Is education the key to saving our oceans? - Mission Blue

July 2, 2014

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by Olivia and Carter Ries 

There’s nothing quite as inspiring as young people with a mission, and Olivia and Carter are always in motion – fighting the good fight. So listen up, these kids have some things they want us to know.

First, we’ll hear Olivia’s reflections after having attended John Kerry’s historic ‘Our Ocean 2014’ Conference this month.

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As we attended the ‘Our Oceans’ conference at the State Department recently, it became apparent that there are a whole lot of people and countries who care for the future of our oceans.  We heard experts from around the globe way-in on such issues as Ocean Acidification, Overfishing/Illegal Fishing and even about the issue of Marine Debris and Plastic Pollution. 

We were all so excited to see the level of participation from so many countries and the sincere compassion participants demonstrated as they mapped out their plans to help our oceans.  It was especially encouraging to hear how much support both financially and legislatively most participants were prepared to offer as they learned about the perils facing our oceans globally.

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We heard pledges being made designed to protect even larger areas around various land masses and we were especially moved by the actor Leonardo DiCaprio as he committed an additional 7-million dollars to help create marine sanctuaries.  But the one thing we did not hear… from anyone, was the word ‘Education‘.  As future leaders of the next generation, we feel that everyone is missing a key component to the solution and that is teaching kids (our generation) about ways they too can get involved.  We know first hand that if you teach kids about the issue, they are all too eager to want to be part of the solution.

And now, Carter’s thoughts on the matter:

It is fine to create a marine sanctuary and to seek out solutions which will ensure we are producing less carbon and creating larger no-fishing zones to allow species the opportunity to restore themselves to safe levels, or to seek ways we can work with manufacturers to ensure that they are producing less plastics etc.  But, unless you incorporate some sort of global education program designed to reach the next generation of leaders and teach them at an early age and show them how they too can be the solution to the issue of plastic pollution, what have we accomplished?  

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Plastic pollution will continue to find its way into our ocean and eventually into the marine sanctuaries being created.  We are producing more plastic waste than can ever be recycled.  Most people here in the US and in most countries don’t even understand how a recycling system works.  Most people think that just because they are sending all their plastic trash to a recycle center, they are doing their part to make a difference but the reality is that they are not.

My sister and I travel around the country and have even gone abroad visiting recycle centers and teaching kids about what we call “Precycling” and how that actually is even more important than recycling.  What we would like to see is that the US and other countries take a serious look at providing an educational component to their ocean strategy.   

We have already created a curriculum (Plastic and Recycling Awareness Curriculum) which was written to match the latest National Standards for science and we have even infused math, literacy and art throughout the program.  We learned about the issue of plastic pollution while helping with the animal rescue efforts during the BP Gulf oil spill and we know first hand that if you give students the education they need on the issue, we can and will find the solution.

HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco with Olivia & Carter

In closing, we wish to thank everyone for making our participation such a memorable experience and we sincerely hope to have the opportunity to work with you and your staff on ways education can be made part of the master plan.  Remember, “Anybody can make a difference… if we can, you can too.”

Carter and Olivia Ries – Founders of One More Generation

 

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3 thoughts on “Is education the key to saving our oceans?

  1. There is much to think concerning! Mankind must stop its unhelpful action on the globe, for the reason that soon it might be past the point of no return. remarkable read, idealistic site, where did u think of the all together on this redistribution? I have comprehend composing a couple of the articles on your site at the present, and I really like your style. You\’re the best and fulfill keep up the fruitful work.

  2. Most people think that just because they are sending all their plastic trash to a recycle center, they are doing their part to make a difference but the reality is that they are not.

