Hope for the High Seas?: Sylvia Earle and Oceans on the World Stage
Outrage + Optimism: The Climate Podcast
Persephonica
4.7 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 12 June 2025
⏱️ 45 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
World leaders, scientists and ocean advocates are gathering in Nice for the 3rd UN Ocean Conference (UNOC) and hopes are high that progress can be made on some of the many pressing issues facing our seas - from acidification to pollution, and from biodiversity loss to deep sea mining.
Reporting from the summit, Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac ask: can this moment become a true turning point for ocean governance? Central to the agenda is the High Seas Treaty: a long-awaited international agreement designed to protect marine life in the 64% of the ocean that lies beyond national borders. But with more ratifications needed to get it across the line, can its future be secured while the world’s eyes are on Nice?
Later, Christiana is joined by legendary oceanographer and explorer Dr. Sylvia Earle. Drawing on a lifetime of experience beneath the waves, she shares stories, warnings, and a passionate case for protecting the blue lungs of the planet.
This episode features underwater and ocean recordings taken by sound artist and documentarist Louise Romain.
Learn more
⚓ Get the latest news on UNOC from the official website
🌊 Learn more about the High Seas Treaty and track its progress towards 60 ratifications
🐠 Discover Sylvia Earle’s ocean advocacy initiative Mission Blue
🎤 Leave us your voice notes and questions for upcoming episodes on SpeakPipe
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Producer: Ben Weaver-Hincks
Video Producer: Caitlin Hanrahan
Exec Producer: Ellie Clifford
Commissioning Editor: Sarah Thomas
This is a Persephonica production for Global Optimism and is part of the Acast Creator Network.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Christiana and Tom, our dear listeners, I am so sorry not to be with you at the UNOQ conference today. |
| 0:07.2 | I'm Paul Dickinson, and I'm here with Ben and Caitlin from Persefonica, because Tom and |
| 0:11.9 | Christiana haven't got sufficient bandwidth to be live with us now. |
| 0:14.7 | So I'm here to welcome you all to our 300th episode, whilst Tom and Christiana, somewhere in the |
| 0:20.5 | south of France, record today's |
| 0:22.7 | episode without us. Over to them. Bye for now. Hello and welcome to outrage and optimism. I'm Tom |
| 0:29.7 | Ravitt Karnak. I'm Christiana Figuere's and there is no, Paul. And to make up for our devastating |
| 0:35.8 | disappointment, we are sitting on rather a beautiful balcony in Nice with the sun rising over the Mediterranean. |
| 0:40.9 | Yeah, but don't tell Paul because he'll be very jealous. |
| 0:42.4 | Don't tell Paul. This is just his kind of thing, actually. Nice restaurants along the seafront. |
| 0:46.1 | So actually, anyway, we may be getting distracted. here in Nice at the UN Oceans Conference, and we're going to be bringing you updates on what is |
| 0:54.5 | happening in the intergovernmental conversations and between other non-state actors to get us back |
| 0:59.5 | on track with ocean conservation. Thanks for being here. |
| 1:06.0 | Maybe we should do that again. |
| 1:07.3 | No, that's fine. I just thought, it's quite a big promise that you made there. |
| 1:16.3 | That is quite a big promise. |
| 1:18.4 | That's high ambition. |
| 1:20.1 | This is not the high ambition coalition. |
| 1:22.4 | This is the high ambition, Tom. |
| 1:23.7 | This is the high ambition intro in which I have enveloped you. |
| 1:26.9 | So you're also not responsible for delivering the intro. |
| 1:29.5 | It's not just me. |
... |
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