A joint initiative between the Ocean & Climate Platform and the Embassy of France in the United States, the first FACT-O conference was held at Miami Dade College to raise awareness on climate change impacts on coral reefs and ocean biodiversity. Not only that, but what better opportunity now than to visit Tara, the boat that anchored in Miami after crossing the Atlantic in the context of her new expedition, Tara Pacific!
©Lemonsea
The people that were present were eager to hear what actions are being taken by scientists, business and civil society to face the challenges posed by climate change. Have a look at the program. Françoise Gaill, Emeritus research director at the CNRS and scientific coordinator of the Ocean & Climate Platform explained why these series of conferences were organized in the context of the COP21. Read her interview. During the conference, she emphasized that we must look at all the services the ocean provides us, which does not only include fishing for food.
In his opening remarks, Philippe Létrilliart, Consul General of France in Miami said that the stopover in Miami of the current expedition #Tarapacific was a great opportunity to hold a conference and have a discussion on solutions to ocean related climate change impacts such as ocean acidification and sea-level rise. He also mentioned a piece of information that is hard to believe and no one wishes comes true: it is estimated that by 2050, the weight of plastic is to surpass the weight of fish in the ocean! If you want to dig into the report read it!
In this context, he made a very important announcement to the participants: the French Government decided to ban the very day the conference was held, on the first of july of 2016, single use of plastic bags and made a calling to the international community to do so. The French Consul also made the announcement that France was taking the copresidency of the International Coral Reed Initiative up to 2018! And Tara is also a part of it.
From his side, Romain Troublé, Executive Director of Tara Expeditions explained all about the expedition, which you should learn more about, and he made a point about one of the most important solutions there are for our future and the future of the oceans: education. From this point on, André Abreu, Head for Environment & Climate Policy at Tara Expeditions moderated the round table discussion but before it started, here is what he said about the presence of the ocean in the international agenda: it was completely neglected before the COP21! But the good news is, thanks to the Ocean&Climate Platform and the engagement of the French Government (now the Ministry of Environment of France includes the “sea” in its title!), the #ocean is now in the text of the COP21, and the IPCC has recently accepted to work on a special report on the oceans and climate change! Even Françoise Gaill repeated it and added that this is the reason why we need #young #scientists to get involved so check the initiative #TakeOFF she is part of!
Visit to Tara: meeting the scientists onboard to understand how they measure ocean pH levels
©Lemonsea
There we were, facing Tara in Miami after 23 days crossing through the Atlantic in this very beginning of #Tarapacific expedition that will last two years. They invited the general public to come and see for themselves, meet the scientists and understand a little better how the measurements are made, and what it is like to be part of the crew and live on a boat, which was originally built to go to the Arctic! If you want a virtual tour of the boat, click here.
Lemonsea went on an onboard tour with Michel Flores, Mexican postdoctoral scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel. He studies the relationship between the atmosphere and the oceans. He showed us the instruments he uses in order to make measurements, and he is specifically looking at the impact aerosols are having in the ocean. Don’t miss out and read his story! He also says something quite interesting, which puts emphasis on the fact that science needs to be multidisciplinary: “We compartmentalize Nature into various disciplines because of the challenges we face in understanding it, but in reality there are no barriers, everything is connected.”
Learn about the scientific measurements that were made by Tara in the Atlantic and don’t miss out on the video!
Interview with Francoise Gaill on youth ocean acidification NGOs
How do you think youth can be involved in questions of oceans and how can we promote more people to get involved with ocean scientists?
“There are several large NGOs that are involved with youth. For instance, an NGO like Surfrider, which is quite active in ocean matters and which allows many young people to participate in various actions such as picking up plastic from the beach, different ways of identifying plankton when you are surfing, and a way also of surfing understanding how waves are formed. Personally, I am a scientist. What I believe is that what FACT-O promotes is the fact that young scientists at university level can become interested at an early stage in problems which are innovative, new, in the study of ocean science. For instance, the science of waves.”
“I was just in Hawaii not too long ago, where a conference was held on the topic of the science of waves, which brings together people that are younger than 30 years-old and which use new methods to see in real time how a group of waves will behave locally as well as its consequences at the global level. Until now, we had not studies waves in this manner because the science of waves did not exist so this is an example where young people which have surfing knowledge can contribute. They insert sensors where they are, and then this is how citizen science is created.”
“But there is also another thing. We can very well be oceanographers, for example, and be interested not only in the academic discipline that they belong to, but also try to understand why Americans are moving forward faster than the French in a certain number of questions, and why the French with respect to other questions are more advanced. Therefore, the idea is to try to form a group of young scientists of FACT-O.”
“For the moment, they are from Paris and San Diego. In San Diego, they are mostly oceanographers and ecosystemic scientists. For example, some focus on thermohaline circulation but in general, they study many disciplines. On the other hand, in Paris, with what want to achieve towards the COP22, is to mobilize youth around finding solutions. What do young people think of solutions, as scientists from specific disciplines? What do you have to say about such solutions?”
“And then, since we have a certain amount of people from Sciences Po, it brings together a diverse group from the scientific and political background where this past 8th of June, on the World Ocean’s Day at UNESCO, we had the youth scientist representative from the United States come, which stayed with us, and we started working together. This is what I mean: brassage in French or this mix of cultures but also policy and scientific backgrounds coming together.”
What do you think of creating some sort of regional cooperation program between Mexico, the United States and Canada not only at the national level but what sort of actions could be pushed towards COP22 concerning ocean acidification?
“I think it is a good opportunity. All the new opportunities have to be taken because for the future, we need that. The question is that of the scale. To address ocean acidification, when you look at the evolution of pH, you see that it is very small, when you consider the scale of the pH and perhaps comparing different sites which are on the same current or under the same climate, it can be a good opportunity. I also think that it is possible to have on the same continent young scientists which come back and forth from the North to the South and work together. So, I think this would be a good thing, yes!”
Join the conversation on Twitter by following #TaraPacific #FACTO
By Lemonsea, member of the Ocean & Climate Platform, an NGO that was founded in 2014 by a group of students passionate about raising awareness on ocean acidification, especially to youth. They create innovative educational tools to disseminate the science on issues linked to ocean acidification.