March 2024: Session 1 - The Ocean Climate Connection

Joining us really late in the evening really early in the morning. So I hope your day is going well wherever in the world you may be. We're really excited for session one of this version of advocacy training. We'll get started in just a minute, but again, if you want to introduce yourselves in the chat, we'll get started in just a moment. We have friends from Mozambique. From France. From the United States. All over the UK. Very exciting. Zimbabwe, Tanzania. South Africa, Singapore, Tunisia. Jap

an, Canada, Mexico, Suriname. Nigeria. Oh, this is wonderful. I know it's very late again, very early, very late for some of you. So I really appreciate you all joining us today. I'm very excited to introduce this session. And yeah, we'll get started in just a second here. I love seeing how many different places our audience is from today. This is just a really wonderful group. So let's get started. So this is just our general overview of what we're gonna be doing today. Quick overview of the pr

ogram. We're gonna introduce our lovely panelists. Have a little bit of a discussion with them. Will be time for Q&A at the end and then just a couple of quick announcements before we let you go. Speaking of the Q&A, we have the webinar zoom feature where you can ask questions throughout the session. So if you think of anything that you want to ask during the Q&A at any point during the discussion, feel free to use the Q&A and Q&A feature and the chat. So. First things first, just going over adv

ocacy training. We run this program a couple times a year. This is the public globally available version of this program and I'm actually very excited to announce this is officially the largest version of the program that we have ever had. So thank you guys so much. It's really, really exciting for us here at the Ocean Project to have such a wonderful network of folks all around the world who are really excited about you know, building their own skills through things like advocacy training so th

at you can have a greater, stronger collaborative impact on your local communities. So yeah, this program is something that's been around since. 2,022 and we run it just about quarterly every year and this is our public version and we're just really excited to get started 4 weeks and here we go. So just to give a little bit of context, right? Session one is focused on the ocean climate connection and there are a couple reasons for that number one being I think many of us are probably familiar wi

th the idea that the ocean is the largest ally that we have in the fight against climate change. There's a lot of interconnectedness between the ocean and climate for a lot of reasons we're going to get into in just a minute. But For the time being, just so there's this context here. 2024, World Ocean Day action theme is catalyzing action for our ocean and climate all throughout the year. We are working on different Mini monthly theme focuses to transform our planet for a just and equitable and

sustainable society. So we have 12 monthly actions for 2024 and our March theme this month is on the Global Plastics Treaty. I will talk a little bit more about our monthly actions at the end. But yeah, I just want to do introduce myself really quickly. I am the moderator for advocacy training. My name is Laura Johnson. I am the youth programs manager for the ocean project. I just hit my third anniversary working for the Ocean Project and I oversee all of our youth programming and it is just won

derful to do. Advocacy training. It's 1 of my favorite things that I get to do for my job. Now. I'm going to introduce our panel speakers and then we'll get started. So our first speaker is Jenny Jennifer Becker. She is the deputy office director for the Office of Ocean and Polar Policy for the Bureau of Oceans and International International Environmental and Scientific Affairs for the United States Department of State. She has served all over the world and has done really incredible work for o

cean and climate advocacy and I'm just very excited to talk to her today. And then our second speaker is Arman Alex. He is the co-founder of the Gulf of Mexico Youth Climate Summit. He is a policy expert and youth advocacy expert and he's been on a couple of our Ocean Project World Ocean Day webinars before, so Armon, it is lovely to see you again. And yeah, I will kind of let you guys say hello and and you know introduce yourselves for a second before we jump into this first question so if any

of you if either of you have anything you want to just. Say, before we get started, go ahead. The one thing I wanna add, is, I'm super, I was thrilled to read Armand's bio before this and I just understand I think we're a pretty good pair as far as this goes because understand I don't have a background before a year and a half ago. In ocean science or ocean policy. I am an American diplomat. I have been doing this for 21 years last January. And so I've worked in all kinds of policy. I've worked

in mostly doing console work. I've worked in mostly doing consul work, so immigration policy, visas, American citizen services. We've also done some peacekeeping and and stuff like that. So I, I am coming at this from a very much a policy angle. I there's utility in that, but also I'm just really excited to listen today to hear what Arman has to say and to hear your questions because I feel like It's especially seeing the incredible diversity of the crowd here. I have a lot to learn from all of

you today. So thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it. Yeah, thanks so much, Jenny, and I completely agree with that. I think that it's a really beautiful dynamic that we'll be able to have a discussion with and maybe even mount some talking points off. You know, I live in Corpus Christi, Texas and Texas as a state in the US in terms of ocean climate and environment is not the most popular state. And it certainly is not a leader in that regard. I know some people are like, what? No way.

