Watching Netflix's new movie Don't Look Up made me feel seen as no other movie has before. The movie is a satire on how society reacts to the news of environmental disasters and depicts scientists as whistleblowers that are annoying to society's day-to-day living. 

Many non-scientists felt the frustration and anger of Jennifer Lawrence's character that was a Ph.D. candidate who was passionate about what she had discovered and was angry that no one was trying to stop the destruction of the planet. We feel a similar struggle trying to speak up for climate change. 

There were people who criticized the movie. They complained that it made society out to be dumb and they didn't like that. They thought the writer, Adam McKay, should stick to making movies similar to his other hits, such as Step Brothers.

I think many of the critics are proving the point of the film. 

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A friend recently recommended a podcast to me where the host interviewed Dr. Jane Goodall. Dr. Goodall is a terrific scientist and is known for her studies on great apes where she lived with apes in the wild for many years. 

During the podcast, the host, Jay Shetty, discussed how hope could help fight the war on nature. I've heard from family and friends that they lose hope after hearing the doom and gloom of nature, yet Dr. Goodall suggests that they people can get their optimism back through local actions. 

I talk about how hope should be part of every nature message if we want to end this war on the environment.

Link to podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/jane-goodall-on-winning-the-war-on-nature-how-simple/id1450994021?i=1000538899362

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We need to do many things to reduce Climate Change and there are companies that are working around the clock to help bring renewable energy to the forefront in order to get them online. 

You may notice more windmills in the Ocean or near highways and the acres of land dedicated to solar panels. The latter is the focus of today's episode, solar panels. 

One of the major challenges to adding more solar panels is finding the space to put them. Deserts seem to be a good area, but one company is also looking at floating solar panels to decrease the risk of competing for space, but is adding a number of floating panels good for the habitats underneath the surface of the water?

Link to website: https://www.ciel-et-terre.net/

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The people are fed up with the broken promises of climate action by governments and will eventually resort to violence if the government doesn't clean up its act with the oil and gas industry. Dr. David Suzuki thinks that blowing up pipelines is inevitable if governments continue to ignore the people's wishes of climate action now. 

The speech is getting a lot of heat from conservative-leaning media as they think the words will lead to environmental terrorism. 

What are your thoughts?

Link to article: https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/pipelines-will-be-blown-up-says-david-suzuki-if-leaders-dont-act-on-climate-change

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Deep-sea mining is on the minds of many mining and tech companies as there is a potential to mind the metals that are so badly needed for computer chips that power the very devices you are using to listen to this podcast. However, we are not aware of the ramifications of mining unique areas such as deep-sea hydrothermal vents. 

A PhD candidate in deep-sea biology for Queen's University Belfast, Elin Angharad Thomas, conducted an analysis to assess whether the species that are found in hydrothermal vent habitats would be threatened by deep-sea mining. She used the criteria for the IUCN Red List to determine whether the species would be considered "at risk." 

The results of her analysis revealed that 2/3 of the species analyzed would be considered endangered by deep-sea mining and 20% of the species would be considered critically endangered.

The results of the study make more of a case to avoid deep-sea mining to preserve biodiversity in the deep sea. 

Link to article: https://www.theinertia.com/environment/deep-sea-mining-may-wipe-out-species-we-have-just-discovered/

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NFTs are all the rage in the cryptocurrency world these days. Many artists, digital creators, and even marine organizations are making money using NFTs. However, the way NFTs are processed could have implications for increasing climate change.

NFTs use the Eurythreum cryptocurrency, which is controlled by users (called miners) having to solve complex puzzles to gain tokens. Solving the puzzles take up a lot of energy which emits carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. 

The entire Eurythreum cryptocurrency uses as much electricity as Libya. 

There are ways to reduce the emissions to almost zero by switching the manner in which the currency is controlled. 

Link to articles:
1) https://www.theverge.com/2021/3/15/22328203/nft-cryptoart-ethereum-blockchain-climate-change
2) https://ecotrust.ca/latest/media/blockchain-for-climate-foundation-launches-bitmo-platform-at-cop26/

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The Indonesian government took coal ash off the list of hazardous materials even though there is evidence that there are harmful metals such as mercury and arsenic that can leech into the environment. The coal industry lobby worked with the government to get the removal passed. 

The government followed up with a policy where the fisheries ministry would by bricks made from coal ash and use them as bricks in the foundation for coral transplantation.

I can't make this stuff up!

Link to article: https://news.mongabay.com/2021/12/indonesias-new-plan-for-coal-it-pollutes-land-and-air-so-why-not-the-sea-too/

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There are many designation categories for protected areas in the ocean; however, they are often lumped into one category: Marine Protected Area. Marine Protected Area (MPA) is a term that has a very specific definition that is different from other protected area categories. 

A marine protected area is an area in the ocean where no extractive activities are allowed.

Some parks are called MPAs, but they allow extractive activities so they don't count as an MPA. 

Why is this important? If we want to protect the ocean, then we will need to have MPAs where no extractive activities are permitted to ensure there is protection. Some parks allow trawling to occur. Other parks allow oil and gas exploration and extraction. 

It can be confusing for us all to keep up with the protected area designations, but it's important to know what areas are truly protected. 

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In May 2021, a container ship called the X-Press Pearl caught fire and sank off the coast of Sri Lanka spilling large amounts of toxic chemicals in the form of fuel and a high concentration of microplastic pellets, called nurdles. 

These nurdles can wreak havoc on ocean habitats as they are made from fossil fuel chemicals and break down once in the water. The nurdles are ingested by sea turtles, marine mammals, seabirds, and fish where they can cause choking and/or leech chemicals into the animals' bodies. The spill of nurdles has also caused 20,000 fishers to stop fishing in Sri Lanka. 

The X-Press Pearl spill is a current example that nurdles need to be classified as hazardous materials. Unfortunately, the International Maritime Organization put off addressing the issue until next year opening the way for more spills to occur over the next year. 

Over 230,000 tons of nurdles enter the ocean every year. 

Link to article: https://grist.org/health/nurdles-the-worst-toxic-waste-youve-probably-never-heard-of/

Join the Plastic Pollution Coalition: https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/the-coalition/

Petition against nurdles: https://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/982/791/665/

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New research published in the Journal of Heredity identified 3 new genetically distinctive populations of tiger sharks: one population is in the Indo-Pacific Ocean basin; one is in the Atlantic Ocean basin, and the third is in the waters surrounding the Hawaiin Islands. 

The new populations will no doubt add a call to protect the distinct population keeping in mind that tiger sharks are mass migratory species.

Link to Article: https://news.mongabay.com/2021/11/geneticists-have-identified-new-groups-of-tiger-sharks-to-protect/

https://news.mongabay.com/list/ucsc/

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