Today's Hot topics

January 14th, 2012

'More than a sport'

The 34th America's Cup turns to ocean health

The America's Cup has long been the top sailing event on the planet, bringing together teams from various countries and cultures to brave the ocean's elements and race to global victory.

This year, the America's Cup Even Authority (ACEA) has pledged to use the spotlight and attention generated by the Cup to highlight a bigger goal of improving the state of our oceans.  Given the event revolves around the water, the ebb and flow and shifting energies of our seas, protecting and defending the health of our oceans is not only natural, but essential.

The America's Cup Healthy Ocean Project (H.O.P.) is set to become the world's 'largest communication outreach program focused on improving ocean health' (2012, ACEA).  Partnering with such environmental figures as Dr. Sylvia Earle and her Mission Blue organization, Sailors for the Sea, 1 world, 1 ocean, and International Union for the Conservation of Nature, this year's events are shaping up to generate much needed attention to our marine environment.  

Sailors, watermen, lovers of sport are vital stewards for our oceans and can potentially be some of the most influential players in the movement to 'awaken, inspire, and engage' entire generations to defend the health of our blue planet. (2012, ACEA).  

Making history

Almost two decades ago, Sir Peter Blake won the America's Cup for his native New Zealand in 1995 and then again led his team to victory in 2000.  He was then, and still now remains a great ambassador for our global environment.  Following his racing successes, Sir Peter embarked on a new quest to generate awareness and provide education to the world regarding the importance of safeguarding our environment amidst growing human impacts on nature.  His travels to Antarctica and the Amazon rainforest sought to expose the changing chemistry of our marine resources and the fragile beauty of such 'pulse spots'.  In the age of Climate Change, increasing pollution and habitat degradation, Sir Peter Blake's work to protect the earth's biodiversity is remembered today, and continues to nurture and motivate our environmental quests here at the Eco-Odyssey Foundation.

Link to the America's Cup website for more on the Healthy Ocean Project.

http://www.americascup.com/en/Sustainability/AC-Healthy-Ocean-Project/

For more on the importance of ocean health, link Dr. Sylvia Earle's article in the San Francisco Herald.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/13/ED2N1MOMPP.DTL

☛ To view a video clip form the America's Healthy Ocean Project, click image. 

November 29th, 2011

'Taking care of business'

Sea Shepherd heads back to Antarctica to save our marine wildlife

This year will mark the 8^th straight summer that conservation society Sea Shepherd has rallied a team of volunteers to enforce international maritime law and commit to saving the lives of innocent whales being slaughtered in the Southern Ocean Sanctuary by the Japanese Whaling fleet. Under the convenient umbrella of ‘research’, the Japanese have successfully continued to hunt and kill marine mammals and seasonally target whales migrating to Antarctica’s vast ocean.

Armed with 88 crew and 3 ships (Steve Irwin, Bob Barker, and Brigitte Bardot), the Sea Shepherd fleet will head down to one of the most volatile regions on earth; to save whales.  Fuelled up with a passion for the ocean environment and a resolve to defend our sentinels of the sea, this group of people is having a profound effect on the world, and weakening the Japanese whalers one nautical mile at a time.

Citing "Diplomacy has failed", Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson insists we cannot wait for governments and our nations’ leader to uphold environmental laws and treaties, and so they are enforcing them in the heart of where they are being utterly disrespected.

Funded entirely by donations, the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society is a grassroots movement fearlessly fighting for wildlife while defying the status quo and standing out as nature’s defense force.

Mr.Watson has decided his team will continue focusing their efforts on breaking the Japanese whaling fleet where it hurts, the bank. If they maintain course and close in on the factory and processing tanker Nisshin Maru, Sea Shepherd will halt the fleet’s ability to continue whaling, thus costing them money everyday they are not killing whales.

