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Keynote Speaker Sylvia Earle Rivets SXSW Eco

To a packed hall in Austin, TX on Tuesday, Sylvia Earle delivered a passionate keynote speech entitled “Sustainable Seas: The Vision and the Reality.” The 60-minute talk elicited a standing ovation and questions from the audience asking “What can I do to help?” Dr. Earle addressed myriad issues involved in understanding and preventing ocean decline – from microbiology, to overfishing, to Exclusive Economic Zones – and encouraged all present to apportion some of their creative energy to building a solution, a way forward so that we can find a sustainable way to live on a planet that sustains us.
Her talk was preceded by this cinematic video created by Conservation International in which Harrison Ford plays the part of the ocean.…

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LIVE today! – Sylvia Earle’s Keynote Address at SXSW Eco

Thanks for visiting! The live stream of Sustainable Seas: The Vision and the Reality (a Keynote Presentation by Dr. Sylvia Earle, Founder of Mission Blue, at SXSWEco) is finished, but here are 5 WAYS YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE RIGHT NOW!

LEARN the issues and how you can help! Watch the Mission Blue film with your friends to understand how to eliminate or reduce seafood consumption, decrease your carbon footprint and stop plastic pollution (remember the 3 R’s: REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE). You can be part of the solution. Go for it!
 

SUPPORT Sylvia Earle’s Mission Blue! Your tax-deductible donations support public outreach, expeditions and direct appeals to policy makers to build a global network of Hope Spots to restore the ocean.…

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Mission Blue Salutes an Ocean Hero

Before Leonardo DiCaprio became an actor, he dreamt as a child of becoming a marine biologist. An avid SCUBA diver, DiCaprio’s passion for the ocean and the life in it has stayed strong during his spectacular rise to cinema glory. (One of his favorite dives was to the shark sanctuary in Cocos Island in the Eastern Pacific Seascape Hope Spot.) These days, DiCaprio is using his celebrity power and personal resources to not only raise awareness about ocean issues, but also to underwrite major marine conservation initiatives. In June 2014 at the US State Department’s Our Oceans conference, DiCaprio spoke genuinely about the need for intelligent and collaborative action to reverse ocean decline. Recognizing that talking alone isn’t enough, he pledged to donate $7,000,000 over 2 years to bolster action to save our seas.…

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World’s Largest Protected Area Declared in U.S. Waters

By Courtney Mattison
“The United States does not have an Amazon basin, but it has the watery equivalent, a paradise of turtles and sharks, seals and dolphins, coral reefs and giant clams, frigate birds and boobies.”[i] Last Thursday, the environmental community rejoiced as President Obama announced that the U.S. would protect this natural treasure by expanding the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument and creating the largest protected area anywhere on Earth. Building upon the 83,000 square miles of U.S. territory designated for protection by President George W. Bush in 2009, Obama’s executive action increases the reach of this cluster of remote Pacific reserves southwest of Hawaii to 491,000 square miles – three times the size of California and six times larger than the monument’s previous size.…

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Speaking Up for the Ocean During Climate Week NYC

By Courtney Mattison
Climate Week is in full swing and started out with a spectacular series of events in New York City last weekend, many of which related to the ocean. While the ocean was not (to many conservationists’ surprise and dismay) a focal point of the UN Climate Summit with world leaders yesterday, it has received the attention it deserves for absorbing carbon dioxide (CO2) and bearing the brunt of climate change at numerous independent events.
On Saturday night, the Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS) illuminated the 30-story United Nations Headquarters with a magnificent architectural-scale public light display of inspiring imagery ranging from macro footage of undulating coral polyps to a vast landscape of the aftermath of an oil spill. The visual effects were dynamic, constantly morphing and pulsing into one another with music and creating an experience that was at times haunting and at others uplifting.…

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Toasting to Sylvia Earle at the Explorers Club

A giant brass bell tolled in a dark mahogany stairway as explorers young and old chanted “Earle – Earle – Earle – Earle,” their candles flickering. Dr. Sylvia Earle led guests to their seats in front of a roaring “Great Fire of Exploration” and took her seat at the front of the room. This ritualistic procession is not an everyday occurrence at the Explorers Club – New York’s legendary gathering place for researchers of land, sea, air, and space. Friday night’s tribute ceremony marked a very special opportunity for the club to honor Dr. Earle as one of its most beloved and accomplished members – and the first woman to receive this distinction, paving the way for female explorers in the Explorers Club and beyond.…

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Help Save the Canary Islands from Dangerous Deep Sea Oil Exploration

by Courtney Mattison
A major environmental campaign is reaching a tipping point in Spain and making waves around the globe, and you can get involved. After years of prolonged opposition in and out of court by environmental and political groups, in August the Spanish government granted permission to Spanish oil giant Repsol and its partners to conduct exploratory drilling for oil and gas in the waters surrounding the Canary Islands, an ecological hotspot and popular tourist destination. An extraordinary group of activists, celebrities, governments, universities, scientific committees, tour operators, foundations and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) including WWF, Greenpeace and Oceana are uniting in the fight against this controversial prospecting project as Repsol prepares to begin drilling in upcoming months. This opposition movement is ramping up its efforts with an international campaign – Save Canarias – to protect the Canary Islands from oil spills and other potentially catastrophic threats associated with underwater hydrocarbon exploration and drilling.…

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10 ways you can make a difference RIGHT NOW!

“I have lots of heroes — anyone and everyone who does whatever they can to leave the natural world better than they found it.” ~ Sylvia Earle
       

CHANGE one personal behavior! For example, reduce your seafood consumption — or give it up all together. Or, when it comes to plastic apply the Three R’s: REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE. Learn how you can be part of the solution and go for it!
 

DONATE to Mission Blue! Your tax-deductible contributions support public outreach, scientific expeditions and direct appeals to policy makers to build a global network of Hope Spots to restore the ocean. Your support is what keeps us afloat!
 

JOIN the Mission Blue newsletter! Don’t worry we won’t overload your inbox.  …

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Our Lonely Home in Nature

By Alan Lightman
The tornadoes that devastated parts of the South and Midwest this Spring, just weeks after a deadly mudslide in Washington, demonstrated once again the unimaginable power of nature.
After each disaster, we grieve over the human lives lost, the innocent people drowned or crushed without warning as they slept in their beds, worked in their fields or sat at their office desks. We feel angry at the scientists and policy makers who didn’t foresee the impending calamity or, if forewarned, failed to protect us. Beyond the grieving and anger is a more subtle emotion. We feel betrayed. We feel betrayed by nature.
Aren’t we a part of nature, born in nature, sustained by the food brought forth by nature, warmed by the natural sun?…

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Coral Bay in St. John is Threatened by a Mega Marina

Click here to support The Fund for Coral Bay by Save Coral Bay
We’ve received lots of inquiries from residents and lovers of St. John and the U.S. Virgin Islands in the past weeks regarding a mega marina called Summer’s End that is pending approval for construction in Coral Bay. There is great concern for the environmental impact of the project on the local reefs and species (such as the endangered Green Sea Turtle), as well as belief that the regulatory bodies and government officials whose job it is to safeguard these habitats have vested interests in seeing the construction go through. We encourage our community to form their own opinions regarding this mega development in the pristine waters of St.…

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