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It Takes a Village to Protect the Ocean · How To Protect The Ocean

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  Protecting the ocean through a community is probably one of the best ways
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  to feel not only a part of something bigger, but to
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  really tackle the large overwhelming task
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  of protecting the ocean. We're going to talk about the benefits of joining
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  a community on today's episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  Let's start the show. Hey
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  everybody, welcome back to another exciting episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast.
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  I'm your host Andrew Luan. This is the podcast where you find out what's happening with the ocean,
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  how you can speak up for the ocean, and what you can do to live for
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  a better ocean by taking action. And on
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  today's episode, we're going to be talking about the importance of a community. And
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  that could be a local community, that could be an online community, that could be many different ways
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  that you define a community. But
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  the idea of it is that you are a part of something bigger.
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  We talk a lot about tackling climate change, overfishing,
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  and plastic pollution. These are all very large problems
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  and they are complex. It requires not only you as an individual to
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  take part in protecting the ocean by living for a better ocean, but you
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  also have to be part of a community because we need to do this as
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  a community. So if you're passionate about protecting the ocean, you might
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  sometimes feel like you're on this journey by yourself. You're
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  on this journey alone. But here's the thing, being a part of a community can
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  be one of the most effective and inspiring ways to make a
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  real impact. Today, I want to dive into why community matters and
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  how it can guide you on how you can find a tribe in
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  the ocean conservation world. world. So let's start first with the
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  simple truth. Protecting the ocean is hard. It's a massive task.
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  If you can feel so overwhelming, whether it's tackling
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  issues like plastic pollution, climate change, or overfishing, just like
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  I mentioned, the problems are global and you might
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  wonder what difference can one person. That's where
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  community comes in. When you're a part of a group with like-minded people, suddenly,
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  you're not alone anymore. You're not tackling this by yourself. You're
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  surrounded by others who share your passion, your concerns, your
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  drive to make a difference. And here's why community matters.
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  One, you can have shared knowledge. When you're part of a community, you
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  gain access to wealth of knowledge and resources. Maybe
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  someone knows the best way to organize a beach cleanup or
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  how to navigate local government policies to protect marine areas.
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  Learning from others makes you more effective. Here's
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  a little story, Brown. I remember speaking to Emily Cunningham on
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  this podcast, and she discussed how she has worked with
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  local council people in her area in the UK to
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  get things going. She built the relationships with
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  the local council. She's the one who talked to each one
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  of the council members. She's the one who got their values and
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  then discussed her values around the same subject. She's
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  the one who helped bring people together from her community to
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  help drive further. These are the ways that you can
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  learn from people through their mistakes, through their challenges, through their
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  successes, so that you can do the same thing in your
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  local area. So not only will it inspire you by watching other people do
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  it, but they can help you with the menial task of
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  getting around certain things. Like how to get a hold of a council person.
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  How do you discuss that? How do you approach them without saying, I
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  demand this, I want this, I voted for you, work for me. No, you
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  don't do it that way. There are ways to approach somebody
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  and build that relationship with that counsel person. That's what really
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  matters. To be able to have that knowledge and share
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  that within a group, whether you have it or other people have it, you can learn from
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  that and you can be more effective as an ocean advocate. So
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  that was the first one. That was shared knowledge. So
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  the second one is accountability and motivation. So let's face it,
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  it's easy to feel discouraged when change feels slow. But being
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  a part of a group keeps you accountable. When others are working
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  alongside you, it's harder to give up. So just imagine you
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  have all these tasks that you want to take. Let's start
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  with one. And you have an accountability partner. I remember as part
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  of a podcast group online. And some of the ways that you can help make
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  sure that you hold yourself accountable and you do the tasks of the course that they
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  gave me and the coaching that they gave me was I had an accountability partner. You
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  can choose that accountability partner and you hold each other accountable
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  to make sure you get things going. So if I suddenly, you know, I don't feel that
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  well that week and my accountability partner is like, you can get these things
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  done. at least get the minimal stuff done so that you feel good
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  about yourself by the end of the week. And you get it done, and it moves you that much closer
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  towards your goal. Imagine doing the same thing for oceans. Seeing
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  other people's wins based on accountability, big or small, can
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  inspire you to keep going. So it helps with the accountability and
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  the motivation. The third thing is amplifying your voice by
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  being part of a community. So a community can amplify your
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  impact. One person signing a petition, that might not
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  change the law, but hundreds of voices, holy cow, that changes everything.
