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The System That Makes Ocean Problems Feel Like Your Fault · How To Protect The Ocean

• 0:00
  Why does caring about the Ocean sometimes make you feel worse instead of better?
• 0:05
  You learn about plastic pollution, coral bleaching, overfishing, rising
• 0:09
  Ocean temperatures, disappearing species, and suddenly it feels
• 0:14
  like everything is broken.
• 0:17
  You care deeply, but the more you care, the heavier it feels.
• 0:22
  So what are people supposed to do?
• 0:24
  They can shut down.
• 0:25
  They can scroll past it.
• 0:27
  They can tell themselves there's really nothing they can do.
• 0:30
  But if you're feeling that powerless, what if it isn't
• 0:32
  just because you care too much?
• 0:35
  What if it's because you've been told to solve a collective
• 0:39
  problem all by yourself?
• 0:41
  This is the How to Protect the Ocean Podcast, your weekly Ocean news update.
• 0:45
  If you care about staying informed about the Ocean every weekday, hit
• 0:49
  that follow button right now so you don't miss tomorrow's episode.
• 0:53
  We don't talk enough about how many people are carrying the
• 0:56
  environmental stress right now.
• 0:58
  How many is it just sitting on your shoulders?
• 1:00
  I know for time to time it feels exhausting.
• 1:03
  Some call it climate anxiety.
• 1:04
  Some call it equal anxiety.
• 1:06
  Some call it Ocean anxiety, and some people just call it exhaustion.
• 1:09
  And honestly, it makes sense.
• 1:11
  Every day we hear about another crisis.
• 1:14
  Marine heat waves, whale entanglements, plastic pollution, coastal flooding,
• 1:19
  policy rollbacks, habitat loss.
• 1:21
  Even now as you are hearing this, you're probably like, Andrew, what are you doing?
• 1:25
  This sounds like your regular podcast.
• 1:26
  Why are you telling me all this same?
• 1:28
  And I have to admit, like even last week, if you heard any of last week's
• 1:30
  episode about Antarctica, about leopard seals, about orcas, about emperor
• 1:34
  penguins, even about the glaciers that we talked about in Antarctica last
• 1:37
  week, you probably felt the same thing.
• 1:40
  'Cause it was depressing.
• 1:41
  It was really depressing.
• 1:42
  Andrew, my brain is starting to ask what difference can I actually make?
• 1:48
  Like should I recycle more, drive less, buy less plastic, eat different
• 1:52
  seafood, never travel again?
• 1:55
  Like, is that what I'm supposed to do if I'm not supposed to look at my phone?
• 1:57
  'cause like we know the politicians, those types of politicians are like, well,
• 2:01
  if you use your phone, you're kind of giving into the whole fossil fuel thing.
• 2:04
  Yeah.
• 2:04
  We know that, right?
• 2:06
  We know that's what they love to say.
• 2:08
  But we're in a system that's built to just encourage that type of talk.
• 2:12
  The questions you're asking matter, but they can also become a trap because
• 2:17
  when the problem is massive, personal responsibility alone can feel crushing.
• 2:22
  It's really difficult to do everything yourself.
• 2:24
  Like even in my own household.
• 2:26
  Like individuals, we always try and be like, okay, is this recycling?
• 2:29
  Is this not recycling?
• 2:30
  It's tough to kind of like decipher everything 'cause every
• 2:33
  piece of plastic is different.
• 2:34
  And so like when we're trying to recycle and decide whether our region looks at
• 2:38
  this type of recycling or not, or they come up with a complicated word for all
• 2:42
  this stuff and you're just like, well, is
• 2:44
  this the type of plastic it is, but it's got a waxy feeling like maybe our region
• 2:48
  looks after it, like region of Halton.
• 2:49
  Maybe it does recycle it, maybe it doesn't.
• 2:51
  It could be really complicated to just do your part.
• 2:54
  For years, environmental messaging has focused on one thing, do your part, and
• 2:59
  yes, individual choices actually matter.
• 3:02
  I don't want you to think that it doesn't.
• 3:05
  You still should bring a reusable bottle.
• 3:07
  You should reduce waste.
• 3:08
  You should choose better products.
• 3:10
  You should support sustainable businesses.
• 3:12
  All are good things.
• 3:13
  But here is the problem.
• 3:15
  When individual action is presented as the main solution, people start
• 3:19
  believing that if the Ocean is still in trouble, they must not be doing enough.
• 3:24
  Like imagine you do everything right.
