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  • A rich guy’s guide to saving the oceans

    To save the oceans (A checklist) Be heir to a vast fortune Be named David Get a “green” boat Sail around the world to promote education and awareness about dismal ocean health Remind everyone you’re on a boat, Mother Earth, don’t you ever forget! Challenge other heir David sailing around world in support of oceans […]

  • Everyone wants a piece of Belize

    One day in December, the residents of the seaside village of Punta Gorda in Belize looked out to the horizon and saw something unexpected: Jamaican fishing boats. They had arrived, unannounced and without permits, to fish in Belize’s diverse waters. Many of Punta Gorda’s local fishermen still work the shallow waters inside the Belize Barrier […]

  • The earth’s decade

    Generations from now, long after the last Twitter follower has unfriended the last Facebook user, this decade will be remembered and felt for its impact on Nature: the species that were saved and those that were lost; the heating of the planet; the forests cut down and those that remain to provide oxygen to our […]

  • Are the oceans the future of food?

    If the the future of food is hazy right now due to overconsumption, globalization, and climate change, the future of seafood is even murkier. The global fish catch topped out sometime in the 1990s, leaving many fish populations more or less permanently overstressed. Aquaculture has grown to satisfy rising global demand – but fish farms […]

  • Biochemist Oliver Peoples explains how his polymer-producing microbes could transform the plastics i

    Over at Seedmagazine.com, I have a brief interview with Oliver Peoples, a biochemist who hopes that his new bio-based plastic will upend the petroleum-based industry—and help clean up oceans and landfills in the process: Seed: So you’re turning corn into plastic in much the same way that the ethanol industry turns it into biofuels. As […]

  • James Bond calls for more marine protected areas

    There was unfortunate news from PEER recently that the Obamans/NOAA Chief Jane Lubchenco have no plans to consider new marine protected areas. She cited lack of funds as the reason. Hum. In an era where oceans are under so much pressure, we need to prioritize efforts proven to bring life back to the seas, like […]

  • MacArthur genius award winners include climate and ocean researchers

    Some of the MacArthur Foundation “genius award” winners are doing work related to climate change. And they now they each have $500 grand, no strings attached. Neat-o: Climate scientist Peter Huybers mines “a wealth of often-conflicting experimental observations to develop compelling theories that explain global climate change over time.” Biogeochemist Daniel Sigman unravels “the interrelated […]

  • Plastic bags are the enemy of the ocean

    Courtesy Save the BayListen up all you Gristers who live along the California coast: This Saturday is Coastal Cleanup Day. Join your friends, neighbors, frenemies and complete strangers in a community-wide effort to get the plastic crap out of the ocean. Plastic isn’t just a problem way out in the Eastern Pacific Garbage Patch. For […]

  • Sen. Landrieu’s plan to export Louisiana’s coastal destruction to Florida

    While Louisiana struggles to restore coastal wetlands ravaged in large part by decades of oil and gas drilling, its senior senator is leading the effort to lift the ban on drilling off Florida’s Panhandle. U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) is the lone co-sponsor of legislation sponsored by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) to open up new […]