World Ocean Radio

Eudaemonism: What does it mean? What does it have to do with happiness? And what is its context for the ocean? Tune in to find out.  About World Ocean Radio World Ocean Radio is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio stations worldwide. Weekly insights into ocean science, advocacy, education, global ocean issues, challenge...

What are the five key reasons for ocean conservation? What are the five areas where progress matters most? With the world in an off-axis state of turmoil, W2O founder Peter Neill is taking stock this week, asking the questions and distilling the essential reasons why the ocean is central to human survival. About World Ocean Radio World Ocean Radio is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays ava...

This week on World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill shares views and observations of the town of Isafjordur, Iceland, and the values it possesses that give the area its unique identity.   About World Ocean Radio World Ocean Radio is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio stations worldwide. Peter Neill, Director of the World...

KNOT: a word with many definitions: from a tight constriction to something hard to solve; a cluster of persons or things; an ornamental ribbon; a closed curve in three dimensional space. And of course, the word comes back to the ocean: is not the ocean a dynamic of knots: entangled and integral, inter-placed with ornamental flexible bodies, comprised of the ties that bind.  About World Ocean Radio...

At the Fishhouses , is among our favorite poems here at World Ocean Observatory. In its richly-detailed mastery, it distills poet Elizabeth Bishop’s seaside meditations, evokes the clarity of meaning contained in personal encounters at the shore and with the ocean, and holds the reader and the listener in the space that lies between land and sea, a site of transience, mystery, and the sublime.  Wo...

Each 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, first-hand knowledge of extreme weather, storms and nor'westers. Christmas at Sea An evocative seasonal poem by Robert Louis Stevenson published in 1888, five years aft...

This week we're providing our listeners with a list of intentions that describe the World Ocean Observatory's statement of beliefs that drives all action. And we provide suggestions for those who may ask, "What can I do?" while encouraging determination to pursue the causes that you believe in. This week's episode is a statement of belief and intent that dates back to the...

The debate over the reality of climate change is over. There is no place on land or sea that is immune from the effects of extreme weather, fire, flood, inundation, erosion, and social impacts. This week we're discussing carbon as the key culprit to our current condition, and the multitudinous methods and suggestions and investments to remove carbon from the atmosphere and the ocean. Is it po...

The face of war is changing quickly: cheap, unmanned, versatile drones and remotely operated aircraft, coupled with rapidly-advancing technology, ambiguous algorithms, accountability, and responsibility are shifting the shapes of war around the globe, especially as it pertains to the unseen and largely unmonitored high seas. With a world struggling to keep up, the instruments of war are becoming i...

This week on World Ocean Radio we are examining Renewell, a company that has developed a method to repurpose abandoned oil wells across the United States into displacement reserves, effectively capping the more than 2 million abandoned, methane-leaking oil wells and converting them into renewable storage and renewed financial return.  World Ocean Radio: 5-minute weekly insights in ocean science, a...

This week on World Ocean Radio, two new books for readers to consider this fall: "The High Seas: Greed, Power, and The Battle for the Unclaimed Ocean" by Olive Heffernan, and "What the Wild Sea Can Be: The Future of the World Ocean" by Helen Scales. Both books evoke hopeful possibility while exploring the extent of the ocean and the implications of ongoing exploitation and exce...

Insurance is everywhere, established to transfer risk or to compensate for loss. Deep-sea mining has attracted much attention lately, as we look to offshore exploration and extraction for energy and mineral resources. As the UN International Seabed Authority deliberates standards and regulations related to drilling into the ocean floor, insurers of deep-sea risk are calculating potential loss as p...

The maritime industry is a major contributor to our global systems: our economies, security, and stability. More than 80% of all international trade and transport moves across the ocean: shipbuilding, port operations, shipping, cruise lines, offshore energy, pipelines, salvage, communications, cables, insurance, ferries, exploration and science. This week we are discussing a 2023 United Nations re...

As we discuss resiliency, adaptation, and mitigation of climate and ocean, we must also invent--not to merely rearrange the elements of an old plan, but to imaging and consider some things new and different. If the ocean movement is to embrace the change required to respond to challenges worldwide, we must imaging new ways forward, confident in our abilities to solve problems through imagination,...

It has been nearly twenty years since the Ocean Literacy Principles and Framework were first adopted by classroom educators to promote the ocean as a central focus for climate, water, food, health, exploration, science, and more. Today it has been incorporated into the agenda of the UN IOC; it seems Ocean Literacy is riding a new wave of interest and possibility. This week on World Ocean Radio we...

Eustacy is a word used to describe worldwide changes of sea level. This is a new word for us: even though it seems we live in a eustatic world. We're using this newly-discovered word to distill the five areas of our existence where the ocean matters most: fresh water, the ocean-fresh water continuum, energy, food, health, and exchange.  About World Ocean Radio World Ocean Radio is a weekly se...

This week on World Ocean Radio: synopsis of a recent report by the UN Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission entitled "Call to All Voices of the Ocean – Consultation of Civil Society in Preparation of the Next United Nations Ocean Conference" addressing issues and providing recommendations and specific actions related to ocean climate, science, and policy. One glaring omission: a pow...

In this episode of World Ocean Radio we take listeners to the shore, to be reminded of the importance of silence, solitude and renewal in our lives, and of the healing power of the ocean--or water in any form--that is there for us, if and when we choose to stop and listen.  World Ocean Radio offers five-minute weekly insights into ocean science, advocacy and education, hosted by Peter Neill, Direc...

This week we are discussing two technological innovations—both bright ideas that could have huge impacts for useful, sustainable change for the future. The first is WaterCube, a machine that pulls vapor from the air and condenses it into liquid form for household use and disaster relief; the second is Sway, a farmed seaweed application designed to create a compostable packaging that is biodegradab...

As we review the state of climate change challenge and response, it becomes clear we are not succeeding. Is it possible to craft a new economic system that values natural resource sustainability over depletion of those resources? Can we conceive a new economics, a forward-directed system of financial valuation and exchange based on the asset value of Nature? We're discussing this and more thi...

Plastic. It is ubiquitous. It is everywhere in our lives, yet we do not possess the cycle or recycle to continue production in a sustainable or environmentally friendly way. If offsets and recycling do not provide the answer, what does?  About World Ocean Radio World Ocean Radio is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio st...

How old is water? Where on earth is water found? How is it circulated, cycled, and recycled? We know where water is distributed on the planet down to the fraction of a percentage. We know that water is finite in volume and its utility is constant. What happens when we pollute water? What happens when there is no water? We discuss this and more this week on World Ocean Radio.  About World Ocean Rad...

World Ocean Observatory is ever in search of new systems that convert knowledge into action, especially as they relate to ocean education and communication. Here on World Ocean Radio we often discuss the concepts and principles of ocean literacy, and the ways in which they can be distilled into learning opportunities for educators and students everywhere. We are pleased to report a prospective tur...

World Ocean Radio: 5-minute weekly insights in ocean science, advocacy, education, global ocean issues, marine science, policy, challenges, and solutions. Hosted by Peter Neill, Founder of W2O. Learn more at worldoceanobservatory.org

"The state of the ocean is not good." So states Vidar Helgesen in the forward to the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) State of the Ocean Report that was released in May. This week on World Ocean Radio we are summarizing the findings.  About World Ocean Radio World Ocean Radio is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by...