A Remarkable Journey to Highlight Plastic Pollution in The Ocean ~ Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean – With Erden Eruç & Distinguished Speakers” presented on June 7, 2022

Virtual Event Summary by: Ayşe Lara SELÇUKER
Dual BA Student at Columbia University and Sciences Po Paris; written for the LMGlobal.Org

The Light Millennium, Charitable Global Human Advancement Organization (LMGlobal.Org -status#501-c-3, 2001, New York), in collaboration with, the Global NGO Executive Committee (GNEC.NGO), jointly presented “A Remarkable Journey to Highlight Plastic Pollution in The Ocean ~ Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean – With Erden Eruç & Distinguished Speakers” titled the 2022 Ocean Day (8 June, A/RES/63/111) virtual panel on Tuesday, June 7, 2022.
The panel highlighted ever-increasing and threatening Plastic Pollution in our Ocean and ecosystem at large.
The session has contributed through various aspects of the 2022 Ocean Day’s theme, “Revitalization: Collective Action for the Ocean.” Along with Erden Eruç’s remarkable journey, the session presented a panel of voices from the field, academic/researchers, diplomats, and non-governmental organizations.

The Light Millennium Global’s 2022 World Ocean Day celebration started with the WorldOceanDay.Org of the United Nations’-produced video focusing on the essentiality of oceans for all of our lives. The video highlighted the fact that we have depended on oceans as long as humanity, and that our negative effect on them has become more and more pronounced with time while the ocean has continued to sustain us.

The event was held in collaboration with the Global NGO Executive Committee. Bircan Ünver pointed out the specific influence of the COVID-19 masks and more specifically single use plastic masks that have polluted the ocean significantly. The NGO wishes to contribute towards awareness and seeks to discuss suggestions towards improving and single-use plastics policies. We need to come up with a globally binding agreement to reuse and reprocess these plastics.

Next to speak was Patrick Sciaratta, who first thanked Bircan Ünver for a year of long and tedious work for increased outreach for the Committee. Then he moved on to tell an anecdote from when he was younger and worked as a performer. A typical trick or joke made was that “Something that is lost might be found near water.” He used this joke to open the discussion about ocean and water. “Water keeps recirculating,” he said.

“Here we sit with water everywhere around us recycling. Isn’t it time to respect it instead of treating it as our global waste disposal?”

Mr. Sciaratta then introduced a video-recording from the United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, who said, “Many benefits of the oceans are being undermined by our own problems,” citing issues like overfishing and their impact on many factors of life like small cases businesses and particularly women. He pointed out that more than three billion people rely on oceans for their livelihoods, and that we must do all that we can to pay the oceans the respect they deserve.

Following the Secretary General’s video, Hawa Diallo took the floor to deliver the session’s opening remarks.

Hawa Diallo, Chief of the Civil society Unit at the Civil Society and Advocacy Section, UN Department of Global Communications, has extensive United Nations experience in public information outreach and fostering civil society partnerships, emphasizing youth and women’s organizations. Ms. Diallo began her United Nations career in 1987 in the Department of Public information and has served in two United Nations Peacekeeping Operations in Cambodia and Somalia, respectively. She has also worked for the United Nations Human Settlements Programme (UN-Habitat) in Nairobi as an Associate Human Settlements Officer and a Partners and Youth Officer.

She began the panel by first explaining her role as the UN Non-Governmental Liaison Office and the work they are doing with regards to prioritizing oceans. First, she introduced the Ocean Conference that will be held in Lisbon in a couple of days, and said that her office wants to take an active role for Sustainable Development Goal 14 on protecting marine life and sustainability of marine resources.

“NGO’s need to continue to educate each other,” and her office places just this emphasis on enabling conversation between different civil actors, and that, in the case of Lisbon, the “emphasis on civil society is present at the conference in Lisbon. She shared statistics about applications from civil society organizations who wished to join the Lisbon conference, stating that the Liaison Office received nearly 2000 applications. They hope to accredit as many as possible.

She moved on to focus on today’s theme and the idea that every organism depends on the oceans. She said “The ocean supports us and our ecosystem,” but pointed out that the “earth’s health has been undermined” as a result of climate change and environmental degradation. “We have taken more than we have given.”