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  That's a movement. And an example of that is when I spoke to Dr.
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  Chad Nelson, the CEO of Surfrider. He said that there was one
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  spot during his tenure where, and
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  it was pretty recent, where the council people
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  in one area were going to change something
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  that would change the access or even change a beach, a
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  very popular surf spot for his organization, Surf Riders. That
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  was a problem. They were worried that they were going to lose out. It already got
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  stamped in. The developers were ready to go. It was going to be a
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  done deal. And then Surf Rider jumped in. They access their
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  community. It was a community of volunteers, their network of volunteers,
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  and they said, Hey, there is a public meeting that
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  is happening at this place at this time. We need you
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  to show up because right now they think that they have the deal
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  done and our surfing spot is going to be affected. But
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  if you show up like we ask you to do and like what we want
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  you to do, we want us as a community to do. You can show up and
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  protect that surf spot. They had to change the location three times
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  to get a bigger venue. 500 people from Surfrider, in
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  that network of volunteers, who are not only surfers, but
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  they're beach advocates, and they're just ocean advocates, and they want
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  to see this stay natural. They came out and they said
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  to the developers, no, we don't want this. This is why. Here are our stories. You
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  need to listen to us. That development never went through. The power
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  of people, the power of amplifying one person's voice by
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  showing up as a community, a community of individuals who share
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  the same passion, that is protecting the ocean, will help
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  you and get things done. Whether it's a local community or
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  an online community, it does not matter. You can amplify your voice.
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  A community gives you strength in numbers, whether it's
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  advocating for policies or raising awareness. And I've
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  seen this, I've heard the stories from the people who've come on
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  this podcast, from other people who haven't been guests yet, but
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  one day, one day will. But they've just, they've talked about these stories. I've
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  seen it firsthand. Let's think about it. Greta
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  Thunberg was one student who did a climate
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  strike every Friday in Sweden. How many of
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  us knew or predicted that that one strike, that
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  climate strike, would turn into a movement of hundreds of
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  thousands, if not millions of people around the world, striking on
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  Fridays for a while because they wanted more climate action.
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  They want to tell their government, not only in Sweden, but in the UK,
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  in Canada, in New Zealand, in Australia, in India, everywhere,
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  right, where they could protest in South America, they would do that.
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  They would have a strike. They would walk hundreds of thousands of people in each
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  city, in each area, and they would walk for climate. That's how great
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  it was. There was one person I know who walked on a plane, because at the same time
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  that the protest was happening, he was on a plane. He had a sign, and he walked up
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  and down the aisle and said, hey, I'm on a climate strike. I want climate action.
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  That's the power of numbers. that's what it gives
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  it and it's just it's amazing how much work has been
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  done by governments because of those strikes
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  because of those movements whether it's a local government
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  a state government or provincial wherever you're from or federal government
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  The tune of climate change, that term has gone from
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  denial to figuring out what the action might be. Now,
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  let's be honest, we may not agree on every action, every country is
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  different, but we know action needs to be taken. It's
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  just a matter of how fast and how much will
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  be done, right? That's the big problem with governments right now,
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  but it's being done because of that movement. People shared ideas, whether
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  it be one person, two people or a community, organized events and
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  support each other when the going got tough. Let's be honest,
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  Greta Thunberg did not have an easy life going through this. She was
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  mocked, she was insulted, she
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  was yelled at, and she was all a teenager while doing this.
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  That's a very difficult life to go through. But she had one thing,
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  she wanted climate action. She wanted to inspire. She turned from doing
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  it herself as an individual to inspiring hundreds of thousands, if
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  not millions of people to doing it, to taking those strikes, to taking that
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  action to say, hey, you know what? If a 16-year-old could tell
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  a prime minister, a president, they're not doing enough, and get angry at
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  them, we could do the same thing. We can tell each and every one of our
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  members of parliament, our members of Congress, or whoever they
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  are, the people who represent you as a government, to say,
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  you are not doing enough, we want you to do more. And it's about doing it
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  in a group, because one person's not going to change their mind. If
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  you're in a democracy, it's the power of the popular vote, the
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  power of the majority. Right? If we can get the
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  majority to say that we need ocean conservation, we need climate
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  action, we need to reduce overfishing and eliminate overfishing,
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  we need to eliminate and reduce plastic pollution, that's
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  how you do it. It's not just what you
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  can do for the community. It's what you can bring to the
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  table. When you join a community, whether it be on Facebook, whether
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  it be on a WhatsApp group, or a Slack group, or whatever
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  that might be, don't just join it for the sake of
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  joining it. Join it with a purpose. Join it because a
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  community matters to you. You wanna bring value to
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  the community as much as you wanna get the value out of that community. You've probably
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  heard that before in anything that you've talked about. You get what you
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  put into it. And so you can do that with the community. For
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  example, I work out at CrossFit. I'm
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  horrible at it, but I enjoy it. I really enjoy working as a
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  community. And going to a gym, community matters. Who I
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  work out with are the people that motivate me to come each and every day, right?
