2013: Looking ahead and reaching out

With the start of each new year, many of us re-calibrate our plans, our agendas, our goals.  The resolutions stack up like cordwood and many will get consumed in the fire.  But we look forward, hoping to build on the high points of the past year and sweep the lows into the dustbin of history.  Hopefully, we learn from it all because even in failure or disappointment there are life-affirming lessons.   

2012 was quite a mixed bag for me, as many years can be.  There were some glorious and gratifying highs and crushing lows both professionally and personally.  And as challenging as it can be as we get older, there is room for further enlightenment and change.  Whether it be blind optimism, determination, or naivete, I'm still propelled by the simple motivation that my friend Diana Nyad adheres to: Onward.

For this coming year, I hope to return more to what I do best as a visual storyteller.  There is an audience for what I am able to bring forth, affirmed to me by the support of friends and colleagues and by social media.  But there is also a larger audience that is still in the dark when it comes to conservation and ocean issues.  How do we reach these people?  How do we get them to taste and appreciate the passion and commitment that so many of my colleagues feel, and through that gain an understanding as to the importance of the issues at hand?  That is the challenge for 2013.

Social media is a strange bird.  On the one hand, it is a vehicle through which copious information can be conveyed, shared, and debated - whether through blogs or sites like Facebook and Twitter.  However, there are many times when I find it a bit insular, a club of like-minded individuals keeping morale up and the buzz going.  And that's fine.  We need that to stay motivated. But I keep thinking about that larger audience . . .  

Conservation and ocean issues are a tough sell these days.  With worldwide economic challenges - which have a profound impact on environmental issues, whether we like it or not - the tendency towards focusing on short-term issues and results dominates.  Conservation, while made up of a series of smaller struggles and victories, is a much greater long-term issue and commitment.  It requires forward-thinking, often way beyond our lifetimes, if we are to preserve this spaceship Earth and its finite resources.

That struggle, between looking ahead and dealing with the here and now, confronts us all.  We all must get through our day-to-day lives, pay our bills, put food on the table, and do what we must to get by.  But when we can turn our attention to issues greater than ourselves, we better ourselves as citizens of this planet.  Call it noble or call it simply survival - it is the right thing to do for those generations yet to come.

The health of the oceans, of the environment, is important to me as I see it at the top of the pyramid of challenges facing mankind.  All other causes become immaterial if we lose our life support systems.  So, for 2013, I hope you all are able to continue to fuel your passions and sense of commitment.  Bring it to the largest possible audience and let it be the catalyst that brings enlightenment and forms a new way of thinking about the world we are passing through.

Happiest of New Year's to you all!

Conservation in 2012: support, commitment, and the exchange of knowledge continues

2012 - It's a new year. We wish our friends and family health, prosperity, and good fortune. In fact, we bestow it upon perfect strangers as we disembark elevators or pick up the dry cleaning. It's a moment when we try to make sense of the world and hope that tomorrow and the days that follow will be better than the past. It may just be a seasonal courtesy, an obligatory tagline to a passing conversation. And there's nothing wrong with that, but deep down we know that a better life is ours for the making; it's up to us to make it so.

I hope that conservation of our natural resources is something that continues to resonate with people across the globe. From the personal measures we take in our own lives, to the support we extend to organizations taking up the struggle beyond our limited capacity, to the power we wield at the ballot box - those who support conservation must continue with their efforts and work intelligently and respectfully to recruit more to the cause. Conservation can never be relegated to being an issue du juor - it is not a short-term problem, a quick fix soon to be forgotten. The consequences for passing the buck on this one are global in scope and go to the very heart of the quality of life for future generations, not to mention the entire planet.

The cause of conservation depends greatly on organizations that exist in the world of "non-profit." They, in turn, depend on the generosity of others to survive and there are many such groups out there - each seeking a piece of what has been, of late, a very limited pie. I am seeing many specific conservation issues - from shark conservation to global warming - moving from the grass roots, emotion-fueled public awareness level to the world of policy development, regulation, and legislation. My suggestion would be to support those organizations that have the infrastructure and the strategies geared toward the national and international legislative arena; this is where quantifiable progress can often be measured, albeit such progress can be frustratingly slow. With our limited resources to donate, I recommend evaluating non-profits not on their good intentions, which are honorable, but on their actions and most importantly on their accomplishments.

For myself, this past year saw another batch of posts in this blog that I hope brought some measure of awareness, enlightenment, and even entertainment in a style that was not too technical, condescending, or argumentative to my readers. I have been fortunate in my life to have been involved in a variety of creative pursuits and though I never pursued an academic degree in marine biology or environmental science (a personal regret at times), science and the wonders of this world have been a constant throughout my life. And so at this point in my life I am trying to weave my careers and my passions together in a way that, I hope, gives back - a sort of "thank you" to those places and people who impressed me, taught me, and motivated me to love and preserve life on this incredible blue marble we call Earth.

Onward and upward. Make it a good day, everyone. Make it a great year.