Blue Earth

This episode follows Dr. Emma Cross, a marine scientist who grew up in the United Kingdom and has traveled the world researching the impacts of climate change on marine organisms. Her story is one that demonstrates how the paths we take in life can lead to our purpose. Hear how she is exploring innovative ways to mitigate climate change in a sustainable way that can also sustainably feed humanity.

You can find us on social media @FutureFrogmen or at our website www.futurefrogmen.org

We finally return with a new episode of the Blue Earth Podcast, which will be airing every week starting with this episode!

We have a new host, Dr. Colleen Bielitz, and today we'll be interviewing a recent college graduate as part of our once-a-month episode that focuses on students: the next generation of conservationists, researchers, and activists. 

What are the next generation of ocean stewards doing to protect our Blue Earth? Join us as we find out by speaking to Lauren Brideau, a recent graduate of Southern Connecticut State University. Lauren started as an undeclared major but soon found her calling, now she is part of a research team conserving life below water.  She is a prime example that if you want to defend our oceans and the creatures that depend on the sea to survive, now is the time to become part of the solution.

You can find us on all social media @FutureFrogmen, and on our website www.futurefrogmen.org

This episode of the Blue Earth Podcast features Dr. Colleen Bielitz, who oversees strategic initiatives and outreach for Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, Connecticut.

On January 4th, 2021 Colleen will take the helm as our new host, for season two of the Blue Earth podcast.

She brings to the show an impressive record as an education leader and constructive disruptive innovator. Collen is  passionate about social justice, gender equality, and resolving social problems in sustainable and efficient ways, including ocean ecosystems, and shares exciting developments about the Blue Economy and a precious estuary known as the Long Island Sound.

For more information check out futurefrogmen.org. Look for Future Frogmen on social media @futurefrogmen.

This episode of the Blue Earth Podcast is from our video vault. We’ve repurposed it for you to hear.

The virtual panel of graduate students and postdocs from Northeastern, Stony Brook and UConn discuss their research on how climate change impacts the species that they personally study, e.g. dungeness crabs, blue mussels, sea scallops, atlantic silversides, and plankton. You’ll hear a few references to slides that they showed but we think the narrative alone is quite good and you’ll receive plenty of great content.

We postponed the originally scheduled UN’s World Oceans Week date due to our support of the STEM Walkout. The panel expresses their thoughts on addressing systemic racism within STEM.

For more information check out futurefrogmen.org and look for us on social media @futurefrogmen.

This episode of the Blue Earth Podcast features Dr. Samantha Siedlecki of the University of Connecticut’s Department of Marine Sciences. Dr. Siedlecki works in the Coastal Biogeochemical Dynamics Laboratory at UConn’s Avery Point Campus. A beautiful waterfront campus in Groton, Connecticut, located on the Long Island Sound at the mouth of the Thames River.

She is an accomplished biogeochemical oceanographer who is focused on investigating the coastal ocean, and forecasting scenarios, including the impact of ocean acidification on many species such as Dungeness Crabs and sea scallops. Importantly, Dr. Siedlecki also works with coastal communities, particularly fisheries, in order to help them plan for the future and to be more resilient.

Dr. Siedlecki shares how she became curious about and attracted to the ocean, her subsequent education, past and new projects on both the east and west coast of the U.S., what it means to be an Advisor to graduate students, her thoughts on the state of the ocean and its future, and what we as individuals can do to help the ocean.

For more information check out https://marinesciences.uconn.edu/person/samantha-siedlecki/

and futurefrogmen.org. Look for Future Frogmen on social media @futurefrogmen.

This episode of the Blue Earth Podcast is a story about a young man, a lifeguard, who didn’t like seeing the trash on his beautiful beach and decided to do something about it.

Andrew Colabella, a driven individual, explains how he teamed with others to propose and enact ground-breaking legislation that successfully banned single-use plastics in a town of about 28,000 people; Westport, Connecticut’s restaurants and businesses.

Westport is the same town that 11 years earlier was the first town east of the Mississippi to ban plastic bags. Brilliant!

If you listen, like other towns have done, you can do this in your very own town. The Westport ordinance is even available to you as public information.

For more information check out https://p3-wpt.org and futurefrogmen.org. Look for Future Frogmen on social media @futurefrogmen.

This episode of the Blue Earth Podcast features Dr. Patrick Heidkamp, Professor of Geography, and the current Chair of the Department of the Environment, Geography and Marine Sciences at Southern Connecticut State University in New Haven, CT.

Southern has a new Werth Center For Coastal and Marine Studies, which is quite impressive. Check it out at https://www.southernct.edu/ccms

Patrick shares his journey, which illustrates that it’s not always a straight line and the

trip along the way can teach valuable lessons and perspectives.

His observations and practices, driven by human rights and environmental advocacy, coupled with pragmatic economic solutions are examples of how as he says, we can innovate our way out of environmental problems.

Patrick also talks about Southern’s Project Blue and international Coastal Transitions Conference.

For more information check out futurefrogmen.org and look for us on social media @futurefrogmen.

This episode of the Blue Earth Podcast is a conversation with Dr. Wade Worthen, Professor of Biology at Furman University. As a community ecologist he uses insect communities as model systems. His views on biodiversity are important and enlightening.

It’s the story of a man who in his youth couldn’t get enough of the neighborhood’s wooded wonderland. As he grew, so did his curiosity about the natural world. The family physician became a role model to learn more about science. Wade earned his undergraduate degree from Bucknell and Masters and PhD from Rutgers University.

He shares personal and academic observations about the precious aquatic ecosystems within inland waterways and estuaries..

For more information check out futurefrogmen.org and look for us on social media @futurefrogmen.

This episode of the Blue Earth Podcast is a conversation with Ken Nedimyer, a CNN Hero for “Defending The Planet”.

It’s a story about a former commercial fisherman who proactively worked with state and federal groups to ensure a sustainable future.

His observations about reefs in jeopardy led to possible ways to save them. He became an innovative coral reef advocate and coral reef nursery innovator, not only in the Florida Keys but around the globe.

Ken moved to Florida as a boy, he fell in love with the ocean and its many creatures. After earning his degree in Biology from Florida Atlantic University, he headed south to the Keys and never looked back.

For more information check out futurefrogmen.org and look for us on social media @futurefrogmen.

This episode of the Blue Earth Podcast is a conversation with Andy McNab.

Andy’s youth was in New Zealand, by the ocean, where he frequently surfed and sailed.

In 1979, aboard a 36-foot lightweight trimaran, he and some friends departed New Zealand on a five-month sail to San Francisco. Along the way they saw miles of unattended long line buoys. Also, even then, as they sailed through the Southern Pacific Gyre, which is today also known as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, there was a remarkable amount of marine debris.

Andy’s career is in boat building and yacht construction. He shares personal insights into how the industry’s mindset and practices are changing in order to reduce its environmental impact.

From biofouling to construction materials, underwater noise levels to plastic waste, and boat deconstruction and recycling, the yachting industry seems to finally be promoting a more sustainable “cradle-to-grave” mindset.

For more information check out futurefrogmen.org and look for @futurefrogmen on social media.