World Ocean Radio
Science & Ideas
About
World Ocean Radio is a weekly series of five-minute audio essays on a wide range of ocean topics. Available for syndicated use at no cost by college and community radio stations worldwide.
Episodes
- To Regulate
Regulate is a verb with many nuanced meanings: to standardize, to classify, to monitor, to supervise, to coordinate, to administer, to rectify. Government and the courts are designed as the tools of regulation, created to sustain, preserve…
- How We Rank Global Risk
The World Economic Forum recently published a Global Risks Perception Survey which lists both long-term and short-term risks, their impacts, and a severity index by category: environmental, geopolitical, societal, and technological. The re…
- A Call for a New Ocean Commission
The Ocean Foundation is calling for a National Commission on the Regenerative Ocean that will be charged with addressing six outcomes over two years as summarized in this episode. A new Ocean Commission would join a host of other initiativ…
- Lobstering and Aquaculture in Maine: Where is the Plan?
This episode will summarize two recent Maine-based conferences dedicated to ocean issues: the first focused on the blue economy--particularly the emerging aquaculture opportunities along the Atlantic coast, and the second an annual gatheri…
- Synergy and Invention
As we address the social and environmental challenges of the day, we are prone to double down on past ideas and approaches. This week on World Ocean Radio we'll argue for invention as a primary way forward: to embrace change in technology,…
- Cabinet of Curiosities
This week Peter Neill is spending time with his library of books, sharing three titles that quietly evoke the emotion of loss, and the paradox of things lost. “An Exaltation of Larks”, by James Lipton; “A Calendar of Saints for Unbelievers…
- World Water Crisis, Revisited
The crisis of water around the world has been the focus of alarm for decades. Millions worldwide do not have adequate water supply for drinking, cooking, and basic sanitation. With climate change, recent bombings and targeting of desalinat…
- Ocean, Water and War
We are at war. There can be nothing good about it. Climate crisis, drought, sources of fresh water at risk, population growth, nuclear weapon development, our preoccupation with oil, the passage of the Strait of Hormuz threatened with clos…
- The Energy Grid
How do we generate the energy we need to meet the demands of consumption for the future? Any plans to meet future climate challenges and technological advancement will require not only sustainable sources of energy, but must also include t…
- The Wrong Side of History
A recent report by InfluenceMap, a UK-based think tank that tracks pertinent climate trends, declared that 32 companies emit more than half of the world's CO2 emissions. Negative consequences of changing climate are measured by air quality…
- The Collapse of U.S. Ocean Policy
Over the past several years, US national investment in challenges of climate change and ocean policy has collapsed. This week on World Ocean Radio we lay out an incomplete and ever-growing list of unilateral actions taken to disengage from…
- Sewersheds and Septic Systems
Water is part of an integrated system worldwide. What happens downstream? Consider waste water--from home and from manufacturing--that is corrupted by use, disposed of, treated (or not), and returned to the water system. Where wastewater h…
- Morocco: Water Shadow
This week we're wrapping up a four-part series dedicated to Morocco and its relationships to ocean and fresh water. Morocco is one of the only nations in the world to have a National Water Policy. Our big challenge today is to raise water…
- Morocco Water to Scale
This week on World Ocean Radio: part three of a four-part series dedicated to Morocco and its relationships to ocean and fresh water. Morocco provides myriad examples of real success as an international exemplar of viable, enduring water m…
- Morocco Water Museum
This week on World Ocean Radio we're exploring an extraordinary museum in Marrakesh, Morocco that celebrates the long history of the sustenance and management of water in the region, from the mountain ranges to the desert to the coastal pl…
- Morocco: A Hydraulic Exemplar
In September, Morocco became the 60th country to ratify the UN High Seas Treaty, designed to protect marine biodiversity and establishing new high seas marine protected areas: a precedent and context for a giant step forward for ocean sust…
- Christmas at Sea
A special 4-minute reading of "Christmas at Sea", an evocative poem written by Robert Louis Stevenson in 1883. Stevenson, the son of a lighthouse engineer, had intimate, first-hand knowledge of storms, weather, and life on and by the sea.…
