The Plastic Pollution Coalition reported some disappointing results from the UN’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Committees recent meeting in Geneva – August 5 to 15, 2025. The meetings were riddled with distraction and delay tactics from the fossil fuel industry and plastic friendly countries. How big are the lobbying efforts. Greenpeace’s report – Plastic, Profit and Power – How petrochemical companies are derailing the global plastic treaty outlines just how this is happening.

Dow, ExxonMobil, BASF, Chevron, Phillips, Shell, SABIC and INEOS are all sending lobbyist to the meetings. There were 220 lobbyist. That is the single largest delegation at the conference. These lobbyist playbook is one of delay, distract, discredit and dominate.

Greenpeace’s recommendations:

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In this episode I take a look at a blue paper published by the Ocean Panel on the impacts to the worldwide workforce if we take action and create a sustainable ocean economy versus not doing anything to help preserve the ocean.

Currently, the worldwide workforce tied to the ocean economy is about 133 million. If we pursue sustainable practices that number could rise by 51 million more workers by 2050. If we do nothing they estimate that the number will drop by 40 million.

A sustainable ocean economy requires governments, the private sector, financial institutions, educational institutions and civil society organizations to work in concert to achieve the needed results.

The main factors that need to be addresses are

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The US Energy Secretary recently announced that they are reassessing, or essentially rewriting the 2023 congressionally mandated National Climate Assessment (NCA) report.

Apparently, the assessment isn’t inline with the current administrations thinking regardless of the scientific data backing the assessment. The Department of Energy has taken down the website hosting the NCA. While the Energy Secretary wants to unleash American energy dominance, it appears that this primarily means through fossil fuel and not necessarily innovative solutions.

Solar power however is on the rise and is now becoming cost effective to build and maintain and also it is scaling fast. Two top solar power states include California and Texas – two states on very different sides of political aisle.

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Shark Week 2025 featured a new show “Dancing with Sharks”

Now this show is billed as an underwater dance competition between experienced scuba divers and their shark partners. They performed moves like Hammerhead Hoedown and Tiger Trot.

Has Shark Week jumped the shark?

The Environmental Protection Agency is pushing to remove the “endangerment finding” for pollutants resulting from the burning of fossil fuels. By removing this status, regulations under the Clean Air Act would essentially be lifted.

Is that a good thing? I think not.

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The future of scuba diving is not with our current generation of scuba divers; the future of diving is with the next generation of scuba divers – specifically the Gen Z, Millennials and younger generations. They could be ready to become the future but is the diving industry ready for them. There are challenges including

Breaking down the financial barriers is needed to overcome the high entry cost. Once certified, how do we keep this new generation of divers engaged.

All stakeholders in the scuba diving industry need to coordinate efforts to meet these younger generation where they are – not where the industry is today.

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Sea State discusses

The Dive Pirates Foundation is an organization dedicated to enabling individuals with physical disabilities enjoy the underwater world through scuba diving. Their motto is “We no longer see disabilities, we see possibilities”.

Each year, Dive Pirates runs a dive trip for adaptive divers, their buddies and volunteers. This year, I decided to volunteer, observe, learn and be part of the team. While on the trip, I was able to complete my training and certification as an SDI Scubility Adaptive Dive Buddy.

As a Dive Pirate I am now part of another family in the diving community.

The State of the Oceans report from Statisa and the German Ocean foundation gives us an overview of how they see the current state of the oceans around the world.

This report discusses how the oceans are critical for an environmentally, economically and socially sustainable future. However, the impacts of climate change and pollution are seriously impacting the state of the ocean.

In 2015 global leaders agreed to Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) for protecting the planet. SDG 14 focused on life below water. Unfortunately, the 2020 goals for SDG 14 have not been met. But we keep have to keep trying. In 2022, world leaders again looked to protect 30% of coastal and marine environments by 2030. Progress is being made. Eleven countries have already met the target. We still have a long way to go.

The report is available at www.statista.com

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Another of my favorite spots to get in some scuba diving is Key Largo. I finally returned after five years. The last time I made it to the Keys was 2019 before the pandemic. It was also an opportunity to find my blue mind again after being out of the water for over 200 days.

We stayed at The Courtyard Key Largo at mile marker 100 and did two days of diving with Horizon Divers. We chose the two-tank shallow dives. Our dive sites included

Listen for some details about the dives.

Our dinning included

Our trip wrapped up with a visit to the History of Diving Museum and Islamorada Brewery and Distillery.

Oceana recently released a report – Plastic Foam Needs ‘To Go’

Plastic foam is one type of polystyrene that is incredibly harmful to the environment and human health. Most US registered voters agree and 78% support policies that reduce single-use plastic foam.

More than 8 million metric tons of plastic foam is produced globally each year and plastic foam fragments are among the 10 most littered items found across the US. Unfortunately only 1% or less of plastic foam is recycled each year. Additionally production of plastic foam emits incredible amounts of greenhouse gases.

You can download the report from the Oceana.

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Like many federal – the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is being drastically impacted by efforts to shrink government. And this effort not only seriously undermines the mission of the agency but also we are seeing the political impacts and assault on the environment.

Let’s take a look at how these layoffs are causing issues across the various mission areas of NOAA.

We will also discuss how today’s political environment is toxic to the natural environment.

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