  3. Re: “Live-as-a-part-of-Nature” http://www.abccommunity.org/ABC_model_driven_by_SOURCE.html

    1) info-mural – “Pathways to a Sustainable 2050” http://zoom.it/foTF (The yellow boxes designate the Must Haves – “required to be on track for a sustainable 2050.” See Slide Deck http://www.stanford.edu/~rhorn/e/bfngWBCSD-MAHB.pps)

    2) Elon Musk – outlining the five technologies and innovations that will radically change human life in the coming decade. http://ultraculture.org/blog/2014/01/31/elon-musk-5-innovations/

    KUDOS to Olivia and Carter Reis – founders of One More Generation!

    I agree, as above so below, the U.S.A. and other countries need to take a serious look at providing an educational component to their ocean strategy! Otherwise, it’s truly:

    ‘A Tragedy of the Commons’ – like the frogs in the hot water parable.

    Instead, we need multi and cross-disciplinary Citizen Science Collaboration and Smartphone Situational Awareness Sensor Networks along with an awe-inspiring Human Engagement Interface (HEI) inspired by SolarCity.com, TeslaMotors.com, SpaceX.com, Calera.com, DeepWaterDesal.com, CatlinSeaviewSurvey.com, and GlobalReefRecord.org time-lapses in order to become more involved in reducing fossil fuel CO2 emissions

    Besides, by strategically generating electric power using Solar Photovoltaic (PV) technology because it doesn’t require any cooling water for steam-condensing turbine cycle, it also strategically conserves freshwater for offsetting risks of foreseeable mega-droughts.

    As a consequence of foreseeable mega-droughts, businesses and governments must tackle energy and water use in tandem or risk major disruption because the world energy demand will grow by as much as 30% by 2035, but that water consumption for energy generation and production will increase by 85%. http://www.pennenergy.com/articles/pennenergy/2014/04/energy-news-reducing-energy-s-water-footprint.html

    Accordingly, SolarCity was founded to accelerate mass adoption of sustainable energy. The sun, that highly convenient and free fusion reactor in the sky, radiates more energy to the Earth in a few hours than the entire human population consumes from all sources in a year. This means that solar panels, paired with batteries to enable power at night, can produce several orders of magnitude more electricity than is consumed by the entirety of human civilization. A cogent assessment of sustainable energy potential from various sources is described well in this SANDIA paper: http://www.sandia.gov/~jytsao/Solar%20FAQs.pdf

    Likewise, imagine solar-PV farms providing power to an oceanographic solution to produce freshwater like DeepWaterDesal.com (300 ft.) Seawater RO Desalination plant which also cools (49 MGD) a co-located internet Data Server Center, including a new Calera.com plant producing Green Cement for a Blue Planet – through applied biomimicry learned from Coral & Sea Shells converting CO2 and seawater into Ceramic Cement Products (5:44 min.) http://youtu.be/6UQWJn1rlgY
    Also, solar based Puralytics photocatalytics
    http://www.puralytics.com/html/puralyticProcess.php, including Bill Gates and Caltech Self-Contained, PV-Powered Domestic Toilet & Wastewater Treatment System https://tune.pk/video/2123942/Self-Contained-PV-Powered-Domestic-Toilet-amp-Wastewater-Treatment-System for breaking down and treatment of emerging water contaminates like Pharmaceuticals, Personal Care Products (PPCPs), Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs) and emerging contaminates http://toxics.usgs.gov/regional/emc/index.html flushed down the drain and bioaccumulating in our fresh water and coastal ecosystems or we as a democracy will be cooked. http://www.epa.gov/ppcp/pdf/drawing.pdf

    Cooked as in:

    (A) Effects of Human and Wildlife Exposure to Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals –
    United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) landmark report
    http://www.unep.org/pdf/EDCs_Summary_for_DMs%20_Jan24.pdf

    (B) Tracing the plastic signature in the biosphere and how pervasive plastics invade our food chain http://www.ansto.gov.au/Resources/TEDxSydney/NewsAndVideos/index.htm

