Without mitigation of consumption and illegal fishing, we face a global crisis of protein supply to feed a growing world population. Over the next few editions of World Ocean Radio we will explore disruptive technologies for aquaculture, specific initiatives and novel technologies and other advancements to improve efficiency and safety of aquaculture as a positive contribution to out future food supply and global health. 

About World Ocean Radio
Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory and host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio stations worldwide.

World Ocean Radio is produced in association with WERU-FM in Blue Hill, Maine and is distributed by the Public Radio Exchange and the Pacifica Network.

Sea level rise and coastal inundation are changing the agricultural landscape around the world. Fortunately, saltwater irrigation has been studied for decades, and experiments have succeeded while research and experiments have grown and demonstrated the viability of some plants such as halophytes that have the potential to change our conventional food landscape. In this episode we explore questions related to saltwater irrigation such as: what type of new crops can be developed for sustainable harvest, and what techniques can be invented to succeed without additional environmental damage?

According to the US Geological Survey, 70% of the available freshwater worldwide is used for irrigation. Industrial agriculture and modern irrigation practices have today brought us to a global water crisis. This week we're discussing what has been called the “irrigation efficiency paradox,” when farmers use more water, even as they are becoming more efficient in their irrigation practices. What will happen when the water cycle fails because we won’t change our water wasting ways? 

Intense weather events are calling attention to not just local but worldwide water crises caused by climate. Coastal inundation, community disruption, dislocation and recovery are problems that we seem increasingly unable to withstand. This week on World Ocean Radio: the Danish Hydraulic Institute and their experiments with the concept of "sponge cities", a revolutionary planning tool to integrate urban design with water management strategies such as ground conditions, road and construction patterns and more, to create responses to rapidly changing coastal conditions.

Visualization is a powerful tool for understanding beyond data, opening our minds and enabling transformative change through a new way of seeing. This week we're discussing the Spilhaus World Ocean Map, a projection of earth centered on Antarctica that makes the ocean the focus of an astonishing worldview, pushing the land to the outer edges of the square and re-organizing our global geography around the true natural systems of the world ocean.

This week on World Ocean Radio we are discussing hydrology, the "hydrospatial" perspective, and the importance of multi-dimensional analyses and visualizations for planning and decision-making that break down the artificial disciplinary boundaries of science to allow for comprehensive inclusion of multiple perspectives and better understanding of complex ocean systems for international goals and objectives. 

This week on World Ocean Radio we're looking to the night sky, to ponder the wonder contained therein, and to explore the danger of polluting it forever in the name of modern navigation and instant communications worldwide.

About World Ocean Radio
Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory and host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio stations worldwide.

• This week on World Ocean Radio we reflect on "blue" and the profound stages of meaning beyond the color of the sea and sky to encompass depth, stability, wisdom, faith, truth, redemption, and the natural world. 

About World Ocean Radio
Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory and host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio stations worldwide.

Four Essential Steps toward a Responsible U.S. Ocean Policy 

International agreements are essential if we are to sustain natural resources as natural capital for our future. In this episode of World Ocean Radio we outline four major environmental treaties the United States never ratified—but should.

This week on World Ocean Radio: an idea to confront the big polluters of the fossil fuel industry for their indifference to redress, by attaching reparations for the exploitation of natural resources over time, thereby providing incentives for new, non-polluting technologies of energy generation, storage and distribution toward a more sustainable future for our climate and ourselves.

This week on World Ocean Radio we are discussing the challenges of excess carbon dioxide in the air and some of the engineered solutions now being employed to sequester carbon from the ocean and transform it into a solid. 

The "BLUEprint Series: How the Ocean Will Save Civilization" outlines a new and sustainable path forward, with the ocean leading the way. 

About World Ocean Radio
Since 2009, a weekly 5-minute podcast covering a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio stations worldwide. Contact director@thew2o.net if you are interested in becoming an affiliate or know of a radio station that should be broadcasting these episodes each week.

To execute transformative response to the challenges of the 21st century we will need a new style of leadership action: from governance and corporate consciousness to manufacturing, engineering and design, from research to education to new moral standards at all levels of society. What are the change agents that will allow us to realize change? What are the financial tools that will include equity and justice? This week on World Ocean Radio, part 44 of the BLUEprint Series, we discuss macro-ethics and leadership in the fields of engineering and the planning, design and construction of sustainable, socially responsible, environmentally sound and politically fair systems of development.