Diallo also mentioned the adverse effects of plastics, stating some alarming facts, like how humans produce 38 million tons of plastic every year, 50 percent of which is single use. 500 billion plastic bags are used, and they only have a lifespan of 15 minutes each. 10 million of these bags get dumped into the ocean, weakening the state of our oceans. “This has an impact on all of us.“ Observing a growth of plastic everywhere she took listeners back to her hometown in Sierra Leone, where she deals with plastic waste on the daily.

“We should be united; we should do this in an international way. We should be inclusive and should leave no one behind.”

Diallo reminded listeners of a quote from the Secretary General, “as we work to end then pandemic and build back better we have a once in a generation opportunity and responsibility to correct our relationship with the natural world.” She interpreted this to including world seas and oceans, and added, “The earth clock is ticking, and it’s really time for humanity to wake up.”

Bircan Ünver then urged all listeners to come up with one pledge for the year that would allow to make better decisions with regards to their impact on the oceans. Diallo stated that she would commit to using her own reusable bottle more than using single-use plastic bottles often. She also reminded listeners of the UN’S Act Now Campaign.

Bircan Ünver then introduced the session’s keynote speaker from an advocacy perspective Erden Eruç. Gig Harbor resident, Erden Eruç (pronounced ‘Air-den Air-rooch’) completed the first solo circumnavigation by human power in 5 years and 11 days. What started as a simple idea in 1997, became a quiet obsession. A tragic accident which claimed the life of Göran Kropp while rock climbing together in September of 2002, finally put him in motion. Life was too short. Erden is the leading ocean rower in the world today. He is the recipient of the 2013 Citation of Merit from the prestigious Explorers Club, one of the 2013 Adventurers of the Year – “nine individuals changing the face of global adventure” by Outside Magazine, and one of the 50 Most Adventurous Men by Men’s Journal. 15 Guinness World Records are currently registered to his name, more being reviewed. He is already listed in the 2009, 2012, 2014, 2017 & 2018 Guinness books of World Records, including:

• First to complete a solo circumnavigation of the world by human power

• First to row the three oceans: Atlantic, Pacific and Indian

• First to row across an ocean from southern hemisphere to northern

• Highest career total days for a solo ocean rower by 1,084 days (and counting)

• Most experienced ocean rower with an overall career total of 1,168 days (and counting)

• Solo career total distance rowed on The Ocean by nearly 26,700 nautical miles (and counting)

• Longest distance rowed across the Atlantic Ocean

• Personal record for longest time alone at sea nonstop: 312 days

• Personal career total distance rowed on The Ocean including two person rows – (over 29,700 nautical miles)

One of Eruç’s first sentences was: “Water is a big part of my life,” and he frequently reminded listeners that “hesitations and unknowns should not stop us. After telling a story about his first circumnavigation trip, he remarked that he had not even heard about SDGs until the end of his first circumnavigation. He, in fact, heard of them for the first time at the age of 60.

After working in the corporate world for years, Eruç found himself almost permanently in the ocean. Wanting to share what he learned, he founded his own non-profit, called Around-n-Over and also works with many other non-profits, such as Ocean Voyages Institute, 5 Gyres, and the Ocean Ambassador for Ocean Recovery Alliance.

After having lost a friend rock climbing, Eruç said that he didn’t need another tragedy to change the way he saw the world. He has since achieved (broken) 17 Guinness World Records. Focusing on one of his adventures circumnavigating, he mentioned the extent to which the oceans are polluted with fishing debris and small bits of plastic. He mentioned that while he would see such debris once a week in California, the closer he reached to the shore in Philippines he saw more and more, up to once an hour. He shared pictures of turtles starving to death because they eat plastic bags instead of jellyfish, consequently feeling full yet starving to death.

“We need to keep talking about this until there is behaviour modification,” said Eruç. He stated some facts as well, such as the fact that 80% of all circular economic value is wasted. Given that we have finite resources, we need to rethink the way our system works.

He also drew attention to various industries distracting people from focusing on systemic large-scale impacts of companies by concentrating on. Individual behaviours people can change. Citing companies like ExxonMobile (Natural Gas company) against which California has a lawsuit ongoing in the current moment, Eruç suggested that the solution cannot be through only focusing on what “little actions” individuals can take.

