[intro music] Welcome to World Ocean Radio… I’m Peter Neill, Director of the World Ocean Observatory. It is a new year, a time when we reflect on what’s passed, what’s to come. I was listening to music this morning when I came upon an old favorite from 1970, Toots and the Maytals “Pressure Drop,” when reggae music was emerging into mainstream and things were very different than they are today. But the lyrics seemed prescient and perfect to me in this transient moment in time. I say pressure drop, oh pressure Oh yeah, pressure drop, a drop on you I say when it drops, oh you gonna feel it Know that you were doing wrong Our world is in the middle of a global pressure drop. We are doing wrong so many ways. The recent record weather events in the United States were literally an extreme drop in atmospheric pressure that through a polar vortex of wind and snow, ice and rain, a paralyzing event, grounding thousands of air flights, stranding thousands on the roads, downing thousands of power lines, and denying thousands the pleasure of home and hearth, family, celebration, reunion, renewal, that is associated with the last days of the year, the first days of the year to come. Toots Hibbert, the singer and song-writer, described his tune as a story of “karmic revenge” made manifest by the knowledge that someone was doing wrong. You’re going to feel it, not just in weather or tumultuous travel plans, predictably a consequence of unusual climate manifestations, but also in the conflict of war, the insidious viruses, the volatility of markets, the disruption of supply and demand, the compromise of law and order, the confusion of political values and moral truths. Recently, I read of a poll that indicated a dramatic decline in optimism among ensuing generations, the population that our success or failure will affect the most, whose enlistment must succeed in recovering the best of our past, and inventing the best of our future -- their levels of anxiety and depression increased to pandemic proportion, beyond the terrible evidence of war, deprivation, and other crimes we inflict upon each other, toward a debilitating uncertainty and fear induced by what can only be explained by wrongdoing. Are we experiencing a spectrum of karmic revenge, feeling the pressure, the precise consequence, of bad choices in danger of being perpetuated, repeated, prolonging decline, increasing the levels of pressure until we cannot breathe? I am a congenital optimist. I believe in action beyond hope. I believe in the essential civility of society, as expressed by our best values, our best structures, our best behaviors. I believe we hold solutions in our hearts, minds, and hands, and on that premise we possess resolution for change, not against it, toward a fulsome future, not a bankrupt past. It pains me to write of conditions today that are so evidently cruel and unjust. It frustrates me to think of a future so radically compromised by premeditation, applied ideology, calculated indifference, collective selfishness, and pervasive injustice. I write about the ocean as a free place, dynamic and creative, generous and reciprocal, where Nature provides habitat for growth and regeneration, for sustenance and sustainability through systems that are organized to benefit collective survival, not destroy it. As I write this, at a time traditionally for resolution, what strength or plan can I apply or exhort as a positive, countervailing force against negativity, regression, and decline? In a recent edition of World Ocean Radio, I proposed to present a plan, not just for the ocean, but for a new perspective to enable a new set of actions, from the smallest to the largest inventions, to radical method and policy changes, that will counter depression and vengeance through an acronymic RESCUE, through R for renewal, E for environment, S for society, C for collaboration, U for understanding, and E for engagement – R-E-S-C-U-E, a presumptuous resolution for this coming new year – a change-up, a charge-up in the atmosphere, a provocation and lift for our collective sense of possibility, a rise-up in our spirits, an expanded karmic commitment to ourselves, to our children and our grandchildren, that shouts out a new lyric for an old melody: oh pressure, we gonna do things different, we gonna do things right, and we gonna feel it, oh yeah! We will discuss these issues, and more, in future editions of World Ocean Radio. [outro music]