    (C) The Reverse Evolution of the World’s Oceans and The Consequences of Oceanic Destruction http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/140164/alan-b-sielen/the-devolution-of-the-seas
    Failure to reverse the decline, including our ocean’s ecosystems would be an “unforgivable betrayal of current and future generations” especially Hawai’i and the U.S.affiliated Pacific Islands.” http://nca2014.globalchange.gov/report/regions/hawaii-and-pacific-islands
    Google Earth Tour of Reefs at Risk (13:08 min.) http://youtu.be/Tb8NiX0aCAA

    But there is hope: Nov. 26, 2013 – Pollution Impact On Coral Reefs Leading to Coral Disease And Bleaching Can Be Reversed In a Year http://oregonstate.edu/microbiology/vegathurberlab/feature-stories/eutrophication-increases-coral-disease-lab-paper-news

    Watch the lab’s work on coral viruses was recently featured on NSF’s Science Nation http://oregonstate.edu/microbiology/vegathurberlab/feature-stories/science-nation
    –John Deneen http://about.me/JohnJ.Deneen

    (A) What is the future saying to me?

    Ans. – Protect the earth.

    (B) With that in mind, who am I to become?

    Ans. – Harmonious part of the ‘World system’ including Nature.

    (C) What is now my purpose in life?

    Ans. – Establish the unity of the world including Nature through interaction and collaboration that become increasingly distributed, networked, cross-functional, cross-disciplinary, cross-organizational, cross-cultural, interdependent, complex, and urgent on a global scale. This harmonious attitude of people will connect our daily activities to the future of ours.

    MEGA-DROUGHT CYCLE INSPIRATIONS:

    Mar. 26, 2011 – Watch how Fallen Leaf Lake reveals a Prehistoric 200 yr. Mega-drought Cycle in the Sierra Nevada recorded by an underwater forest of 250 trees – frozen in time – going back as far as the time of ancient Egypt 3,000 years ago (3 min.) http://cdn.abclocal.go.com/static/flash/embeddedPlayer/swf/otvEmLoader.swf?version=fw1000&station=&section=&mediaId=8039849&parentId=8039789&cdnRoot=

    Brief Presentation: Fallen Leaf Lake – Prehistoric Drought in the Sierra Nevada http://www.westgov.org/wswc/Extreme%20Weather%20Events%202012/meko.pdf

    Technical Science Report: Nov. 2011 – Duration and severity of Medieval drought in the Lake Tahoe Basin http://www.landandwaterusa.com/Letters_GN/2013SoundOff/2-18KleppeBrothersetal11-Sep21-Duration%20SeverityofMWP-LakeTahoeBasin.pdf

    Also, the existing California drought is likely to get worse before it gets better because Sierra mountain snowpack is about 12 percent of normal for this time of year. The following picture of California from January and a year ago shows just this dramatic difference, which confirms that there is little hope for the parched state.

    Dec. 24, 2012 – Citizen Science Situational Awareness of OpenROV deep dive in an underwater forest of 250 trees in Fallen Leaf Lake http://www.hcn.org/issues/44.22/underwater-forest-reveals-the-story-of-a-historic-megadrought

    How can we provide a “lingua franca” that allows diverse stakeholders to build systematically toward shared understanding of most complex, urgent, and intractable challenges facing humanity?

    Ans. – IMHO – Extraordinary and strategic innovations like Elon Musk’s Gigafactory http://www.businessinsider.com/elon-musk-bet-on-the-gigafactory-2014-5 and Megafactory http://youtu.be/pkO5u4AJkwQ along with scaling compounding ROIs by:

    Iterative Improvement Bootstrapping Algorithm for Compounding ROIs:

    A-Task Improve
    B-Task Improve (A)
    C-Task Improve (B) to Improve (A)

    A Grand Challenge for Smartphone and “Internet of Things” Sensor Networks for Citizen Science Situational Awareness, Crowdsource Funding, and SolarCity.com, TeslaMotors.com, SpaceX.com, Calera.com, DeepWaterDesal.com, CatlinSeaviewSurvey.com, GlobalReefRecord.org time-lapses awe-inspiring Human Engagement Interface (HEI).