He stated that we should additionally be working on a internationally legally binding draft resolution that will serve as an instrument on-to combat plastic pollution. He introduced an article that proposed a better evaluation of all plastic products including their externalities’ cost on nature, such as their subsequent health issues and environmental impacts. Seeing the circular economy as an opportunity to recapture wasted value, Eruç posited that this article puts forth a solid way to price these plastics correctly.

Eruç posed a question to the audience: (are we and/or do we want to be) the pest or the steward to our Planet?

Following Eruç, H.E. Rodrigo A. Carazo, Ambassador, Permanent Representative of Costa Rica to the United Nations in New York; and the 2022 President of UNICEF’s Executive Board, took the floor as the keynote speaker of the session from a member state perspective. Ambassador Carazo’s professional development in the public sector includes: first Ombudsman of the Republic of Costa Rica (1993-1997); Member of the Legislative Assembly (2002-2006). Professional development in the private sector includes: being a liberal professional since 1971 in the fields of Economy, Law and International Relations. He has also served as a consultant for International Organizations (Government, Intergovernmental, Non-Governmental) as well as for private entities. He has 48 years of experience as a businessman in commercial, industrial, tourist, agricultural and service sectors. Academic background includes: serving as a university professor in Costa Rica and the United States; Member of the Board of the public Distance University in Costa Rica; he holds a Law Degree from the University of Costa Rica and a similar degree in Economic and Social Sciences from the University of Costa Rica, a PhD in Political Science and International Relations from the University of Geneva-Switzerland and has completed further studies in history and International Law. He speaks Spanish, English and French. Ambassador Carazo is 74 years old, married, father of 4 daughters and grandfather of 11 grandchildren.

Ambassador Rodrigo A. Carazo focused in his keynote speech on Costa Rica’s journey with environmental transformation and prioritization of the oceans. He mentioned the Article 50 of the Costa Rican Constitution which has guaranteed a constitutional right to a healthy and ecologically balanced environment for everyone. Last year, there was an amendment added to this article: the access to drinking water as a human right, creating an even clearer constitutional link between human health and environmental and planetary systems.

Further, Ambassador Carazo has brought to the audience’s attention the following: “The Political Declaration recently agreed upon at the United Nations, we agreed to prevent and reduce marine pollution of all kinds, from both land- and sea-based sources as well as from the maritime sector, using comprehensive life-cycle and source-to-sea approaches as well as waste management“. He further emphasized on the declaration by stating that, “the declaration highlights the recent establishment by UNEA of an intergovernmental negotiating committee towards a legally binding international instrument on plastic pollution, including in the marine environment, based on a comprehensive approach that will address the entire life cycle of plastics.”
As in a nutshell, Ambassador Carazo underlined that Costa Rica strongly supports a legally binding international action that will create a comprehensive solution addressing the entire life cycle of all plastics. He mentioned many other aspects also echoed by other panelists, such as the sea levels rising, and the impact of the pandemic. Then expressed that “Costa Rica welcomes the decision and we commit to actively engaging in the Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee with the aim of completing the work by the end of 2024.”

– Ambassador Carazo’s Keynote/Talking Points

Following Ambassador Carazo, Doug Woodring took the floor with an introduction to his NGO, the Ocean Recovery Alliance. Woodring is one of Asia’s leading experts on the topic of plastic pollution in the environment, and in 2018, he was awarded the coveted global Prince’s Prize for Innovative Philanthropy from Prince Albert II of Monaco for his work. He is the Founder and Managing Director of Ocean Recovery Alliance, a non-profit organization focused on bringing innovative solutions, technology, collaborations and policy together to impact positive improvements for the health of the ocean. He is also the Lead Expert of Rebound Limited, a new exchange platform for the global trade of plastic feedstock for recycling, based in the UAE.
Two of its international programs were launched at the Clinton Global Initiative in 2010, and it is one of the few NGOs to have worked with both the World Bank and United Nations Environment (UNEP) on the Topic. He is a United Nations Environment (UNEP) Climate Hero for his efforts and was recently inducted into the International Marathon Swimming Hall of Fame (2020) for his contributions to the sport and environment, via organizing some of the largest open water swimming events in Asia. Woodring has been on the advisory board of the XPrize, The Economist’s World Ocean Summit, and is currently part of UNEP’s S. E. Asia advisory team, SEA Circular.
Born in Northern California, Woodring has a dual master’s degree from The Wharton School (MBA) and Johns Hopkins University, School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) where he studied Environmental Economics. He has an undergraduate degree in Economics and Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley. Woodring has been a speaker at numerous environmental conferences.

