Julie Packard to speak on ocean, climate
MONTEREY >> Monterey Bay Aquarium founder Julie Packard will be speaking Thursday in a virtual conversation with a member of Rare, a nonprofit environmental group focused on working in cooperation with people and their livelihoods.
Packard said she’s had the opportunity to talk about important ocean issues in several virtual events since the pandemic, and that she will be talking about the ocean-climate connection with Rocky Sanchez Tirona, who leads Rare’s “Fish Forever” coastal fisheries program in the Asia Pacific.
The conversation can be viewed Thursday at 1 p.m. by registering at https://bit.ly/3g64Zdx.
“Climate change is here and we’re feeling it in California, both on land and in the ocean,” Packard said in an email to the Herald. “The ocean is the heart of Earth’s climate system and we must act to ensure the ocean stays healthy.
“At the Aquarium, we’re doing our part, from encouraging folks to ‘ vote for the ocean’ this year, and through our own commitment to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2025,” Packard continued. “We’re also supporting policies in California that are leading the way toward a clean-energy future.”
Zach Lowe, director of communications and external affairs for Arlington, Virg.-based Rare ( https:// rare.org), said Packard is a great fit for the Rare Conversations series.
“She is a true champion for the oceans, and her work — and that of the Monterey Bay Aquarium — have inspired many people to take action to protect them,” he said. “Right now, the effects of climate change on our oceans threaten marine life and coastal communities globally, including ones we work with in places like the Philippines.”
Rare’s approach to environmentalism is focusing on people and changing behavior, advocating that while people are part of the problem of environmental degradation around the world, they are also part of the solution.
Tirona, for example, works with Asia Pacific municipalities and fishermen to teach best practices in conservation, and to inspire measurable change in communities from the bottom up rather than a top-down.
“Our people-centered approach, rooted in behavioral and social science, is designed to help spark the adoption of more sustainable behaviors so that both people and nature thrive,” Lowe said.
Among the questions that will be addressed in the talk are: what does climate change mean for life in the ocean? What does it mean for vulnerable coastal communities — in the U.S. and around the world? And what can communities do to help?
“The conversation will raise awareness of that ocean- climate connection, as well as spotlight inspiring work being done in the U.S. and around the world to protect ocean health and help communities adapt to climate change,” Lowe said.