• 3:25
  You reduce your garbage.
• 3:27
  You have a reusable bottle, like the kids do that.
• 3:30
  Adults do that as well.
• 3:31
  You buy an EV car, maybe you buy solar panels or things like that,
• 3:34
  and you still look around and you're like, uh, yeah, it's still terrible.
• 3:37
  When an individual action is presented as the main solution and doesn't work, people
• 3:42
  start to be like, well, hold on a second.
• 3:43
  It creates guilt, not momentum.
• 3:45
  It doesn't create a movement.
• 3:47
  I interviewed Sarah Fetterman just this week, and you're gonna hear it on Friday.
• 3:51
  And one of the powerful points that was made is that a lot of the pain people
• 3:54
  feel comes from collective problems, but we often try to solve the pain with
• 3:59
  individual action, and that mismatch actually matters because no reusable
• 4:04
  straw can replace strong fisheries policy.
• 4:07
  Imagine that.
• 4:08
  We say, oh, well, you should be drinking out of a paper straw.
• 4:12
  Nobody likes that.
• 4:12
  We all know that.
• 4:14
  No single person can stop illegal fishing.
• 4:16
  No one family can restore an estuary.
• 4:19
  No one consumer can regulate offshore drilling.
• 4:22
  The issue is not that personal actions are useless.
• 4:26
  It's that they are incomplete.
• 4:28
  So what works, andrew?
• 4:29
  Like what are we talking about here?
• 4:31
  We're talking about collective action.
• 4:33
  Research discussed in the interview that I highlighted earlier, that anxiety
• 4:37
  around environmental issues can shift when people work with others to take action.
• 4:41
  That's what makes sense.
• 4:43
  Not individual action, not just working on your own, but collective action.
• 4:46
  When you act with others, you share the burden.
• 4:49
  You feel the momentum, you see progress.
• 4:52
  You build those relationships, you stop feeling alone.
• 4:55
  Imagine just cleaning up your neighborhood with a community, with
• 4:58
  your neighborhood, like your neighbors.
• 5:00
  Imagine just going out and being like, Hey, this is kind of cool.
• 5:03
  Like we're actually getting to know each other.
• 5:05
  We're building relationships.
• 5:06
  Not only that, we're seeing our neighbors collectively come together and say, yeah,
• 5:10
  no, to pollution in our neighborhood.
• 5:12
  'Cause like, I don't know if you guys have it, I know I keep going to garbage,
• 5:15
  but when is garbage day here at my house?
• 5:17
  It's every Monday.
• 5:18
  It seems like it's the windiest fricking day ever.
• 5:21
  So all the recycling gets blown over.
• 5:23
  I come home from after work or I go out, I work from home now.
• 5:26
  I go outside after work to get my garbage pails and recycling bins and
• 5:30
  everything, and I bring 'em inside and I look on my front lawn and I
• 5:33
  see garbage that's not from my bins.
• 5:35
  I know it's not from my bins.
• 5:36
  I don't use those products and I see it from others.
• 5:38
  So like all of a sudden you're like, why are the neighbors
• 5:40
  putting stuff on my lawn?
• 5:41
  But it's really just the wind from the garbage, and that's how
• 5:43
  it gets around the neighborhood.
• 5:44
  If you don't pick it up and it's somebody else's garbage, but it's on your property.
• 5:48
  Or like, you know, my neighbor, my neighbor's elderly.
• 5:51
  She's a great woman, but she's not gonna go out every day and
• 5:53
  pick up trash off her lawn.
• 5:55
  So like, as a neighborhood, we kind of look out for each other.
• 5:56
  We kind of pick up that stuff.
• 5:58
  And to be honest, like a lot of the times I should be, as I walk the dogs in the
• 6:01
  neighborhood, I should pick up the stuff.
• 6:03
  But sometimes when you're doing it alone, you're like, why am I always doing this?
• 6:05
  Why isn't anybody else doing this?
• 6:06
  So if you do it as a community, go to a beach cleanup, do a river cleanup in your
• 6:10
  neighborhood, whatever that might be.
• 6:12
  It's huge because you're not doing it alone.
• 6:15
  And that last point that I made, you stop feeling alone.
• 6:18
  That's a huge one because isolation magnifies the fear.
• 6:22
  Community creates the actual resilience.
• 6:25
  Speaking up with others feels different than worrying about yourself.
• 6:29
  Now for a long, long time, for 11 years, I've been podcasting.