Opening the series of panels, Doug Woodring began by introducing the Ocean Recovery Alliance: one of the groups which refers to the ocean as a singular collective unit rather than using a plural -s indicating a separation. Working with different stakeholders for the Alliance, Woodring mentioned two aspects of his life that pushed him towards founding the organization: 1) working in the fish industry in Japan and seeing the consumer choice effect of overproduction and food waste, and 2) being an active athlete interacting with the outdoors quite often. To him, the Alliance brought intersections of athletes and the environment which had the potential for a great avenue for discussion.

Woodring focused on why finding a solution to plastic waste is one of the most complicated issues of our time, and stated the following:
“There are over 40 thousand types of plastic that can barely be separated into as many as seven families. The struggle then becomes finding a solution on ‘how to get all these families so that they can be used for some secondary or third use.’ Hence, this becomes even more complicated than climate change because all of these different types of plastics that are effecting billions of people that is more than climate change’s negative impact on peoples’ lives“.

“There are not enough law or regulations because the industry doesn’t like those.” Some things “could easily be recycled but people don’t feel the need” or the motivation “to do it.” Woodring mentioned the circular economy aspect. ”If you do not measure what you have as a company, then you can’t manage it.”

He listed a few ways by which companies and institutions can make certain improvements:

• Increasing recycled content
  • Improving recycling programs
  • Using less plastic packaging and reducing supply chain waste
  • Developing new designs
  • Introducing new materials
  • Reducing environmental impact

“We can start better habits today but there’s still a heck of a lot of stuff that’s out there that we need to deal with.” He then mentioned a World Bank app that allowed individuals to identify river waste hotspots through uploading photos before the trash reaches the ocean. He supported the importance of making this struggle a bottom-up one, specifically through his experience in Cambodia working with monks, fishermen, students, and chiefs to keep trash out of the water through spiritual and cleanup methods alike. Indeed, he even worked with monks to convince the public that throwing trash in rivers is bad karma, which reduced waste levels in these areas.

Another question became what to do with this waste once it is collected. Woodring suggested (and successfully experimented with) synthetic aggregate from mixed dirty plastic that fits in with concrete. “If you took the world’s total plastic use every year, 370 million times and put it into world’s concrete use, it would only account for 3% of total concrete use.” Indeed, this would only create stronger and lighter concrete. Houses made in Costa Rica have already successfully reused 68 tons of such dirty plastic.

Another lesson Woodring shared with the public was the fact that recycling might work, but the methods we used to get there are currently non-functional. Sorting by material type, bag color, is not working and some countries still completely lack the necessary infrastructure to do it. He suggests that this should be simplified to only wet and dry and avoiding the creation of methane which is 22 times worse for the environment than CO2. Further, he highlighted that such revolutions not only will and have already spurred investment but also have a role in job creation.

Doug Woodring shared his pledge as his conclusion: “Pick It Up! Just Be Proud”

Woodring’s panel presentation was followed by an introduction to William Truebridge. William learnt to swim at the age of 2, and could freedive to 15m at 8 years old, but didn’t begin serious training for the sport until 2003. Initially he studied in Italy under Umberto Pelizzari and other members of the Italian Apnea Academy, helping to found Apnea Academy International with English translations of the texts.In 2005 William was the first freediver to dive at Dean’s Blue Hole, now recognised as the world’s premier freediving venue, and site of the annual Vertical Blue event. There, in April 2007, he broke his first world record in the discipline of CNF (Constant Weight No Fins), diving to 81m.