The "BLUEprint Series: How the Ocean Will Save Civilization" outlines a new and sustainable path forward, with the ocean leading the way. 

This week on World Ocean Radio: part 43 of the BLUEprint Series outlining a new and sustainable path forward with the ocean leading the way. In this episode we introduce listeners to The Transition Network, outlining some of the 1,150 global initiatives that reflect the principles and practical actions of community, sustainability, resilience, justice and change. 

Since the origins of planet earth, through the foundation of civilization, to the exhausted land we live in today, we are faced with a Third Nature. If we can abandon the old paradigms, we can make the shift toward water--our watersheds, rivers, lakes and primarily coasts and ocean--the places we will turn for our energy, our fresh water, our food and all of the things that contribute to our sustainability and survival. 

The "BLUEprint Series: How the Ocean Will Save Civilization" outlines a new and sustainable path forward, with the ocean leading the way. 

About World Ocean Radio
Since 2009, a weekly 5-minute podcast covering a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio stations worldwide. Contact director@thew2o.net if you are interested in becoming an affiliate or know of a radio station that should be broadcasting these episodes each week.

How can ecological resistance be sustained? This week on World Ocean Radio, part 40 of the BLUEprint Series, we outline various tools to confront the challenge of stressed ocean systems: coastal zone management, pollution reduction, marine spatial planning, and other active restoration programs that may serve to diminish the negative decline and define a new, sustainable way forward. 

The "BLUEprint Series: How the Ocean Will Save Civilization" outlines a new and sustainable path forward, with the ocean leading the way. 

The Blue Economy is providing new investment in ocean resources. How might individual investors do blue economy investing the right way, and which investments meet the criteria for true blue investing? This week on World Ocean Radio, part 40 of the BLUEprint Series, host Peter Neill dives into the true meaning of the often over-used "blue economy" terminology and describes his recent discovery of a strategic initiatives portfolio conceived by JPI Oceans in Europe that strives to increase the impact of national investments in marine and maritime research and innovation. And he shares the values, goals and objectives that propose a structure around which specific investments could be made to achieve social and monetary return while achieving a commitment to sustainability and the ocean.  

In this episode, part thirty-nine of the multi-part BLUEprint series, we follow up on last weeks' examination of China's response to the climate crisis and ask readers to consider whether a democracy as vocal and divided as the United States can make meaningful change. We discuss bottom-up solutions beginning at the local level, where real transformative action and societal regeneration toward sustainability begins. 

In this episode, part thirty-eight of the multi-part BLUEprint series, we examine some statistics that show steps China is taking to confront the climate crisis—one of the only nations in the world whose government has recognized the realities of climate change and all of its manifestations as measured by environmental degradation, the corruption of land and water, and the inevitable decline in economy and community, and the steps the nation has taken to develop policy, incentive, and frameworks toward ecosystem health and sustainability.

The "BLUEprint Series: How the Ocean Will Save Civilization" outlines a new and sustainable path forward, with the ocean leading the way. 

In this episode, part thirty-seven of the multi-part BLUEprint series, we continue to discuss the take-aways from the recently published 2nd United Nations World Ocean Assessment, a report that looks at the social, environmental, demographic and economic trends, as well as a review of the integrated sustainable management of coasts and oceans as driven by science, technology and innovation. In this episode we look at the report through the lens of ecosystem service analysis, the ways in which we view and value Nature, and some examples of projects globally that are based ecosystem service accounting that are preserving places and biodiversity.

In this episode, part thirty-six of the multi-part BLUEprint series, we outline the key state of the ocean and ocean science take-aways from the recently published 2nd United Nations World Ocean Assessment, a report that looks at the social, environmental, demographic and economic trends, as well as a review of the integrated sustainable management of coasts and oceans as driven by science, technology and innovation. Additionally, we give credit to the Ocean Health Index, another important metric for providing baseline measurements and updates toward ocean sustainability year by year.

This week on World Ocean Radio: part thirty-five of the multi-part BLUEprint series. This week, as part of our focus on new approaches and ideas to simplify our strategies for living sustainably on earth, we are continuing our discussion of the ocean genome with an outline of the global protections required if we are to equitably protect natural resources derived from the ocean.

The "BLUEprint Series: How the Ocean Will Save Civilization" outlines a new and sustainable path forward, with the ocean leading the way. 

