World Ocean Radio

This week on World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill reflects on the importance of water in our lives, our culture, our memories, our very being. Water, he argues, is the essence of home, and the grace and gift of knowing it’s there for our return. 

About World Ocean Radio
World Ocean Radio is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio stations worldwide. Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory and host of World Ocean Radio, provides coverage of a broad spe...

Pope Francis, outspoken voice for climate and the environment, passed away on Monday, April 21st. Throughout his reign as leader of the Catholic Church, he was very clear in his views on climate change as a real factor in today's world, and expressed that we must understand and respond to these problems for our future survival. In 2015, Pope Francis issued a papal encyclical entitled "Laudato Si--on Care of our Common Home" in which he addressed the moral imperative to steward our natural world for the benefit of succeeding generations. At many times in the address, he mentions fresh water...

Earth Day is April 22nd. In honor of our watery planet we revisit a land-centric episode this week on World Ocean Radio. 
What About the Land?
40% of the planet is used for farming and livestock, often degraded by unsustainable or destructive practices. Coupled with coastal, wetland and reclaimed land development in the name of urban expansion, we are fast-approaching a tipping point. What are we to do? Are we destined to repeat the mistakes of the past? Or do we possess the collective will to develop creative solutions for repair, redesign and reconstruction for our 21st century t...

Discovery of a curriculum developed for coastal Africa some years ago sent World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill on a journey of discovery and revelation about salt as a construct to be observed, understood, and taught. A western scientific perspective might teach students about salt from a chemistry-led lesson, whereas the African curriculum taught salt as serving a role in the enhancement of and as means to preserve food, the harvesting for work, as way of life, and as financial support by its production and harvest. This latter perspective is not first and foremost chemistry-led but community-focused, with methods...

ter·ra·que·ous
/terˈākwēəs/
Adjective: consisting of land and water

Mud season: a special time of year in the northeastern corner of the United States, when winter and spring collide in a soggy muck: the rains come, ice and snow melts, saturating the land, creating a terraqueous mess for cars and boots. This week on World Ocean Radio, we're applying the metaphor of "mud season" to fresh water and ocean systems, to climate and biodiversity, to the human condition, to community--all the cycles and systems that rely on the balance of nature.

March 22nd is World Water Day, a celebration of what Jacques Cousteau called The Great Hydrosphere, expanded beyond Ocean to include the entirety of the water cycle: the one natural system that controls our planet's utility. From mountaintop to abyssal plain, water is the great circulatory system that connects all things. This week on World Ocean Radio we pay homage to water, without which we would not exist. Think about it: where and when is water not present in our lives? 

About World Ocean Radio
World Ocean Radio is a weekly series of five-minute a...

This week on World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill shares a smart, succinct new title from the Forerunners: Ideas First series entitled "Coralatations" by Melody Jue. The book is a philosophical exploration of coral reefs, technology, and media and how, through co-relation, we might expand our understanding of natural resources beyond endangerment to how we communicate about climate change. 

About World Ocean Radio
World Ocean Radio is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio stations worldwide. Weekly insights into ocean science, advocacy, e...

Ocean Literacy is a bottom-up movement driven by classroom teachers who understand the full implication of education, adaptation, and innovation for our future. In Venice, Italy, in 2024, a conference gathered to address today's issues, and to produce the Venice Declaration for Ocean Literacy to provide goals and agenda items for the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France in June of 2025. New goals and new items, or a new arrangement of old ideas? How might the agenda be revised? Tune in to World Ocean Radio this week to learn more.

World Ocean Radio: 5-minute weekly insights in ocean...

"Power is like water. It flows all around us at all times. Sometimes it takes the liquid form of politics-in-action...Sometimes it takes the solid form of settled law: policy is power frozen. Sometimes it is like vapor in the air, invisibly shaping the climate and our behavior in just the way beliefs or ideology or emotions do..." 

So states Eric Liu, founder of Citizen University and Director of the Aspen Institute Program on Citizen and American Identity. This week on World Ocean Radio, founder Peter Neill expands upon water as metaphor for our changing political landscape a...

Eco-psychology studies the relationships between people and nature, and seeks to develop ways to expand the emotional connections between individuals and the natural world. There is progression in the term: understanding of Eco-psychology presents plans, promise, and action toward transformational outcomes, strategies, and prognoses for the future. 

About World Ocean Radio
World Ocean Radio is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio stations worldwide. Weekly insights into ocean science, advocacy, education, global ocean issues, challenges, marine science, policy, exemplary projects, advocacy, and s...