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  That I go work out. I don't work out every day. That would be killer for me. But I
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  go, every time I go, I look forward to seeing the people, I look forward to working
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  out with people that will push me, that will motivate me, that I can somewhat
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  compete with. Don't tell them I'm competing, but I always look at what they do and it
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  kind of drives me, right? But the value that I bring is I
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  encourage other people, I support other people, whether they're better than me or
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  they're not as good as me or whatever, we finish first or finish last, it
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  doesn't matter, I support everybody. I'm cheering people on
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  as I'm working out, if I have a breath. You know, I'm after, you
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  know, we were done. We all give each other, you know, knuckles and be like, hey,
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  good job. Good job. That's how we build that community. But
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  at one point I lost my community. The gym that I
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  was a part of, it shut down for whatever reason. We moved over to
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  another gym. It was a different gym. We tried our best to make it
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  like the community that we had before, because we had a really good community at the original gym.
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  And we just couldn't feel it there. We just couldn't feel it. And
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  I don't know if it was just the abruptness of the move, or we moved to a larger gym,
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  so it was a larger community. We just couldn't find our place. But I
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  had a crew of people who worked out at 6 o'clock
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  in the morning. And that's a special crew. Not everybody can work out at
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  6 o'clock in the morning. But we were all in the same age group and we all had
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  kids and we were all trying to go through the same challenges and
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  successes in life and that kind of stuff. We had a really good French group.
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  We would hang out afterwards and at
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  night and stuff like that. It was fun. But then at that group, at
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  that gym, we just didn't have that community feel. We weren't happy there.
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  And we eventually went back to the place where our
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  original gym was, but it was a different name gym, run differently by
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  a different person. And we said to ourselves when we went over there, there was like three
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  or four that went over there, we said, look, we're not gonna have the same dynamic and
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  the same people as we always did. But what we could do is when
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  we get there is we can put in more effort than we did at last gym to
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  make it a community. And let's make the community, if we wanted to make it a
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  certain way, let's bring in the value that we can
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  provide to bring in that community. Always be friendly, always
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  walk up to people, ask how people are, ask about their lives and all that
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  kind of stuff. As much as they want to share, let's get that out and let's make
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  them feel welcome when we're there. so that they feel like
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  it's the same community that we want it to be. That's the same
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  thing you want to do in an online community. I know online and
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  local communities, like everybody's abrasive and everybody argues with each
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  other. You don't have to argue, right? You don't have to be abrasive
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  with somebody. You can support. Man, what an idea. Imagine
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  going into an online group and you support people. right you help them
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  out or you say good job hey that really inspires me
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  to do something I don't know what can you help me out right and people will be
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  thoughtful people will be happy and I think that's the
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  key right so the question is like now I've made a case
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  like hey let's be part of a community. Government
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  right now in North America, probably not going to help. I'm not familiar
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  too much with Mexican government, but I know U.S. and
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  Canada, we see it all the time. The next administration for the U.S. not going to be
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  a help for environment. The next administration for the next
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  government for Canada in a year or so, probably not going
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  to be helpful for the environment. The community is going to be
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  the place where you need to be. So how do you find your
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  ocean conservation community? Especially if you live inland, right?
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  Like there's not an ocean around, you may not have that. But the first thing
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  is you start local. Look for organizations, clubs, events near
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  your area. Any kind of beach cleanups, educational programs,
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  any volunteer opportunities are great places to meet like-minded
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  people. So just start local, get out of the house, get out of
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  your apartment, get out wherever you live, and start going into places where you
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  look at like a surf ride or a Trout Unlimited or something local.
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  And if they offer something where you can volunteer in person, say, hey, I
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  want to volunteer in person. I want to meet other people, other volunteers. I'd be
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  happy to work a certain amount of hours a week or a month, and I'd be
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  happy to go out there. So that helps too. Go online. Social media
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  and forums are full of groups focused on ocean conservation.
