Too much environmental doom and gloom

Susan Nielsen thinks enviros have won, but we didn't notice. She thinks every day is Earth Day, and it's time to back off from the Daily Dose of Doom that we enviros deliver to the world. She has a point.

"Now that every day is Earth Day, we need a new kind of holiday. We need an annual break from bad environmental news.

The year-round glumfest about drowning polar bears, dying honeybees and the general futility of it all is raising consciousness but crushing spirits (or at least mine). We need a day of rest — a time to pretend, as we did in the 1990s, that the party could last forever.

The other 364 days we can stick to the new normal, flogging ourselves about carbon and fretting about an uncertain future."

Now I can hear the chorus of objections rising...

"...but wait, the problems aren't solved yet..."
"...people don't know how bad things really are..."
"...we need to get serious and implement stronger actions..."

All of them true, but all unfortunately delivered as dire doses of doom. What drives this gloomy approach? Is it a desire to infect everyone with the sad pessimism that pervades the environmental movement? (I know about that pessimism, I'm part of the movement and I hear it every day.)

She says we've won and we don't realize it. Everyone now knows that we're right, and it's time for a new strategy to get people moving towards solutions.

I can see the merit in Nielsen's point, and I like her idea. For just one day, it would be a good idea to try to deliver all environmental news with optimism and a sense of hope.

There's nothing wrong with optimism. Try it, you just might like it.

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How to save our ocean fish

The secret lies in that most American of values…shared investment in a better future. We need to pull together in this difficult time, but it’s tough when too many people are looking backwards and crying.

Remember the glorious rush of pulling together in a crisis? Whatever has been yours, I’m sure you’ve been there. Remember a hurricane that flooded streets and cut power? Maybe an earthquake, or a volcanic eruption that produced a snowfall of ash? How about that snowstorm that brought everything to a standstill and drew the whole neighborhood out into the silent streets to marvel at the magic of it all? Nothing pulls people together like rising together to meet a challenge.

Is that our response to our declining oceans? Not yet. We’re not getting busy with solutions, instead we’ve spent our precious time and energy locked into a struggle over what’s really happening and why, and hey don’t dare take away what’s mine.

We’ve got too many people looking backwards and crying about loss. It’s important to know what’s missing, yes, but that doesn’t guide us into the future. If you want to catalogue and remember, that’s good. But if you want to freeze a version of what used to be, that’s not helpful.

It's true that coral reefs are under siege, there are way too many problems. And things are likely to get worse. So what do we do? Moan about what’s going, going, gone? Rail uselessly against our messed-up system and the sad fact that our ocean doesn’t matter to most people? Or do we look for a glimmer of a better future?

What do we see looking back? Once upon a time, we had a glorious past. Fishermen were noble and strong, and they went down to the sea in boats to catch fish that were famously abundant. And everyone cheered. Why can’t we have that again? And once upon a time, fish swarmed around magnificent multi-colored coral reefs, and all you had to do was put your head underwater to see a fantastic ocean that looked like the pages of a book. Where can I go to see that now?

We can look backwards and yearn for the good old days, but that’s a posture of fear and resignation. Or, we can look forward into an uncertain future, and ask how best to have a say in what’s coming. The future belongs to those that embrace it. That is the most American of values.

Picture a sailing vessel at sea, battered by an unexpected squall. Shall we shrink from what lies ahead? Or sail on?

As blogfish moves into year 2, the future has never looked brighter. Why? Because that’s what the future is for.

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Slow motion revolution in ocean conservation

I see good things ahead for oceans. I know it’s popular to talk doom, but that’s mostly the curse of the specialist talking. Those that know the most find disaster everywhere, but their problem is that they can’t see outside the frame. In every situation I know of, big change looks impossible until after it happens, and then it looks like it was inevitable.

Tell me you saw the Berlin wall falling in 1984--yet 5 short years later, it was gone and now everyone says of course. I grew up in Oregon where trees were for cutting and nobody would have guessed that soon forest health would be more important than timber jobs.

Of course, surprising changes can work both ways. Everyone would have laughed 20 years ago if someone predicted that Oregon’s coho salmon would be a threatened species. And who knew that those abalone that littered the California coast would be soon be gone?