But you know, I will say though that I think that what I hope to also showcase is like the way that Jenny you and your position and someone like me in my experience are able to work together. This movement, the actions we have to take to save our planet requires cross-disciplinary or transdisciplinary collaboration between disciplines. But then also I'm thinking about how when we're looking at the ecology of organizing, for example, we need to address a lot of the systems in place that have all

owed for the climate crisis to go on and because of the experience I have or experience that Jenny has, you can do it in 3 ways. You can work in the system, outside of the system, or against the system. And people do across those 3 things. I'm thinking in the system, you're working in federal government, maybe you're as public servant. But you're trying to change it from within. And if you're working outside of it, you're doing things like mutual aid. You're filling in the gaps for the governmen

t is not helping out. And if you're doing it against, you're doing protests and things like that and demonstrations. And I think that particularly one of the reasons why I think this particular, opportunity to discuss these things with you all and share this space with Jennifer, you'll see a lot of the language going around those things and I too am excited to share some of this opportunity with Jennifer. Yeah, Armand, thank you so much for that. Lovely introduction and Jenny as well. I think th

at I'm just very excited for this discussion. I agree with everything that you both said, so. With all of that being said, let's jump right into this first question, which is just gonna set us up for the ocean climate connection. So to both of you and either of you can answer first, how do you personally perceive the interconnectedness between ocean and climate advocacy and why is it crucial for us to emphasize this connection when addressing the climate crisis? I'll let either of you go. I, do

you wanna, do you wanna go first or do you want me to hit it from kinda like the 10,000 foot level first? Okay, I'm happy to do that. So I mean, I think Laura, you already hit it on the head. The climate crisis is an ocean crisis. The global ocean is central to the Earth's carbon climate cycles. It influences planetary climate and weather patterns. It's a world's largest carbon sink. It absorbs excess atmospheric carbon dioxide and excess heat. And that's changing all aspects of the oceans funct

ion from its chemistry to its biology. So our office is worried about things like sea level rise. Ocean warming, changes in circulation, increasing storm severity, ocean isification, which I didn't even know was a thing a year and a half ago, but now I know a lot about. Loss of marine biodiversity, habitat degradation, all these things are already making significant impacts on the health and productivity of our and on communities around the world that depend on that option. So the impacts on the

ocean have serious economic consequences for fisheries. Aquaculture, tourism, as well as food security, culture, and the physical safety of communities that rely on the ocean. So it's particularly true for coastal communities, indigenous and tribal communities, and historically marginalized groups. So, you know, for me, as I work on these issues but also on my learning journey about ocean and ocean policy, it becomes increasingly clear that there is no addressing the climate crisis without a ad

dressing the ocean crisis. Yeah, I, I completely agree to this and thanks for the aerial view. As someone who lives on the coastline. I live in Corpus Christi, Texas. I had mentioned it's a front line community in in the in the aspect that you know we've got 14 miles of refinery roll so I'm connected to a big body of water but I'm also connected to the perpetuators of the climate crisis in terms of fossil fuels and so I can see that dynamic but in terms of just understanding why the ocean is so

important to doing climate advocacy. I see it firsthand. The ocean acts as a crucial regulator of the Earth's climate system. As Jennifer mentioned, it absorbs X has seed and it absorbs carbon dioxide that we admit through our emissions. And it is also greatly impacted by climate change as we know. And we see it in my community. Rising temperatures, we just saw wildfires open north Texas. We see it through coastal erosion. I happen to sit on our city's watershore and beach advisory committee as

the scientist watershore and beach advisory committee as the scientist. One of the things that we're figuring out right now is how are we addressing erosion and we're trying to use well information from NOAA as an example. And I think that we need to overly emphasize the connection between our ocean as something that is most impacted, but also a solution to the climate crisis because neglecting the health of our oceans exacerbates climate change. If our ocean is not at the center, our ocean and

our people, excuse me, are not at the center of these conversations. We will continue to. We're just doomed to recreate the same harms that we've done before. And I want to also emphasize within these discussions between connecting ocean to our climate, the need for indigenous voices in our ocean. I have the opportunity to be able to learn a lot more about my heritage, but then also work even more directly with indigenous voices in the coastal band and Corpus Christi, which is connected to our G

ulf of Mexico. But including Indigenous voices, First People's Voices cannot be, emphasize even more. I mean, it needs to be emphasized even more. There's an inherent connection to the land and sea of our first peoples. I want to add up in there. And in my perspective, we have only benefited as a city, as a state, and continuing to acknowledge and elevate and support and include and follow. The examples of indigenous voices in in our area. These communities often bear, we know that that brunted

environmental degradation and are at the front front forefront of I guess you would say innovative solutions that they've been practicing for hundreds and hundreds of years. And so their inclusion not only enriches our advocacy but that we we all stand to mutually benefit from listening to people who have been the first caretakers of our land and we know that it helps to promote. The mindset that we need in order to be able to protect our ocean based planet. That means thinking about environment