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  So join Facebook groups, follow activists on Instagram, or
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  participate in online discussions. When you participate, remember, you
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  want to bring as much value as you want to get out of it, right? So
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  if you have expertise or you have some kind of knowledge or experience, share that
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  experience when it's necessary, right? And I'll talk about the online
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  group in just a sec. Be proactive. Don't
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  wait for the perfect opportunity to come to you. Reach out, ask
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  questions, and put yourself out there. The ocean needs
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  your voice. It is imperative that we provide value
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  quickly, that we join groups that are effective quickly,
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  and you must be able to recognize whether this group is going to be
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  effective or they just want to argue all the time. There are a lot of Facebook groups
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  out there that just argue all the time. There's like, they're dominated by
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  one or two people around. You want to make sure that everybody has a
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  voice. You want to make sure that maybe they meet online virtually or
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  on a regular basis, or they, you know, they ask from you
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  personally. Say, hey, what do you thought, what are your thoughts about this? Or provide content,
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  you know, fairly regularly, right? I think it's really important. I
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  think it's important that we were able to get our voices
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  out there from everybody, listen, and then provide constructive
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  feedback, but not just get involved in arguments. Here's
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  the bottom line. Protecting the ocean is not something that you can do alone.
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  It takes a community. None of us can do it alone. It takes a
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  community, a network of people united by their love for the
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  ocean and their determination to protect it. So when
• 15:53
  you find your community, you'll find more than just support, you'll
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  find purpose, you'll find strength and inspiration to keep
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  going, even when the challenges feel overwhelming. And I'm
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  going to guarantee you the challenges are going to feel very overwhelming, but
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  we can persist through those. If you're listening to this
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  and you haven't found a community yet, I encourage you to
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  start looking. And better yet, I've been talking about this for the
• 16:17
  last six months, and I've been talking about creating an online community
• 16:21
  myself. I've started Facebook communities before.
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  I have one for marine science and conservation careers. I
• 16:27
  had one for Speak Up for Blue, like this podcast.
• 16:32
  But in reality, I've got another one brewing, and it's going
• 16:35
  to be released at the end of January. it's an online
• 16:39
  community where it's supportive where we're going to help
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  guide you to become a better advocate
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  for the ocean more knowledgeable on the ocean and be
• 16:49
  able to act to live for a better ocean by taking the
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  actions that you need to take that could be purchasing products
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  that could be doing services connecting with the ocean right being part
• 16:59
  of workshops being together as a community and
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  interacting with each other. So if you are interested in
• 17:06
  being part of this community, we'll release the name and
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  have other people involved as well. It's not just me, okay? It's this
• 17:13
  new venture that I'm a part of. I want you to
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  go to www.speakupforblue.com forward
• 17:25
  slash community to sign up and be
• 17:28
  on the wait list for the first people to
• 17:31
  come in to this community. This is a chance for
• 17:35
  you to shape the community that you want to be in. This is a
• 17:38
  chance to be one of the first to be part of this community. This
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  is a community that's not going to start and then just go away. It's going to be around for
• 17:45
  a very, very long time. It's going to be around to provide
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  value, not only to you, but to everybody in the community, and
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  to be able to allow opportunities to connect to the ocean,
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  whether that be virtually or in person, and interact with
• 17:59
  people around you, whether that be virtually or in person. It's
• 18:02
  a lot of fun. I'm very excited about this new opportunity. It's free to
• 18:05
  sign up to get this access to this list. All
• 18:09
  you have to do is go to speakupforblue.com forward slash community.
• 18:14
  That's it for me today. I'm really excited about this. I'm going
• 18:17
  to have more information in the next coming weeks, but please
• 18:21
  sign up. Keep tuning into this episode. If you have any questions, you
• 18:24
  can DM me at how to protect the ocean on instagram that's
• 18:28
  at how to protect the ocean so just dm me on instagram and of course if
• 18:31
  you don't want to miss any other episode you can subscribe to our youtube
• 18:35
  channel hit that notification bell so you don't miss any of the monday wednesday
• 18:38
  and friday episodes and of course we're on spotify
• 18:42
  video we're on apple podcasts overcast all
• 18:45
  your favorite audio podcast apps were there as well I
• 18:49
  want to thank you so much for joining me on today's episode of the How to Protect the
• 18:52
  Ocean podcast. Let's start the new year off with a bang and join
• 18:56
  the community that will help you live for a better ocean. Thank
• 18:59
  you so much for listening. I'm your host Angelo and have a great day. We'll talk to you