So what’s positive for oceans?

In 2005, I was nervous about a big foundation proposal with the goal of ending overfishing in US waters by 2012. I thought my colleagues would laugh at me. They did laugh, but I think we’ll get there with the new Magnuson-Stevens Act—or damn close—and maybe even a year or two early.

Fishing interests have held an exclusive franchise on fish for generations, but that is changing. MPAs are advancing, in Florida, in Hawaii, in California, and beyond. Fishing interests are resisting, because they see their franchise slipping away. But until they truly embrace conservation—and most don’t—they’ll keep losing influence.

Seafood buyers are worrying about sustainability, for business reasons or because their customers care. Now Wal-mart is bringing you sustainable seafood. When America’s store gets on board, the train is moving.

This is not to say that the problems are solved, they’re not. Overdevelopment of coasts is a serious threat, and the coming global changes will stress ocean ecosystems. Invasive species will displace natives, and fishing is not going to go away so long as people like to eat. So what will we do?

We’ll beat the problems, just like we solved the devastating disease crisis caused by dumping shit out the windows of our houses a few centuries ago. We beat that one with the radical and unworkable solution of sewers.

Most of the crisis in ocean conservation is a crisis of vision and courage. People see oceans decline and they can’t see the way out. The toughest part of conservation is seeing a good opportunity for change and going after it with everything. Give yourself the gift of optimism and start seeing the way out.

There you have it, the ocean world according to blogfish. More to come if you’re interested.

Mark Powell

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What's black and white and brings hope of ocean renewal?

The new baby orca in Puget Sound’s L-pod spouts hope and optimism of renewal in a troubled sea.

The endangered orcas (killer whales) of Puget Sound have it rough. They have scary levels of toxic chemicals in their bodies, reduced food supplies thanks to our overfishing, and a nearly endless list of other major and minor complaints. But today, with a new birth, we can dream of a better future.

The first sighting of the new baby orca was near Monterey, CA, with the L-pod vacating Puget Sound to forage in greener pastures elsewhere. The orcas are known as Puget Sound orcas because they spend 6 months or more in Seattle's inland sea.

Baby orcas have such a tough time that the only name for the new one is L-109. It will get a more frinedly name if it survives beyond 1 year.

Scientists are trying to identify the mother, since firstborns tend to get most of the toxins from their mother's body and have only a 50-50 chance of survival. There have been 5 deaths in the L-pod this year, including two young calves.

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The big blue

On this Thanksgiving Day, blogfish is thankful for the wonderful big blue ocean and the fish within.

For the occasional chance to get out there and be a part of it.

For the interest and excitement of being on a boat far from land.

For the amazement of swimming with something big, or looking at swarms of something tiny.

Big waves, bioluminescence, schools of fish that swim in synchrony, seeing forever under a shimmering surface.....a world of water that soothes the soul.

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Free the (lost) Rivers of Los Angeles

Audacious dreams are a good thing, and Jessica Hall's are big. She wants to make rivers run free again in Los Angeles, and help restore ocean health.

Nothing is real in LA-LA land, and rivers are no exception. Silicone, collagen and botox ensure that nothing sags or wrinkles, and concrete does the same for flowing water.

But nature remains alive, asking only for a chance. And a great article in LA Weekly tells us about the bits of life that remain in L.A.'s rivers, and the dreams of a few activists who want more.

They tell us about how stream restoration makes economic sense. And about how crazy it is to punish people by eliminating nature. But most importantly, we are reminded of what we would recover if we "unpaved paradise" and tore down a parking lot.

"It takes a big imagination to think like this, maybe even a few loose screws," says author Judith Lewis. Hooray for people who can see a better future.

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hungry corals survive bleaching

Now that bleaching is as common on coral reefs as in Los Angeles hair salons, it's good to know some corals have coping skills.

Scientists bleached some Hawaiian corals and found them sneaking large meals of plankton soon after, staying healthy enough to survive and reproduce.

Coral bleaching happens when warm water causes corals to lose their normal food supply, the internal cultivated algae that give healthy corals their vibrant colors. Until now, bleached corals were thought to be helpless and doomed to starve without being fed by their helper algae.

I guess no more blond coral jokes.

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