Earth Day With J.

I can't think of a better way to kick off Earth Day 2008 than brunch with Wallace J. Nichols - third culture oceanographer and Ocean Conservancy senior scientist. Later today, he's giving a keynote address here at Duke, so it's a good opportunity for us to catch up. Readers may remember J.'s research featured here on loggerhead sea turtles last October, and tonight he'll announce the winner of the first annual EcoDaredevil Award during his talk titled: 'Jump the Chasm: Are you an EcoDaredevil?'

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EcoDareDevil is a cool concept... Check this out:

Everywhere I go, I meet EcoDaredevils. They are debating, creating, evolving--yes, sometimes crashing--but always, always coming back for more.

The EcoDareDevil award will recognize young people across the nation who, through science, policy or personal action, have taken a particular risk and shown exceptional courage and creativity to go against the mainstream to successfully solve or raise public awareness for an environmental issue. He's celebrating the folks Chris and I call 'Intersection Personalities' meaning we'll definitely be in good company! So with that, I'm off to find J. with more coming on this year's EcoDareDevil soon...

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Modern ocean prophet Wallace J Nichols presented the first ever Ecodaredevil Award to Duke University graduate student Elliott Hazen this past April 22nd, on Earth Day. Elliott received the award for on-campus activism at Duke Marine Lab, co-founding GreenWave, a student led sustainability movement…
Never underestimate the impact of the little guys... at least when it comes to fishing practices and North Pacific loggerhead sea turtles. Today in PLoS one, Ocean Conservancy Scientist Wallace J. Nichols and University of California (UC)-Santa Cruz researcher Hoyt Peckham report that small-…
Industrial fishing operations take most of the blame for collateral impacts to sea-turtle populations, but new research shows that small-scale fisheries--operated by hand from little open boats --can kill as many critically endangered loggerhead sea turtles as industrial scale fisheries. A…
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Sounds like the Intersection Award you two hinted at in Jan.

We are going to need every EcoDareDevil we can find, encourage, train.

I spent some time working on a Congressional Campaign for Pete McCloskey back in 2006. McCloskey, a Republican in the House, and Gaylord Nelson, a Democrat in the Senate, were there co-chairs of the very first Earth Day. I am thankful that McCloskey still has some fire because we still need such leadership.

At the same time, my very local newpaper, the Morgan Hill (CA) Times ran a an OpEd today my Michael S. Berliner of the Ayn Rand Institute. Berliner declared that

Environmentalism's Goal is not the advancement of human health, human happiness, and human life; rather it is a subhuman world where "nature" is worshiped like the totem of some primitive religion."

We all know that the Ayn Rand Institute is not mainstream thinking but the very fact that they are publishing this tripe makes one wish PZ would aim his rhetoric there as well.

We all know that evolution, as it has shaped our world in the past, is continuing to shape our world for the future. I wonder what type of world Berliner is trying to shape, maybe one with out humans at all unless we change our ways.

Happy Earth Day to the Intersection -- I'm looking forward to hearing what you have to say about what people should do to make the world a better place. All I have to offer on my site are some pretty pictures from space. Happy Earth Day!

EcoDareDevil is a cool concept

No it's not.

Eh, that Mr_G character is just bitter from the earlier threads. EcoDareDevil is wonderful. I'll be interested to find out about the recipient tomorrow.

We need more. And fast!

Totally OT, but I would like to introduce a word that would apply to ID, Framing, Postmodernism, etc.:

Nonscience

It's pronounced pretty much like "nonsense".

Gared:

Why would I be bitter? I felt like I was riding the tide.

EcoDareDevil is lame^20.