npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 27 November 2023; doi:10.1038/s44183-023-00029-3
Towards a global strategy for the conservation of deep-sea active hydrothermal vents
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
11/27/2023 - 00:00
11/27/2023 - 00:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 27 November 2023; doi:10.1038/s44183-023-00024-8
Recent calls for an International Panel for Ocean Sustainability (IPOS) to provide consensus-based science advice for global ocean sustainability appeal to the successes of global science–policy platforms, specifically the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the Intergovernmental Science–Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), and the World Ocean Assessment (WOA)1. A new IPOS may facilitate global ocean sustainability, but only if it proactively addresses the challenges facing existing international science–policy platforms—namely representation, accountability, and politicization.
11/26/2023 - 21:00
On The Capitol Beach, Derek Brockbank hosts Camille Crain, the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) section chief within Hazard Mitigation Assistance Division at FEMA. Only authorized 5 years ago, BRIC has quickly become one of the (if not the singular) biggest federal funding programs for resilience to natural hazards, in large part due to its funding coming directly from post-disaster funding. Specifically, 6% of Stafford Act disaster funding is now set aside for BRIC to improve resilience in communities pre-disaster. Even though BRIC is too new to have a fully a constructed project to its credit, the program is evolving to better support underserved communities, implement nature-based solutions, and provide technical assistance to communities unable to fully develop their own resilience project applications. BRIC currently has a funding opportunity of $1 Billion (together with a $800 million opportunity from its “sister program”, Flood Mitigation Assistance), with state applications due to FEMA on Feb. 29, 2024. All community applicants need to be part of state submissions, so individual applications will be due to their states’ hazard mitigation or emergency management office earlier. The next BRIC opportunity is anticipated for fall of 2024.
11/25/2023 - 11:34
This week on World Ocean Radio Peter Neill examines two forward-looking government-proposed initiatives that offer opportunities for progress in climate policy, investment, resiliency and sustainability. The first is Bridgetown 2.0, proposed by the Prime Minister of Barbados, to urge UN member states to consider an ambitious finance-driven program of climate-change response and implementation; the second is an ambitious climate commitment by the State of California to reach 100% carbon-free by 2045, as part of their proven commitment to environmental protection and action.
World Ocean Explorer Wins Gold Medal Serious Simulation Award from Serious Play Annual International Competition
10/26/2023 - 14:35
For Immediate Release October 19, 2023
Sedgwick, Maine USA World Ocean Explorer, a 3D virtual aquarium and educational simulation, was recently cited for excellence, winning a Gold Medal Award in the 2023 International Serious Play Awards Program.
World Ocean Explorer is an innovative 3D virtual aquarium designed for educational exploration of the world’s oceans. With interactive exhibits and a lobby space, visitors can immerse themselves in realistic marine environments, including a DEEP SEA exhibit funded by Schmidt Ocean Institute, showcasing unprecedented deep-sea discoveries off Australia. Targeted at 3rd graders and beyond, this immersive experience offers a range of perspectives on the ocean environment and can be explored through guided tours or user-controlled interfaces. Visit DEEP SEA at worldoceanexplorer.org/deep-sea-aquarium.html.
Serious Play Conference brings together professionals who are exploring the use of game-based learning, sharing their experience, and working together to shape the future of training and education. For more information on Serious Play Award Program visit seriousplayconf.com/international-serious-play-award-programs.
World Ocean Explorer is a transformative virtual aquarium designed to deepen understanding of the world ocean and amplify connection for young people worldwide. Organized around the principles of Ocean Literacy and the Next Gen Science Standards, World Ocean Explorer brings the wonder and knowledge of ocean species and systems to students in formal and informal classrooms, absolutely free to anyone with a good Internet connection. As an advocate for the ocean through communications, World Ocean Observatory believes there is no better investment in the future of the sustainable ocean than through a new approach to educational engagement that excites, informs, and motivates students to explore the wonders of our marine world and to understand the pervasive connection and implication for our future, inherent in the protection and conservation of all aspects of our ocean world.
World Ocean Explorer presents an astonishing 3-dimensional simulated aquarium visit, organized to reveal the wonders of undersea life, with layers of detailed data and information to augment the emotional connection made to the astonishing beauty and complexity of the dynamic ocean. Within each of the virtual exhibits, students visit exemplary theme-based sites with myriad opportunities to understand the larger perspectives of scientific knowledge as organized and visualized to dramatize the impact and change on ocean life as a result of natural and human-generated events. Through immersion among displays, mixed media and 3D models, the experience of an aquarium visit will be brought into classrooms or home school environments as a free, accessible, always available opportunity for teaching and learning. All of this will be available to a world audience without physical limitation or cost. World Ocean Explorer, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, receives support from the Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, Visual Solutions Lab, the Climate Change Institute, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, and The Fram Museum Oslo. To learn more about the current and future exhibits of World Ocean Explorer, visit worldoceanexplorer.org.
media contact
Trisha Badger, Managing Director, World Ocean Observatory | director@thew2o.net +12077011069
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