WEBVTT
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This program is designed to provide general information with regards
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to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
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the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors or station
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are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial,
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legal counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek
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the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any
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suggested ideas.
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Hello and thank you for tuning in to A Sharp
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Outlook on pay for HD radio and Talk or TV.
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I am Angela Sharp, your host. Our arm chair discussions
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with industry experts will give you the steps, tools and
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information to be successful in business and to prepare you
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to be your best self. Hello and welcome back to
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A Sharp Outlook Today. Our podcast is dedicated to exploring
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the critical issues being we're facing with our oceans and
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the innovative solutions being developed to protect them. I'm your host,
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Angelas Sharp, and today we'll be diving deep into the
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complex world of ocean policy, exploring the key challenges and
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emerging opportunities, and what it takes to create effective and
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sustainable solutions for our oceans. Our oceans cover seventy percent
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of the Earth and are vital for climate regulation, biodiversity
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and human livelihoods. Climate change such as ocean acidification and warming, overfishing, pollution,
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plastics and chemical habitats destruction are threats to the health
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of our ocean waters. Policy is essential for sustainable management, conservation,
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and equitable access to ocean resources. It highlights interconnectedness of
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ocean health and human well being. Why ocean policy matters?
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How can we overcome the challenges to effective international cooperation
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on ocean policy. Many ocean issues are trans boundary and
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require coordinated actions, such as UN Convention on the Law
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of the Sea provides a framework for cooperation. Differing national interests,
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lack of enforcement mechanisms geopolitical tensions have an impact, but
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strengthening existing agreements, creating new partnerships, sharing best practices, and
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understanding the importance of multilateralism and diplomacy in addressing ocean
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challenges is important. Today we have a very special guest
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us joining us, Stuart Sarcosy Bonyxy. He's here to talk
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to us about this wonderful, wonderful topic of how we
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can have healthy waters and protect our oceans. Stuart is
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the co founder of Octopus and ceo AI for World
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Ocean Council. He is Ocean Fellow at the Citter Center
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of Ocean Policy and Economics at Northeast Maritime Institute and
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mentor for Sea Ahead Blue Swell. Stuart has global Director
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Policy and Investments as Resilient Cities Network and was founder
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of for Bands Community Fund. In other words, Stuart is
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a leading expert in ocean policy with extensive experience in
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areas of management and being able to just get cooperation
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and collaboration in international ocean and governance, sustain fisheries, marine
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protected areas, and climate change impacts on oceans, as well
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as the urban and coastal intersections that are so important.
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He's worked with governments, NGOs, international bodies such as the
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Ocean Council, and presently with startups and corporations. Stewart, Welcome
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to the show.
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Thanks very much, Angel, It's great to be here.
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Well, it's great to have you here. You know, every
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day I see the problems that are going on with
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our oceans and the pollutions and the plastics and the
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destruction of the you know, the coral reefs and things
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like that, and I thought, we've got to get informed,
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We've got to do something about it. We've got to
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lift our voices and make some changes. And you get
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enough people screaming about it, we can get some action.
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We can get something to happen. We can make something happen.
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That's why I was like, we're going to have this topic. Well,
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before we get into specifics, can you paint a picture
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for our listeners of why ocean policy is so critical
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right now?
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Sure, And I think it comes from two different directions.
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For me, on the one hand, it is rising in
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its interest and popularity in the sense that people are
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starting to notice a little bit of the kind of
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threats that come from not taking care of what we
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should be taken care of for some time. But I
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think also from my and our point of view and
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the work that we do, it's an ocean planet. As
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you said, it's seventy percent of the ocean, it's sixty
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to seventy percent of us. We are water. We are
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salt water. And so for both the tensions and passions
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and frustrations, demands and effort we have to make, mixed
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with also the sort of place we are as an
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ocean planet, in combination direct us towards something that is
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much more applicable now as we start to see some
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of the negative cascading effects from various problems or various
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shocks and stresses. So for me, on the one hand,
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it's passion because I've been a long, a lifelong ocean
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and water lever and engage with it. But at the
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same time, it also comes from the fact that I
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personally began to get more and more worried and have
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more frustration. So an ocean policy really is a planetary policy,
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and I think that's part of back to what you said.
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To some extent, people don't understand the role of the ocean,
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the role of the ocean in the hydrological cycle that
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makes our planet possible. Our breath, every other breath is
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because of the ocean, the way that our system works,
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and I think that's in some ways it's understandable people
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don't pay attention to the full kind of ecosystem. And
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I mean that in the sense of like the systemic
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connectivity yeah of the planet. Right, So an ocean policy
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is a planetary policy.
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You know. I mean, when you think about it, we
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take advantage of some of the things that we have
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the pleasures of using until we can't use it anymore,
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and The thing is, if we were caring for it,
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it would go on for generations and generations. But I'm
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concerned about the generations ahead. What are the biggest threats
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facing our oceans and why do we need robust policies
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to address them.
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I think in some of this we hear a little
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more regularly, even if you're not really an ocean advocate
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or follower. And that comes back to what you said
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about us sort of abusing. And there's just this kind
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of general sense that the ocean is so vast, right,
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one giant ocean that covers the planet, and it's all interconnected,
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that we can't do it harm. But that, as we've seen,
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is not true. So we've got coral bleaching because of warming, acidification,
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and current changes temperature changes that affect both the species
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and sort of general fisheries, but also ecotourism. And the
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latest news that starts to make the headlines a little
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bit is not the greatest when it comes to things
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like coral die off and the acidification and the warming.
