Author Archives: Pamela Biery

Blue Marble Planet lover Lea Haratani dives deep

02 Friday Jul 2010

Posted by in environment, ocean & fisheries, poetry & poets

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“A lot of people attack the sea. I make love to it.” —Jacques Cousteau

Lea Haratani has had a lifelong passion for the ocean, and every day she tries to show it. Some days, it means not eating fish. Other times, it’s all about taking a walk on the beach—or diving off the coast of Belize with Jim Simon, the vice president of one of the nation’s largest ocean conservation organizations, Oceana. She might also be found circulating petitions against offshore drilling with her children at Bookshop Santa Cruz, or organizing a fundraising event for Oceana at the Saint Francis Yacht Club in San Francisco.

Read more about Lea and ocean activism, featured in Good Times this week.

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No metaphor is perfect

26 Saturday Jun 2010

Posted by in environment, ocean & fisheries, Uncategorized

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Author David Helvarg  brought a wave of ocean enthusiasm to his reading at Bookshop Santa Cruz. The long-time activist and founder of the ocean dedicated organization, Blue Frontier, was in town to promote his new book,  “Saved by the Sea” but took questions concerning the Gulf Coast oil spill. This was just before Helvarg abandoned his book tour to visit the Gulf and put his focus on the crisis at hand. See his report from the  Gulf here.

Helvarg’s aerial of spill this week

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Live Like you Love the Ocean

06 Sunday Jun 2010

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Fabien Cousteau, Celine Cousteau and Wallace “J” Nichols

This week I attended the world premiere of Ocean Voices as a guest of Oceana’s Ocean Council Vice Chair, Lea Haratani. The newly remodeled Academy of Science in SF was buzzing with activity and shining in spectacular fashion with science, science everywhere.

Ocean Voices is a combination of recorded sound, live music and images of the ocean. Many voices came together to express the vast, magical ocean….children from all over the nation, indigenous peoples and perhaps, a Cousteau or two….accompanied by live performances of violin, cello, guitar and keyboard. Ocean Voices was composed by sound artist Halsey Burgund and marine biologist Wallace J. Nichols, who joined forces for this amazing expression of love, science and art.

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The Gore-y Truth

29 Saturday May 2010

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Frank Sesno Interviews Al Gore

Former Vice President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore opened at University California Monterey Bay on May 17 with this quote “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever does.”—Margaret Mead

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Houses Are Fields

17 Monday May 2010

Posted by in poetry & poets

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Silverman reads at Bookshop Santa Cruz

This week I attended a reading by Taije Silverman. Silverman read from her new book Houses Are Fields. (Published by LSU in 2009)

Amazing, soulful. Words hung on a loosely reorganized scaffold of iambic pentameter. A powerful reader whose quiet strength shines through metaphors, and leaves sensual images drawn from a mix of Greek tragedy and the sumptuous landscape of Virginia.

Looks like Santa Cruz has a very active current of poetry running through it, with its own Poet Laureate (Gary Young), amazing residents like Adrienne Rich (more on Rich and her upcoming book later) and an organization dedicated entirely to fostering poetry, Poetry Santa Cruz.

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Sea of Consequence

10 Monday May 2010

Posted by in environment, ocean & fisheries

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Attended the “Sea of Consequence” talk by Save Our Shores (SOS) at the Museum of art and History in downtown Santa Cruz last week.

Emily Granville, Save Our Shores educator, gave this attentive group a startling look at where American’s relationship with plastic is headed. (Not long term-maybe terminal-was my take-away from this talk)

  • At any given time, about 3 million tons of trash can be found floating off the California Coast
  • 80% of floating ocean trash is plastic
  • 80% of plastic pollution that enters the ocean originated from a land-based source
  • SOS tracking data shows that from June 2007 – March 2010 SOS volunteers have removed over 19,887 plastic bags during beach and river cleanups
  • There is no known life cycle for plastic (Translate: Plastic is forever)

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A whole new world—Eaarth

22 Thursday Apr 2010

Posted by in Book Reviews, environment

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Eaarth by Bill McKibben

Bill McKibben was right 20 years ago, and he is right today. Then, The End of Nature offered dire predictions about global warming. His new book, Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet is named for the new planet we are creating. The news is not good. In December 2009, as the United Nations climate change meetings got underway in Copenhagen, Denmark, a team of computer jockeys from institutions including MIT built a model which demonstrated that the impact of global warming had already crossed seemingly irreversible thresholds.

“But now….it’s time to think with special clarity about the future. On our new planet growth may be the one big habit we must finally break.”—Bill McKibben, Eaarth

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“Death is one thing, an end to birth is something else.”

17 Saturday Apr 2010

Posted by in environment, ocean & fisheries

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Greenpeace photo of Bluefin

Carl Safina included the above quote from poet Gary Snyder in his talk on fisheries and ocean conservation at Hopkins Marine Station in Monterey yesterday.

Safina is an author, professor and ocean activist–not necessarily in that order. As the co-founder and president of Blue Ocean Institute, Safina has long been a voice in ocean and fishery conservation.

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Think Pink this Earth Day

09 Friday Apr 2010

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Coral reef

Coral reef display at Hot Pink Flamingo exhibit

Monterey Bay Aquarium’s new exhibit Hot Pink Flamingos did what was expected—providing insights into species, habitats and migration. But this was only the beginning. Hot Pink Flamingos ties together the climate change catastrophe now underway with examples of global cause and effect. Pulling no punches about projections, the displays show the waterline in a few short years, demonstrating that most of the exhibit itself will soon be underwater.

Coral reefs are dying at an astounding rate. Many species are facing extinction each day.

At least 19 percent of the world’s coral reefs are already gone, including some 50 percent of those in the Caribbean. An additional 15 percent could be dead within 20 years, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

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