New Year, New Opportunities

I've been a bit remiss the past few months in attending to The Sea Suite. My missing persons work, combined with family and job responsibilities and more than a bit of emotional turmoil in the second half of 2009, forced some important choices -- and also provided some much-needed motivation.

Through it all, I have been having conversations with activists, scientists and entrepreneurs and have come away more convinced than ever that the problems facing our oceans (which means our planet) not only can be solved by informed, engaged consumers and businesses but can only be solved by informed, engaged consumers and businesses. Of course, there is a role for government in bringing about positive change; but the more I have seen of government in action (or, should I say "government inaction"?) the past 8 months, the more I have come to believe that, without a transformation of the values that inform our decisions about what we buy and sell, our governments' solutions to the planet's problems not only will be ineffectual -- they will prove truly harmful.

Here is where positive change will happen -- in places like this, where people who already understand and care about the issues facing our world articulate those issues and share their ideas and strategies for solving them. Delegating and deferring responsibility to government agencies equals accepting our own helplessness and putting our faith in bureaucratic structures that continue to fail us at every turn.

In 2010, I resolve to reaffirm my commitment to promoting ocean-friendly business, my little niche. I hope like-minded people out there will join me in this pursuit and share their wisdom. Opportunities abound -- let's seize them.