?create a habit of conscience, for the protection and exploitation of
natural resources, in each human being that lives on this planet. So that youth can evolve?
?I grew up with the ocean as my backyard, and Ive seen it at its best,? says Natalie Arnoldi, a student at Crossroads School in Santa Monica,
California, and avid surfer. ?I want to make things even better?.
Please contact us for more information, high quality photographs, copys of the statements to be delivered by Tohanash Tarrant, Antonia Sohns and
Amanda Farr or to arrange interviews with Ocean Revolution Council members.
OCEAN REVOLUTION is an international program designed to grow a creative network and inspire a new wave of young leaders, united in their quest for
innovative solutions to protect our oceans.
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
– Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
We know we must go back if we live, and we don`t know why.
– John Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
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BajaNomad
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Registered: 8-1-2002
Location: San Diego, CA
Member Is Offline
Mood: INTP-A
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Release: A Revolution for the Ocean
World Oceans Day
8 June 2005
Our lives are a gift from the ocean. The air in our lungs, the water
we drink, our climate and our food supply are all signature gifts of a
blue planet. The ocean is what makes this world a shelter for us; we
owe much less to the scattering of dry land we tend to think of as the
earth. Our base survival and our greatest dreams all thrive on a
generous brew of salt water.
In a year when the ocean was best known for her fury, it?s at our own
risk that we take her considerable gifts for granted.
Notwithstanding the enormous human tragedy on the shores of the Indian
Ocean, our oceans have also suffered great loss. In the past year
we?ve dumped millions of tons of waste into the ocean, hunted some 100
million tons of fish and decimated nearly 30 million tons of ocean
wildlife?animals like sharks, sea turtles, albatrosses and dolphins as
well as the fish and small creatures no one wants to eat, just yet.
These animals we coolly refer to as ?incidental catch?.
Yet the ocean remains stunningly beautiful, always taking what we
throw in and giving up what we take.
Climate experts tell us that this century the oceans will warm another
degree and sea level will raise another foot. This is enough to
disrupt deep ocean circulation, melt more of our precious icecaps and
further stress out animals as small as snails and as large as polar
bears. Now we know that canned tuna contains enough mercury to poison
unborn children and wreck their nervous systems. At sea,
oceanographers find six micro-bits of plastic for each bit of
plankton. Plastic dissolves and sends hormone-disrupting chemicals up
the food chain and into human mothers? milk.
Yet the ocean appears calm, always working to restore clean air and
fresh water, while presenting us with a banquet of food, as we sail
the winds across her back.
We?ve read about the troubles facing the environmental movement. Of
course we can all agree that our planet?s life systems face serious
challenges.
Rather than hand-wringing despair, we see hope for the earth and her
life-blood oceans on the near horizon. The coming decade, we predict,
will stand out as a golden era for nature, progress in conservation
and the culture of sustainability?an ocean revolution. Here?s why.
Our generation, those entering and exiting the universities, will soon
be a leading force in politics, science, and media. We are the first
generation raised on a culture of interconnectedness, collaboration
and sharing. We are the iPod generation. We understand networks?not
just television networks?but the kind that connect all life on our
planet. We understand that the Internet is a metaphor for the web of
life and that what happens in one place can and will affect every
other place. We have replaced the top-down hierarchical mindset with
a resilient, decentralized horizontal web-work mentality. In essence,
our culture of thought has become more oceanic.
We also have breakthrough information?deep knowledge about life on
earth and in the ocean. Through a combination of space-based and
molecular technologies and interdisciplinary research our
understanding of the oceans has profoundly deepened. We now know of
animals that regularly migrate 12,000 km between Japan and California
and deep-sea species that live without light and oxygen. From space
we can measure ocean temperature in any location at any moment, and we
can combine and analyze this knowledge using superfast computers.
It?s not your high school biology teacher?s ocean any more. Further,
we have such new insights into our own nature, sociality, emotions,
minds and core drives that exciting new academic fields?evolutionary
neurobiology, applied ecopsychology, psychoeconomics, social
marketing, network theory?are being created faster than the ink in the
course catalogs takes to dry.
Lastly, we are a generation that knows how to communicate with a
purpose. A summary of scientific papers published in the journal
Science today can be read around the world in 20 languages tomorrow.
Our generation is not afraid to share and we?re mystified by those who
don?t. Kids no longer have to wait for Jacques Cousteau to make
another documentary; the air waves are full of ocean wonders. Thanks
to Pixar and Finding Nemo, children of the world have
developed a sense of planet-connecting sea turtle migrations, not to
mention their f?ted charisma. And there are thousands of ocean camps,
marine labs, aquariums and nature centers with open doors and expert
educators working hard every day of the year to promote learning and
inspire social change. We are coming to understand that the bumper
stickers are right: ?Life?s a Beach?? wherever you live.
We are using this combination of networks, knowledge and communication
to address the problems facing our generation, including the trials of
ocean conservation. Rigorously applied, this synthesis will usher in a
sustainable generation that understands our vital dependence on nature
and connection with each other, seeks to further scientific
understanding and solve the mysteries of life, and shares solutions
widely and wildly with our voices, our passion, our art and our
writing? wielding new and traditional media for social change. We
stand up to those who claim that our movement is anything but
creative, growing and thriving. And we reject the narrow-minded,
shortsighted and outdated model that has justified the destruction of
our oceans.
Today is World Ocean?s Day and we are launching the Ocean Revolution,
a new wave of ocean advocacy, personal responsibility and local
action, in the spirit of a great leader and man of the sea who said:
??there are some revolutions which humanity accomplishes without quite
knowing how, because it is everybody who takes them in hand? (John F.
Kennedy). In the coming months thousands of people who care deeply
about the fate of the oceans will join together to more effectively
work to transform our relationship with the sea. Each in our own way
and as part of the connected whole.
Join us. For yourself, for each other and for the ocean.
http://www.oceanrevolution.org
Dr. Wallace J. Nichols is a scientist, educator, ocean
activist and author. He is currently Director, Pacific Ocean Region,
at the Blue Ocean Institute and a Research Associate at the California
Academy of Sciences. His extensive research and activities in ocean
conservation, animal migration and sea turtle biology have been
published in numerous books and research articles as well as in
magazines such as National Geographic, National Wildlife, Newsweek,
and Scientific American. Nichols is the author of the bilingual
children?s book Chelonia: Return of the Sea Turtle, and works with
numerous programs to share a hopeful message about environmental
protection with young people around the world. He recently trekked the
1,200-mile California Coastal Trail from Oregon to Mexico to celebrate
and promote protection of our remaining coastal wildlands. He and his
family live in Davenport, California.
When I was young, I admired clever people. Now that I am old, I admire kind people.
– Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel
We know we must go back if we live, and we don`t know why.
– John Steinbeck, Log from the Sea of Cortez
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Affordable Domain Name Registration/Management & cPanel Web Hosting - since 1999 |
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