Nice article on the need for a "Paris Agreement" for the seas

[karynnj]

It speaks of Kerry making this an issue with his Ocean conferences. In addition, it speaks of the Ross Sea Protected Area in the Antarctic on which Kerry led.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/we-need-a-paris-agreement-for-the-ocean_us_59ce421ee4b0f58902e5cb61

[MBS]

1. Kerry has been a real leader on this topic

Very creative (and successful!) initiatives on international fishing regulations, etc etc. I so much appreciated how, in his time at State, he really got people to connect the dots between national/international security and environmental issues. And so nice to see that his World Oceans conference is still going strong. Bravo.

[karynnj]

2. I hope that as the conference convenes it will get some coverage

As of now, other than on twitter, all I can find is this one lonely article that does start with a great sentence:

This is the rapidly growing global marine conservation movement first launched by US Senator John Kerry in 2014.

https://blooloop.com/news/sea-life-trust-our-ocean-marine/ The parsity of coverage is not surprising as it got relatively little coverage during the 3 conferences when Kerry was Secretary -- even when Obama took some big positive actions that were announced there. The one exception ... when Leonardo DiCaprio spoke.

DiCaprio is committed and has given a lot to this effort -- and it might be that one of his biggest gifts is just his appearance. He was recently at the YAle Climate Change Conference in an interesting panel discussion with Kerry - https://news.yale.edu/2017/09/15/watch-sessions-kerry-climate-change-conference-livestream After watching it, I think I will send that as a link to non scientific people interested in the issue. While the other sessions contained far more information that I didn't know, there is a part of the discussion where DiCaprio spoke of not being an expert and Kerry answered, as he did in at least one hearing and on his book tour, that addressing climate change would be the prudent policy even if it turns out the scientists are all wrong. It is possible that this discussion could reach people who could not follow the wonderful Dr Moniz.

On twitter, there were pictures of an event where Kerry got a special award from the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation for his work on the oceans and climate change.

Link to tweet