Since then he has broken this record multiple times, and in 2010 he became the first human to descend to 100m (330 feet) during Project Hector, an event aimed at bringing awareness to the plight of New Zealand’s critically endangered Hector’s and Maui’s Dolphins. In July 2016 he furthered this record to 102m (334 feet) as part of the Steinlager Born to Defy project, broadcast live to NZ television. William has also broken the world record multiple times in the Free Immersion discipline, most recently with 124m (406 feet) at Vertical Blue, in May 2016. In 2019 he became the first person to complete an ‘underwater crossing’ of a major channel, swimming only underwater over the course of 934 breath holds to cross the Cook Strait between New Zealand’s North and South Islands in 9 hours 15 minutes.

One of the questions Truebridge gets asks the most about his breathhold diving is, “What is the scariest thing you see down there?” While he admitted that his eyes remain closed for most of the time, cameras catch interesting scenes: like sharks or limefish. But for Truebridge, ‘what’s more terrifying was always the trash like plastic disposable razor that have made their way meters and meters into the depths of the ocean‘. “Microplastics are even scarier,” he admitted, referring to the future of the oceans as a possible “plastic soup.”

Panelist Saheed Yunisa added a collective actions paradigm to the existent discussion. Mr. Saheed is a climate enthusiast and certified Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) Consultant from Nigeria with many years of experience in WASH services delivery for both development-urban and rural- and humanitarian-emergency and rehabilitation- contexts. He has worked with organizations in developing countries, including Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, and others, in various managerial and consultancy positions. He carried out numerous WASH projects in Palorinya, Uganda, as a WASH consultant for Lutheran World Federation (LWF) – Uganda Country Programme. The last time he worked for Medecins sans Frontieres-Holland was as Water and Sanitation (WatSan) Manager. Universum Business Technology Consults (UBT Consults Limited) employed him as a WASH Consultant. He works on Ocean literacy (Ocean Surging in Ondo State, Nigeria) as a guest consultant, water management, and governance programs in the global south. He is a Global Policy, Diplomacy, and Sustainability Fellow (GPODS) and Global Policy Insight (GPI) Ocean and Water Studies Specialist.

For Yunisa, the most important part to emphasize was the idea that “non-participation is also participation” when it comes to governments or institutions committing to certain environmental goals and projects. He described in detail how an Irish community 10-20 km away from the Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria lost about 80 percent of its landmass to the ocean, and the ways in which the state has refused to take any responsibility. He thus stressed the importance of finding motivation mechanisms to highlight the importance of both participation and non-participation as significantly impactful.

Cecilia Yu took over following Yunisa with an introduction to her art and its relation to the oceans and the environment. C. Yu is an Australian artist (Hong Kong descent). She is Ambassador for PEPA L’Humanitaire NGO (with special consultative Status with UNECOSOC since 2017). Cecilia’s Art toured Japan since 2010, seen at the UNFCCC COP15/COP21/COP26, Cairo Opera House and other prestigious cultural venues/festivals (Edinburgh International Arts Festival). She regularly attends cultural events (Monaco Art Fair, Dubai EXPO2021, etc). Cecilia consults approx. 30 different sustainable development projects worldwide and sits on the Boards and Advisory Boards of a few UNDP and UNICEF awarded charities/social enterprises. Cecilia promotes Grass-root global empowerment, transparency, and Inclusivity! In 2020 Cecilia started an Applied Doctoral Research in Sustainability and Culture, where she won a Bursary award, enabling her work on a book about Management and UN SDGs strategic implementations.

Yu spoke about her art and its Australian and Chinese fusion, looking to respect and protect the oceans. “My calligraphy graffiti fusion collaboration with global graffiti artists appeared at UN COP 26, COP 21, beginning in Copenhagen COP 15. Graffiti art is the organic language that empowers the oppressed when dominant actors stifle grass-root voices at times with brutality and violence.”

She specifically highlighted SDG 12, 14, and 17 as essential to her work, and said: “I pledge to continue channeling my art towards inspiring others to respect and protect biodiversity of the earth and water.”

Next up was Henk Rogers, giving the closing remarks of the session. Henk Rogers is one of the world’s leading advocates and activists for reducing, and eventually eliminating, humankind’s dependence on fossil fuel. He is the founder, visionary and chairman of the board at Blue Planet Foundation, whose tireless efforts helped pave the way for Hawaii to enact a policy that calls for electric utilities throughout the state to rely on 100% renewable energy by 2045.

