Um, uh, so the title loans Florida. Our Ocean Conference, yes, was 2016. And that was the opportunity to work with Secretary Kerry at that, at that event and I was honored to open that, that event. Uh, and it really demonstrated first, Secretary Kerry’s, uh, work now, I guess, Special, uh, Climate Envoy Kerry’s extraordinary and visionary leadership on ocean issues in particular, and environmental issues in general, uh, and, and was a tremendous honor for me to, to, to be able to kick off that event and, and be part of that initial that which has now gone to have several iterations around the world, which, um, I think is a- again, a testament to his leadership and, and the State Department’s leadership on, on these issues. Uh, and I was able to share some, some films with my grandfather and some of the work that we’ve done, and, and hopefully set the stage for, for, for, uh, hopeful and, uh, positive and, and productive event.
Indeed, climate change, the climate crisis is an ocean crisis
Finally, too, right, it’s one of those things that, you know, I, uh . we always tell folks, you know, one of the challenges that we face with I believe the, um, uh, the, the current conversation about climate and you know, conservation is that, is that we have forgotten the central role that the ocean plays in that. And, and up until the, the, the ocean, Our Oceans Conference, and, and still unfortunately, today, it work, it, it plagues us. We are, you know, underestimating, I believe, um, the, the important role that the ocean plays, in fact, you know, we cannot solve the climate crisis until we restore the oceans to abundance, and we cannot, you know, solve the, the precipitous catastrophic decline in biodiversity without elevating and putting the oceans at the center of that conversation. And, and that was a, a tremendous step forward. Um, the Our Oceans Conference, uh, towards achieving that goal and reminding everybody, just how important the ocean is to regulating our climate, to providing food, to, uh, you know, so many of these vital functions that make life on Earth possible.
And, you know, and, and with respect to the United States, that’s, you know, that’s the State Department, State Department is on the front lines of that work
So, we have a saying, at, at, at Earth Echo, « It’s not that you can make a difference, it’s that everything you do makes a difference, all of your choices have consequences. » And, we like to think of that as a really empowering message because it means that every day, every one of our choices, we have an opportunity to do something good and build the kind of world that we want for ourselves and for our children. So, we never tell people what to do, but, but certainly the kinds of things that we do, and the kinds of things that we’re inspired by the youth leaders that we, that we work with and what they do, is thinking about our choices, everyday in our, in our homes, thinking about the cleaning products that we use, thinking about the, the containers, there’s a lots of innovation out there, if you wanna reuse plastic, there are, um, great companies to create now, um, tablets that you can mix with water, they become cleaning sprays, um, and reuse containers or use glass containers that are, um, you know, thinking about bar soaps for shampoo and conditioner and eliminating plastic out of your shower.