- Hydromancy: The Art of Divination through Water
This week on a new 5-minute episode of World Ocean Radio we're discussing the word "Hydromancy", its meaning and signs, water in its many forms, and its implication for our future. Hydromancy is an ancient form of divination, an invitation…
- A COP30 Report
This week we are reporting on COP30 (the 30th Conference of the Parties) hosted in Belem, Brazil. The annual gathering is a response to the challenges of climate change; there were wins and losses, enthusiasm and disappointment, and variou…
- Ocean Time
This week on World Ocean Radio we are reflecting on a time and place no longer familiar: traditions and accepted norms unrecognized, histories forgotten, futures uncertain. How do we recapture standards and beliefs that can contribute to a…
- Global Climate Events, Revisted
Devastating weather and water events abound worldwide, causing havoc in ports, waterfronts, and elsewhere. These are neither new nor are they going away any time soon. How do we rebuild and plan a response for a future that works, even in…
- Water Wars
This week Peter Neill, founder of W2O and host of World Ocean Radio, argues that wars, particularly those in the Middle East, are all about the water: rivers, access to the sea: water is the source of life, and of conflict. We all need it…
- Waste
The most substantial by-product of human consumption is waste, thus far omitted on balance sheets and in calculation of individual and gross national product. Waste comes in many forms: polluted water, poisoned land, energy lost, habitat d…
- Solastalgia, A Word for Change
This week on World Ocean Radio, our host Peter Neill is thinking about the word "solastalgia", described as a deep grief over changing landscapes that were once familiar; feeling ‘homesick’ while still being at home, due to rapid alteratio…
- Ratification of the High Seas Treaty
This week on World Ocean Radio we are discussing the September 2025 news that Morocco has become the 60th nation to ratify the High Seas Treaty, a two-decades long process to establish and protect a vast complex of biodiversity in internat…
- The Value of Nature Lost
Nature is a significant factor on the global balance sheet, and the cost of nature loss affects many key economic sectors. Denial or exclusion of nature's true value is flawed economics on the profit and loss of earth's natural resources a…
- Calculating Ocean Risk
“Climate change has been one the greatest failures of risk management in modern history.” So states the Back to Blue Initiative, an Economist and Nippon Foundation project. A recent article entitled "Calculating Ocean Risk," additionally s…
- Inventive Water Conservation Projects in India
Water scarcity is among the foremost challenges to national and regional financial security and public health in India. This week on World Ocean Radio we outline a sampling of water tech innovations that are demonstrating the ingenuity and…
- Corpus Christi, Texas: Running Dry
This week on World Ocean Radio we're discussing a news story provided by Inside Climate News that highlights Corpus Christi, Texas and the intensively water-dependent industrial projects there that, by special commitments and permits, are…
- Joseph Conrad Rides the Wind
This week on World Ocean Radio Peter Neill shares thoughts and readings from Joseph Conrad and from UK writer Adrian Morgan's recent article entitled, “How Many Ways Has Joseph Conrad Described the Wind?" About World Ocean Radio World Ocea…
- Peatlands
Peatlands, bogs, swamps, and wetlands are uniquely biodiverse natural spaces: soft coastal barriers that make immeasurable contributions to the health and sustainability of human endeavor. Left unprotected, their consumption contributes to…
- Blue Ocean Leadership
This week on World Ocean Radio we're discussing the "Mind Map of Blue Ocean Leadership,” a chart developed by a global constituency of business experts, graphed to show existing leadership design while suggesting changes that are different…
- The Ocean as Peacebuilder
This week Peter Neill is reading from an article written by representatives of the UN IOC and the Natural Science Foundation of China, based on the concept of ocean as peacebuilder and amplifier of ocean sustainability. The authors argue t…
- The Moon and the Ocean
From an island perch in Maine, host of World Ocean Radio Peter Neill recently witnessed a full moon rising over the Atlantic Ocean. The silent, majestic way that it rose in the night sky got him ruminating about water, tide, sun, sea curre…
- What If?