• 6:33
  And I've been sitting in my office normally doing solo episodes by myself.
• 6:37
  And when I know that there are other people that are starting podcasts, when
• 6:41
  I know that there are other people who are doing the great work, it's awesome,
• 6:44
  but they're doing it on their own.
• 6:45
  And sometimes that can feel isolating.
• 6:47
  It's not their fault.
• 6:48
  It's not my fault.
• 6:49
  It just feels isolating 'cause you're doing it on their own.
• 6:51
  You're speaking up on your own.
• 6:52
  I've talked about this a number of times on my podcast.
• 6:54
  I joined a group of, like a coalition of other science communicators.
• 6:58
  Most of them are in the US but some of us are in Canada.
• 7:01
  And we get together every once in a while and we collectively as a
• 7:04
  coalition, collaborate on science communication posts, whether it
• 7:08
  be on Instagram, on LinkedIn, on a podcast, or anything like that.
• 7:12
  And we come together and do it.
• 7:13
  And when I see other people doing the same work that I'm
• 7:15
  doing, it makes me feel so good.
• 7:17
  Showing up to a meeting feels different than doom scrolling.
• 7:20
  Joining a cleanup feels different than reading another headline.
• 7:24
  It's always something that makes it worse when you do it alone.
• 7:28
  Even learning together feels different than panicking alone.
• 7:32
  Some of these news articles, man, they are dangerous.
• 7:35
  They are dangerous.
• 7:36
  They either like over blow what's happening just so you can click
• 7:40
  on it, but it makes you scared.
• 7:41
  And people do not wanna see doom and gloom.
• 7:44
  They wanna see optimism, they wanna see that there's hope.
• 7:46
  They wanna see people working.
• 7:47
  And when you start to read more optimistic things, not that everything in the Ocean
• 7:51
  is optimistic, but when you start to read those things, it really helps.
• 7:54
  So what does collective action actually look like?
• 7:57
  I've talked a little bit about it.
• 7:58
  It does not have to mean chaining yourself to a bulldozer or
• 8:01
  becoming a full-time activist.
• 8:03
  No, you don't have to do that.
• 8:04
  Sometimes it looks like maybe joining a local conservation group.
• 8:07
  Or starting a local conservation group yourself.
• 8:10
  Back in the day we used to have just community watch.
• 8:13
  And that would just be like everybody else is like, you know, they had two parents
• 8:16
  would walk along the neighborhood at night just to make sure everything's fine.
• 8:19
  Nobody's getting broken into.
• 8:20
  Everybody's looking out for each other.
• 8:22
  They know the neighborhood, they know the kids, they know the families.
• 8:25
  And they kind of just look out for each other.
• 8:27
  Imagine doing like a community watch, but for oceans.
• 8:30
  Doing beach cleanups, wetland restoration, shoreline stewardship,
• 8:33
  maybe some citizen science.
• 8:34
  Sounds like a lot of fun.
• 8:36
  You can support advocacy campaigns, sending comments on Marine protected
• 8:40
  areas, writing elected officials, backing science-based policy.
• 8:43
  All these things are really great.
• 8:45
  Community science, track species sightings, which is kind of cool.
• 8:49
  I know I have a neighbor here who's a birder.
• 8:50
  He takes pictures of the birds too.
• 8:52
  It's just incredible pictures.
• 8:53
  Water quality monitoring.
• 8:54
  You can always get part of that.
• 8:56
  Reef observations if you live near one.
• 8:58
  Unfortunately, I don't.
• 8:59
  You can share skills.
• 9:00
  There's no stopping it.
• 9:02
  Maybe you're a teacher, a designer, an accountant, a communicator,
• 9:06
  a photographer, a coder.
• 9:07
  All those skills can help Ocean organizations make more than you think.
• 9:12
  Can help more than you think.
• 9:13
  Being part of a learning community, and yes.
• 9:17
  Even this podcast can be a part of that.
• 9:20
  Every time you listen or you share an episode, you send a story to a
• 9:23
  friend, or you start a conversation, you're helping build a network
• 9:26
  of people who actually care.
• 9:28
  Imagine taking this and having a conversation with your family about it.
• 9:32
  Just taking this episode and just talking about Ocean anxiety, climate anxiety.
• 9:36
  That matters because it gets people thinking.
• 9:38
  You're having an intellectual conversation on something
• 9:41
  that's happening to all of us.
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  Because movements are made of connected people, not the perfect people.
