February 21, 2019

About our oceans...

So Eddie and I went along to a pretty cool event last night at the Mesa Performing Arts Center in Phoenix. It was all done through National Geographic Live and we were treated to an inspirational talk by one of the foremost adventurers, marine biologists, conservationists, writers and photographers of today, Cristina Mittermeier.

We learned about the work she has done as a contributing photographer to National Geographic for the past decades. As a specialist in conservation issues surrounding the ocean and indigenous cultures, she began by telling us a story of her first assignment to the Amazonian rainforest to photograph a small community that would be devastated by the potential decision by the Brazilian government to build 60+ hydroelectric dams along the Amazon river. The affected communities would then be relocated to cities. She spoke passionately about how this community took her, a stranger, in and made her part of their everyday lives and some of the pictures were so moving. She also talked about the idea of 'Enoughness', where people that she's encountered on her travels – despite lacking material wealth – were immensely happy and felt like they had enough. In this age of consumerism, it makes you think...

She spent a good amount of time talking about SeaLegacy, which she co-founded in 2014 with her partner, Paul Nicklen, the renowned National Geographic polar photographer. Their mission is simple: to create healthy and abundant oceans, for us and for the planet.

They are doing a huge amount of work to raise awareness of this and I would urge you to check out what they are doing. One interesting fact was that every other breath that we take is produced by the ocean. Amazing eh?!

So yes, we walked out totally inspired to be better global citizens and immediately went online to figure out what our carbon footprint (pretty high...) was and what some of the ways to neutralise it were. Watch this space!

Sadly tonight's gig in Prescott has had to be cancelled by the promoter due to a severe snowstorm that hit yesterday. We'll be back in the area soon, I hope, to sing the gig and I'm sorry to anyone that was planning on coming along tonight. Totally out of our control and the first time we've had a show cancelled in my time in the group due to weather. Using the day to catch up on admin before we fly across the country tomorrow ahead of our final two shows in Bernardsville, NJ and Newark, DL.

Bye for now!