However this year the Sea Shepherds have the extra wild challenge of having to negotiate a buffed up Japanese fleet financially and culturally devoted to reaching their 1,000 whale quota.  This archaic practice is still so entrenched within the Japanese tradition, the government has re-invested nearly $30 million dollars to highten the killing fleet's security. 

With some criticism and claims Watson is a 'eco-pirate', Sea Shepherds and their founder simply respond “it takes a pirate to catch a pirate”.  And so they will continue to be the crowd with the gutso and heart to veer from the conventional path of environmental conservation and push for tangible results and life-saving actions.  

Best of luck to the Sea Shepherd team on this year’s journey to Antarctica.  It will surely be one like no other, and hopefully a time when war at sea will see whales triumph over human greed.

Follow Sea Shepherd’s “Operation Divine Wind” in Antarctica as they aggressively (but non-violently!) find the Japanese fleet and prevent them from taking any more whales from our oceans.

☛ Link to http://www.seashepherd.org/ and learn more about the foundation, various campaigns, and how to get involved in the movement to save our living environment.

November 23rd, 2011

What's in a berry?

For thousands of years, indigenous tribes of the Amazon have been utilizing the abundant fruit growing in the trees of the rainforest. It is believed that in fact tribes use over 2000 out of the 3000 known fruit trees native to the Amazon region. But the one fruit gaining an incredible amount of noteriety recently is the Acai berry. Until now, Acai has been the Amazon's best kept secret and one of the most potent, nutrient-packed, healing fruits in the world!

Pronounced Ah-Sigh-ee, the Acai berry grows on a tall palm tree, often hanging in clusters some 25-30 meters high. Approximately 1 inch in diameter, this small fruit was discovered by Amazon tribesmen about 1000 years ago. They discovered Acai was excellent for assisting in building a strong immune system, fighting infection, boosting metabolism and stamina, as well as improving mental state. In fact, history has shown that Amazon warriors used to eat the Acai berry before going into battle. 

Since its introduction to the modern world some 30 years ago, scientific reserach on the Acai berry has suggested the juice of this powerful fruit also protects the heart, controls prostate enlargement, and can be useful in the development of some antibiotics. Moreover, following a University of Florida study on the berry, they found Acai is capable of triggering a self-destruct response in up to 86% of human cancer cells. Not to be mistaken for a cure, but the scientific community is encouraged by these findings. 

Today the Acai berry is a hot commodity, with international media spreading the word that the fruit is the '#1 Power Food'  and television personalities such as Oprah Winfrey featuring the berry's many health properties on her wildly succesful talk show.  From entertainment avenues to headline health news, the Acai berry is now on the global stage, far from its humble beginnings as one of the Amazon's many secret gems.

Acai to end Amazon Deforestation?

The growing popularity of the Acai berry is playing an instrumental role in helping to prevent  deforestation in certain areas of the Amazon. Given the palm tree that habours the Acai berry can  be harvested 2-3 times per year, it is the best interest of farmers and foreign exporters to keep the trees intact in order for them to yield the most fruit.  Each Acai palm tree produces 20 kilograms of fruit per year, and so most farmers are deciding against chopping down the trees and helping to ensure that regions' dense with Acai palm trees will be spared mass destruction. 

Although for now the Acai palm tree is safe, the modern western world could stand to learn from the Indigenous people of the Amazon who have always lived from the land, using nature's gifts sustainably in order to survive deep in the jungle. Now recognized as an antioxidant 33 times more powerful than red wine and grapes, the Acai berry is a native Amazoninan plant and should be harvested in a ethical and ecologically sensitive manner.

✦ For more on the Amazon's natural splendor, head to our 'Current Expedition' page:  http://www.eco-odyssey.com/main/expeditions.html and our 'Habitat Loss' section for more on deforestation in the Amazon: http://www.eco-odyssey.com/main/hot-topics/Habitat-Loss.html

✦ Medicinal properties of the Acai berry: www.acaiberrystudies.com/acai-berry-overview.html

✦ Acai berry in the media: www.acaiberrystudies.com/acai-in-the-media.html