• 9:47
  It doesn't have to be the best thing that comes out of everything.
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  So here's the shift I want you to remember today.
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  I don't want you to just ask, what habit should I change?
• 9:57
  I want you to ask, who can I join?
• 10:00
  The question changes everything.
• 10:02
  Instead of carrying the Ocean on your shoulders, you become
• 10:06
  part of something bigger.
• 10:07
  Instead of guilt, you get direction.
• 10:09
  Instead of helplessness, you get a movement.
• 10:12
  Instead of anxiety, you get an agency.
• 10:15
  And no, it's not gonna fix everything overnight.
• 10:18
  And joining a newsletter of an organization who's always asking
• 10:21
  you for money so they can do more work is also not gonna help.
• 10:24
  You have to get involved.
• 10:26
  You have to join something.
• 10:27
  Look for something that can get involved.
• 10:29
  And if there's nothing around, start something.
• 10:31
  There's nothing stopping you from starting something.
• 10:33
  It could be volunteer, it could be a business, it could be
• 10:35
  whatever you decide it to be.
• 10:37
  But it will change how you feel.
• 10:38
  It can change what becomes possible next.
• 10:42
  So if caring about the Ocean has you making you feel worse lately,
• 10:46
  there's nothing wrong with you.
• 10:48
  You're reacting to a real problem, but you were never meant to carry it alone.
• 10:53
  Find your people.
• 10:54
  Join the effort.
• 10:55
  Take one step at a time with others.
• 10:58
  That is the change that starts.
• 11:00
  That is the hope that becomes real.
• 11:03
  I wanna leave you with that message because this is gonna be an
• 11:06
  inspiration of episodes this week.
• 11:09
  We're gonna be talking about the realism of what it's like to do Ocean
• 11:13
  conservation, what it's like to be an Ocean conservationist, whether you're
• 11:16
  a scientist, whether you do it as a full-time career, whether you just
• 11:20
  care about the Ocean and you want to see something done to protect it.
• 11:24
  You care about the planet, you care about the climate, and you wanna see
• 11:27
  something help because let's be honest.
• 11:29
  Climate is Ocean.
• 11:30
  Ocean is climate change.
• 11:31
  It's all the same.
• 11:32
  Even more so.
• 11:33
  So when you go to a climate week next time, you make sure you say,
• 11:36
  Hey, where's this Ocean stuff?
• 11:38
  Because ocean's a huge thing.
• 11:39
  But do it in a community.
• 11:40
  Join that community.
• 11:42
  Surf rider, great community to join.
• 11:44
  All right.
• 11:45
  I'd love to hear if you join a community or you started something
• 11:48
  that has to do with the Ocean.
• 11:49
  I'd love to hear your thoughts.
• 11:50
  Go to speak up for blue.com/feedback.
• 11:53
  If you're listening to this on Spotify, leave a comment.
• 11:56
  I'd love to hear your thoughts.
• 11:58
  ' Cause this is an inspirational week.
• 11:59
  This is a week that I want you to get up and I want you to get out there
• 12:02
  and I want you to do something about it, about the Ocean, about the planet.
• 12:06
  It's Earth Week.
• 12:07
  It's Earth Week this week and I want you to feel like it.
• 12:10
  I don't usually do stuff like around Earth Week, but this week is something special
• 12:13
  'cause we're seeing a lot of stuff go on around the world that is really concerning
• 12:18
  especially around the environment, a lot of rollbacks happening in the
• 12:21
  environment, not only in the states, but also in Canada and elsewhere.
• 12:24
  We need to protect the Ocean.
• 12:25
  We need to make sure those regulations are in place 'cause they
• 12:27
  are in place to protect the Ocean.
• 12:29
  We just celebrated.
• 12:30
  I believe it was like 50 years of the Magnuson-Stevensons Act,
• 12:33
  which is the big Fisheries Act
• 12:34
  in the US.
• 12:35
  It has brought back a lot of fisheries in the US to be sustainable.
• 12:38
  So happy to celebrate that.
• 12:40
  But also we need to celebrate this Ocean.
• 12:42
  We need to celebrate this planet.
• 12:43
  We need to do something about it by joining a community.
• 12:46
  So I wanna thank you so much for joining me on today's episode
• 12:49
  and I want to hear your thoughts.
• 12:50
  Speak up for blue.com/feedback.
• 12:53
  I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.
• 12:54
  Have a great day.
• 12:54
  We'll talk to you next time and happy conservation.