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So and then of that of course relates to the
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warming that leads to greater storms with more moisture content.
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We saw what just happened in Jamaica there at this
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discussion point of whether we have to give hurricanes like
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that a six rather than a five and some unusual
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amount of convection and water moisture in the system that
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did what it did and the wind speed. So what's
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facing the oceans comes from us to some extent and
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then or exacerbated by us because there's also plastics and microplastics,
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and in our waterways the pfast chemicals that then end
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up in the ocean, algae blooms and dead zones and
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things like that from agriculture runoffs. So we have abused
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all of our systems. And that's not just in the
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water or the ocean. But I think what really is
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sort of a little out of sight, out of mind
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is the water and what's below water. And I think
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that's part of what this conversation is great for important
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for people to understand that if they live in Des Moines, Iowa,
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or they're in you know, the middle of the UK
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or in the dead center of Central Europe, things they
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do on a day to day basis have an effect
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on the ocean, whether it's plastics and recycling, or whether it's
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certain kinds of plastic materials purchases, they make things, they
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drink stuff that goes into the water.
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Mm hmm. Yeah. I even saw where you had an
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article out there where what is it the sunscreen? Having
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a water friendly sunscreen instead of some of these ones.
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And because of the chemicals are coming off of your
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body when you're getting into the water and it's killing
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the coral and affecting the marine light. I mean, you know,
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like I said, we take so many things for granted.
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We don't realize there's supposed to be custodians of the earth,
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not you know, just devour. You know, we need to
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be more conscious of what we really are doing because
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there are generations coming after us. Think about them. Think
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about the ones that are coming after us. You know,
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it doesn't hurt to read the bottle to see if
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it has damaging chemicals in it, put it on the shelf,
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and in fact even report it to the store. Stop
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selling this and pick the one that is going to
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be friendly to the water. I mean, that was so
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fascinating when I saw that. That's what me to say,
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we got to get this out. We have to get
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this out so that you know, we can you know,
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be able to have the waters therefore the next generations.
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What are key challenges in ocean policy?
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I think right now getting alignment from countries, from nation states,
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and in the case a lot of work that I
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do corporations and financiers and others on the same path.
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And there's a bunch of there's a bunch of negotiations
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and treaties. There's a whole slew people who are at
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the UNF Triple C. The Conference of Party is the
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COP in Brazil right now. I'm not there. It's rare
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that I'm not at one of those COP gatherings, and
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that's where some of these negotiations take place. But we're
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talking everything from the International Plastics Treaty which has stalled,
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to the High Seas Treaty, which they got enough signatures
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for come three weeks ago, which is a great, great advancement.
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Because part of the problem with the ocean as well is.
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That it's a commons, right, Gianic commons, other than up
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to certain zones, right, we all have to play nice,
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and not everybody does.
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So there's treaties like those. There's the negotiations that the
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International Maritime Organization two weeks ago halted or paused until
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next year, it's conversations around quotas and new fuels shipping,
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because that shipping, where we get most of our goods
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and where great pollution takes place, is all kind of
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tied together. So there are and plastics in the water
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and microplastics in our bodies. I mean, at this point,
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you can't eat a oyster and not have microplastics in it,
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I hate to say it. So we have real recovery
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activities we need to do where those challenges lie and
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where the treaties need to surround. But there's also sort
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of enforcement and financing to sort of write to do
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some of the precovery and recovery at the same time
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make sure that we're preventing what we can at this point,
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not to mention that if we don't close the gap
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in terms of temperature rise, I think it's one of
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those things where people think of it as just warming,
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and that's not actually what climate change is. Climate changes
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affects both deep cold spells, water and lack of water,
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and other kinds of activities. So what we're going to
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see is a bit more of a wackier set of
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symptoms from that fact, as opposed to just pure sort
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of global warming, and that's partially why the kind of naysayers,
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it gets confusing when people kind of are putting in
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an alternative narrative to it.
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Yeah, yeah, I'm sure that, you know, with the fragmentation
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of governance and multiple agencies and international bodies and overlapping
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jurisdictions has a big effect on policy, for sure, I'm sure.
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But that's where we as citizens of these countries, in
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these areas, this is where we can help. We can
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stand up and start you know, marching about the waters
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and letting people know we're not voting if you're not
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you know, planning, you know, some kind of healthy water
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planning or something like that. We have a voice, and
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we can actually you know, have have minds change because
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we're out there making enough noise about it. Remember, we're
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going to need this water. This is a life or
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death situation. This is not just oh I want to
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go to the beach. This is why for death situation
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and we really you know, have to do about it.
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And and then the lack of what about the lack
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of law, you know, lack of enforcement and weak enforcement
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mechanisms and limited resources for monitoring and compliance. You know,
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how can you how can we help, you know, when
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these governments are so fractured.
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Yeah, I mean it's a great This isn't just in
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one country or another, but globally, country by country where
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the rules aren't pass and then enforced, whether it's a
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marine protected area or it's wetlands and water pollution, in
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water sourcing, or air quality for that matter, right, because
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in lots of places where there are air quality problems,
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you also have poisoned waters. So it really is a
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struggle if there isn't a good national mandate. I think
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corporations in cities and regional governments have much more of
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a role to play, and they've gotten a bit more
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used to doing so over the last say ten years,
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and part of that comes from the fact that there's
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been this disengagement by some national governments. True funding and
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policy and regulation breakdown, enforcement breakdown. But you know, having