    “Inviting a new generation to venture together collaboratively, imaginatively, creatively, and iteratively in pursuit of a better future for humanity – as the scope and method of interaction and collaboration become increasingly distributed, networked, cross-functional, cross-disciplinary, cross-organizational, cross-cultural, interdependent, complex, and urgent on a global scale.”–Dr. Doug Engelbart http://www.dougengelbart.org/challenge/index.html

    Co-evolution of A-Task Improve, B-Task Improve (A), C-Task Improve (B) to Improve (A) means that the Human Network Improvement Communities (NICs) and the Natural Eco-Systems evolve together, reinforcing, rather than de-evolving, each other. The growth of one system cannot continue to come at the other’s expense.

    Therefore, we need a new framework this way to guide the way we build the future like:

    * Investments that boosts A-Task Improve provides a one-shot boost in ROI.

    * Applying investments with one-shot boost ROIs boosts again the ROIs in B-Task Improve (A) and compounds the subsequent rate by which the (A) Capability Increases.

    * Applying investments with these compounded ROIs in B Capability boosts again along with amplifying feedback: C-Task Improve (B) to Improve (A).

    Clearly, investments in (C) Capability along with High-performance Interdisciplinary Teams is potentially highly leveraged.

    For instance:

    Re-engineering Human Networks for augmenting, safeguarding, and co-evolution with sustainable Natural Resources
    http://www.systemecology.com/5_Publications/coevolution_brochure.pdf
    http://www.systemecology.com/5_Publications/CoEvSCDSW.pdf

    “Together We Can Get There.” –Doug Engelbart (90 min.) http://outsideinnovation.blogs.com/pseybold/2013/07/learning-from-revolutionaries-doug-engelbart-john-seybold.html
    * Phase – (A): HyperScope enhanced open-source browser http://www.dougengelbart.org/pubs/bi-2120.html#2C

    * Phase – (B): Maturing/Evolving the HyperScope into Full-Feature Open Hyper-document System (OHS) http://www.dougengelbart.org/pubs/bi-2120.html#3

    * Phase – (C): Special Evolutionary Provision – multi-class UIS or Human Engagement Interface (HEI) Architecture and High-performance Teams http://www.dougengelbart.org/pubs/bi-2120.html#4

    * INFOGRAPHICS – 1991 Blueprint for High Performance Knowledge Work:User Interfaces and Enterprise-Wide Architectures https://ia600501.us.archive.org/0/items/BootstrapInstitute-PattySebold_1/PattySeboldBootstrap.pdf

    Doug Engelbart predicted by improving HyperScope prototype tools, information in the form of electronic documents can be more easily shared and manipulated, both in terms of personal computing and interacting in local and wide area networks. This malleability is made possible through the conversion of input documents into an intermediate, or I-file, format. The I-file is then capable of being received in whatever format is called for by the user on the other end. This feature, coupled with tagging which allows for the easy creation of links and easy navigation in documents, will revolutionize the way we create, use, and archive electronic information.

    These enhanced capabilities would create an informational environment conducive to increased collaboration and exchange between thinkers and problem solvers of different backgrounds, disciplines, talents and perspectives. This increased collaboration and rich exchange would culminate in what Dr. Engelbart calls the collective IQ, the corporate knowledge product of groups of individuals working on shared issues, problems, and concerns.

    These groups of individuals would be considered improvement communities, and their efforts could be enhanced through networking with other like-minded or similarly situated communities in what Dr. Engelbart calls Networked Improvement Communities ( NICs). The archiving of the knowledge products of these organizations would be Dynamic Knowledge Repositories (DKRs). These dynamic repositories would be ever-evolving, interactive electronic environments designed to allow for the co-evolution of human capabilities and tools. The result of this co-evolution would be a continuous cycle of improvement, culminating in a better understanding of improvement, and resulting in the improvement of the improvement process itself.

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