Henk is also the founder and chief executive officer of Blue Planet Energy, one of the leading providers of energy storage systems (i.e., batteries) that power homes, businesses and utility grids. The company’s innovative technology is advancing the safety, reliability and energy output of battery systems.

Henk is also the founder and president of Blue Planet Research, a private research laboratory that has designed and built off-grid renewable energy infrastructures, Blue Ion energy storage systems, HI-SEAS Mars/Moon habitats and hydrogen production systems.

He is now focusing beyond Hawaii to help others enact mandates for 100% renewable energy in their regions. He has spoken at three Inter-Parliamentary Union assemblies, where he collaborated with the 178 member countries to draft an emergency climate change resolution. 

His newest initiative, Blue Planet Alliance, takes a “mandate first” approach to initiate global climate change action. The Alliance aims to create measurable and scalable results among individuals, organizations, cities, states, Nations and eventually, the world. 

Prior to focusing on environmental protection, Henk was a pioneer in Japan’s fledgling computer game industry and developed the Black Onyx, the first role-playing game in Japan. He is perhaps best known to mainstream video game enthusiasts as the founder and chief executive officer of Blue Planet Software, which manages the worldwide rights to Tetris, one of the most popular video games in history.

Rogers began his speech by mentioning his health incident in 2005 which caused a 100% blockage of the largest arter in his heart. He had just sold a company a month before, and thought two things: 1) (jokingly,) “You’ve gotta be kidding me, I haven’t even spent the money yet!” and 2) I have too many stuff to do left? What in the world would upset me if I didn’t do something about it?”

At this point, Rogers had already fallen in love with the oceans of Hawaii, and decided to work on ending the use of carbon-based fuel. He would start in Hawaii and make Hawaii the example for the rest of the world on how to do this. He thus worked in legislation and lobbying and received his biggest success In 2015 by becoming the first state in the country receiving a legal commitment to become 100% renewal energy fuel-ran by 2045, a date whic Rogers chose to commemorate the 100^th anniversary of the UN. Electric companies, doctorate students and professionals had been saying it was impossible, but as soon as legislators and the public were on board, companies came up with a plan that would make them carbon-based energy-free by 2040.

A couple years ago, Rogers saw another win through a new law that changed the business model of utility. While such electric companies sued to make 10% on top of the price of oil, this model allowed them to make more money the quicker they switched to renewable energy.

Yet Rogers reflected, “Hawaii is, at the end of the day, just a rounding error in the world. A success in Hawaii doesn’t really change the world. But nine other states adopted their legislation and it has since been moving across the country. Still, even getting all of the US onboard means changing the future of only 6% of the world population“.

So Rogers “set up an office in New York to work with other countries, specifically island countries because they are the most similar to Hawaii.” For each of these projects, the first step was to have a mandate with a clear goal, for Palau, the pledge was to goo fully carbon-fuel free by 2032. Yet Rogers also added, “We need to be bottom up, because a top-down approach is not enough. He hence came up with a rating system that would allow more agency for all stakeholders. The system would give companies and products up to five points e-based on how good this company is for the future of humanity and nature. Among the studied parameters were factors like carbon footprint, circular economy, toxic ingredients, fair labour practices, and more.

Finally, Rogers suggested that we must make companies pay for their own recycling costs, because “people can collect much easier than companies can.”

Azer Damirov performed live with his violin a piece by English composer Elgar, titled, “Salut DAmor” for the closing, and the session ended after a brief interaction with the attendees and thank you(s).

The virtual event directed and moderated by Bircan Ünver. Interaction session co-moderated by Abigail Raghunath, who also provided technical support. In response to the pledges, one by Erden Eruç read: “I will be more intentional about finding ways to reduce my own household carbon footprints and will remain vigilant and encouraging others to become stewards of mother Earth.”

Global Policy Insights (GPI, India) and Ataturk Society of America (ASA, W.D.C.) were the contributing organizations of the 2022 World Ocean Day virtual session, which received 122 registrations from different parts of the world, which also live-streamed. The session organized-presented and hosted by The Light Millennium Global, and collaborated with, Global NGO Executive Committee.