This week on World Ocean Radio: part thirty-four of the multi-part BLUEprint series. This week, as part of our focus on new approaches and ideas to simplify our strategies for living sustainably on earth, we are continuing our discussion of the ocean genome as well as the commercial interests, applications and marine drug and health discoveries made and yet to be discovered. We also warn that marine protected areas remain vulnerable to limited enforcement and over-exploitation of their natural resources. 

The "BLUEprint Series: How the Ocean Will Save Civilization" outlines a new and sustainable path forward, with the ocean leading the way. 

This week on World Ocean Radio: part thirty-three of the multi-part BLUEprint series. This week, as part of our focus on new approaches and ideas to simplify our strategies for living sustainably on earth, we discuss RNA, DNA, the concept of the genome as an encyclopedic catalog for Nature as a way to provide guidance and explanations for how life works, and the various implications of eDNA on the ocean.

This week on World Ocean Radio: part thirty-two of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In the next few weeks we'll introduce new approaches that have the potential to bring order to the chaos around us: ideas to simplify our strategies for living on earth, fresh approaches, new technologies, novel ideas and examples of ingenuity and invention.

The "BLUEprint Series: How the Ocean Will Save Civilization" outlines a new and sustainable path forward, with the ocean leading the way. 

Established in 2009, World Ocean Radio is a weekly 5-minute podcast covering a broad spectrum of ocean issues from science and education to advocacy and exemplary projects. World Ocean Radio, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, is available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio stations worldwide. Contact director@thew2o.net if you are interested in becoming an affiliate or know of a radio station that should be broadcasting these episodes each week.

This week on World Ocean Radio we broadcast the 31st part of the ongoing BLUEprint series. In this episode we discuss the Blue Economy and the "business as usual" operations of The Ocean 100--the largest trans-national companies that account for the most profits from the ocean while also generating the most emissions, waste and other pollutants to the ocean. We describe what is known as the Blue Acceleration and argue that current economic activity is not meeting the requirements for economic growth and improved livelihoods while simultaneously preserving the health of the ocean ecosystem, and that these Ocean 100 companies could be a force for change of the Blue Economy with help from public awareness and consumer pressure.

The "BLUEprint Series: How the Ocean Will Save Civilization" outlines a new and sustainable path forward, with the ocean leading the way. 

This week on World Ocean Radio: part thirty of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we ask, "What is the natural capital value of our human connection to the Ocean?" and we provide ten declarations concluding that the ocean is the essential place for us to imagine, implement and design a sustainable future for humankind.

This week on World Ocean Radio: part twenty-nine of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we discuss the March 2021 release by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs announcing a new statistical framework entitled the "System of Environmental/Economic Accounting" (SEEA EA) which would ensure that natural capital (the contributions of forests, oceans, and other ecosystems) are integrated into economic reporting. This move may reshape decision and policy-making towards sustainable development: natural capital calculated as equal to financial capital, as a mandatory inclusion in the budgets and estimates for all new development projects and corporate initiatives. 

This week on World Ocean Radio: part twenty-eight of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we talk about batteries, increasingly in demand as we push toward a carbon-neutral future. There is a quandary built into this solution: the extraction of rare metals, the push for mining permits on land and sea, the waste and by-product, the emissions, and the collateral damage to the environment is all reminiscent of the fossil fuel paradigm. Is this old strategy, dressed in new clothing, a mistake?

This week on World Ocean Radio: part twenty-seven of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we talk about a carbon-free future: one that requires batteries that currently rely on rare metals such as nickel, copper, cobalt and molybdenum being extracted from the sea floor in the central Pacific Clarion Clipperton Fracture Zone, threatening biodiversity and the nearby Pacific small island states. Will the short-term financial profit over the long-term social and ecosystem loss be worth the trade off? 

This week on World Ocean Radio: part twenty-six of the multi-part BLUEprint series. In this episode we introduce listeners to Molly Burhans, a young activist and founder of GoodLands, who is using geographic information systems (GIS) to map the worldwide holdings of the Catholic Church as an inventory of ownership and potential investment for society, health, security and ecological justice. Burhans and her group are mapping archived Vatican holdings that have never been recorded using GIS software--a revolutionary step toward committing them to ecological planning, environmental protection, climate mitigation, sustainability of natural resources, and a potential contribution to a global renaissance. less