This week: Is there no time left to explore other ways of seeing, being, solving, and surviving? Where can we place our energy and imagination to serve as functions of invention? What if there are new ways of thinking about what and how we…
- Who Cares About the Ocean?
On June 8th, World Ocean Day, the new film OCEAN, presented by Sir David Attenborough, debuted in theatres and maritime museums around the world, a celebration of the ocean’s beauty and distress, and a passionate call for urgent protection…
- AI and the Ocean
This week, host Peter Neill reads verbatim an AI response to an action posed. He asked Chat GPT to write 750 words in the style of Peter Neill on World Ocean Radio, taking on the topic of artificial intelligence and the ocean. The response…
- Why War?
Why is there so much war? So much strife in the Middle East: what are we fighting for? This week Peter Neill,founder of W2O and host of World Ocean Radio, argues that it's all about the water. It's always been about the water: rivers, acce…
- Canals and the Circulation of Water
This week we're discussing the circulation of water worldwide, and the importance of our waterways--canals in particular--as the great highways and distribution centers of our busy lives, now storing and transferring water and energy, and…
- Ocean Literacy and How to Understand the Ocean
This week on World Ocean Radio we are discussing the Ocean Literacy movement and the need for more ocean science and fresh water understanding in the classroom. Ocean Literacy is comprised of seven basic principles, and host Peter Neill pr…
- Apprenticing: A Manifesto
Apprenticing has long been thought of as a term to describe someone working beside a master craftsperson to learn a trade and to refine a professional skill: whether it be pottery or electrical, cabinetry or plumbing. As an educational mod…
- What is Ocean Day Meant to Do?
Each year on June 8th we celebrate World Ocean Day to recognize our relationship with the ocean, the vast watery world that covers 71% of our planet. Despite gains in ocean education and increased awareness and importance of the Ocean Lite…
- Circulation
We live in a world of invisible circulation. It swirls in us and around us at all times, transporting and exchanging all things good and bad, some natural, some man-made. This week we're discussing the ocean-fresh water system--the full gl…
- Will the Children Will Set Us Free?
Will the children set us free? Has it come to that? Have we abandoned the future for our children to solve, leaving them accountable for what we have failed to do? This week on World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill shares where he finds hope…
- 15 Years of World Ocean Radio
This week marks the 750th episode of World Ocean Radio: 15 years of weekly short audio that reaches millions around the globe, sharing concepts, demands, and solutions related to ocean technology and science, policy, examples of best pract…
- Running Home
This week on World Ocean Radio, host Peter Neill reflects on the importance of water in our lives, our culture, our memories, our very being. Water, he argues, is the essence of home, and the grace and gift of knowing it’s there for our re…
- Pope Francis and the Ocean, Laudato Si Revisited
Pope Francis, outspoken voice for climate and the environment, passed away on Monday, April 21st. Throughout his reign as leader of the Catholic Church, he was very clear in his views on climate change as a real factor in today's world, an…
- What About the Land?
Earth Day is April 22nd. In honor of our watery planet we revisit a land-centric episode this week on World Ocean Radio. What About the Land? 40% of the planet is used for farming and livestock, often degraded by unsustainable or destructi…
- Revelations by Salt
Discovery of a curriculum developed for coastal Africa some years ago sent World Ocean Radio host Peter Neill on a journey of discovery and revelation about salt as a construct to be observed, understood, and taught. A western scientific p…
- Terraqueous
ter·ra·que·ous /terˈākwēəs/ Adjective: consisting of land and water Mud season: a special time of year in the northeastern corner of the United States, when winter and spring collide in a soggy muck: the rains come, ice and snow melts, sat…