al justice and thinking about equity and crucial aspects and addressing this climate crisis and so Very strong personal connection between using our ocean as a tool not only recognizing the impacts but then also recognizing it as a solution to the climate crisis as well. Yeah, Arman and Jenny, thank you both so much for those responses. And I think, yeah, I, Jenny, you covered the kind of big picture thing and Armand you got a little bit more into the details and I think both of you hit on some

really important points. You know there's so many different ways of coming at this. There are the ecological health issues. There's the human health issues. There's the animal biodiversity issues. There's the environmental justice issues. It's so multifaceted in so many different ways. And there's so many different approaches that all of us can take to, you know, fighting for both the ocean and climate and both at the same time. So yeah, thank you guys both for your lovely introduction questions

there. So getting a little bit more specific now, for each of you, what opportunities do you see for taking down bureaucratic barriers between the ocean ocean and climate advocates and spaces and how do we foster collaboration between the 2 for greater impact. There's another question here. What steps can policymakers take to lead these changes in their jurisdictions? There's a lot of moving parts to these questions. But yeah, I think that both of you, you know, explained how the ocean and clim

ate are connected, but oftentimes they are not so much in how advocacy is approached. They're kind of siloed away from each other, the ocean movement and the climate movement separately. So these questions are kind of asking, you know, how do we bring that together? I'll let either one of you go ahead. You know, I was thinking about I can at least talk a little bit more about what happens when we don't do this. Lot of it we see and to this day there's a disconnect between government coming into

communities with solutions already at hand and not listening to local communities. We can see that in real time. A lot of the systems we see in place here. Or because of the disconnect or a lot of red tape, a lot more bureaucratic barriers and to actually. Pushing this work forward and you know I was just recently over in DC advocating for a particular bill around conservation as the conservation act. And this would particularly this particular bill would look at allowing the Secretary of Interi

or to work with local nonprofits and organizations that are on the ground doing this work through the already established coastal program of the US Fish and Wildlife Service. And this to me has real impact. I've mentioned that I said as a scientist on our city waterfront beach advisory, when we're looking at cultural erosion, we're trying to invest in green infrastructure. These are lessons learned from Indigenous voices that when we invest in our marshes and our estuaries as well as our mangrov

es these are natural ways of being able to combat some of these impacts from the climate crisis. And there are organizations, research institutes, these are non-government organizations that are doing this work already. And so allowing the Secretary of Interior breaking these bureaucratic barriers to just work directly, provide programmatic technical and financial support for these organizations that are already doing this work is a wonderful example of taking resources from the top listening an

d following the leadership of people that are already doing these. These these conservation efforts. And following their example and supporting their work, you know, that is just one real example that I could offer, but I'd also love to hear what Jenni might have to say as well. Yeah, work smarter not harder, right? Like that is, that does seem to be a good way to go. And frankly, that's something that we've always done is the US government. I mean, I'll be really honest with you. When I read th

is question the first response that I had was we're just we need to do a better job of listening and we to give us some amount of credit. We are doing a better job of listening now. You know, Armen mentioned, working with indigenous communities. This is something I've done a ton of as, you know, you said my full title, Ocean and Arctic, or Ocean and Polar Policy. So we work a lot with domestically in the United States with indigenous communities in Alaska on US Arctic and also whaling policy. In

digenous voices are have been historically left out of the conversation. So the first step is bringing them in. Another example this is say we're doing a lot more with. Island countries, you know, I'm seeing a lot of people. I haven't seen anybody from a Pacific Island country in the chat, but I'm seeing a lot of people who are joining us and I'm thrilled they're joining us from countries that are being who are feeling the first and strongest impacts of climate change. And so You have to involve

those voices in the conversation. So a lot of what we're doing in Pacific Island countries is like, what problems are you seeing? Historically, we don't do a great job of that. We think, you know, would be a great idea. Like, let's do XYZ. And then, you know, we spend all this time and money to fund XYZ and then we get out there and the people who live there like. Okay, thanks. You know, this is not necessarily what we would have chosen or what we needed. So starting that by asking the question

, right? And not assuming we know. And, and again, I remember at this point, what's solutions are you already using? Many indigenous communities have long-standing methods of adaptation and conservation that we can learn from. I was in Samoa last August for the the meeting of the Pacific Regional Environmental Program and was talking with some people who lived there about how historically communities in Samoa have always seen known what to look for and what the signs of an incoming tsunami are i

n here. Like here's what you do and. things like that. So, something else that we do is we, our leadership in OES regularly meets with NGOs with Ocean NGOs specifically to hear about what they're working on and what we can do. We spend a lot of time working with people who come up. For Capitol Hill Ocean Week and, and, and really just like talking and listening. We, former Secretary Kerry recently, the Special Envoy for Climate for the Biden administration was the the founder of the our Ocean Co

nference, which is going to be in Athens in April. And this is another opportunity to like really listen to people and and and what What are people, what are people doing? And so I, for me, I think that those are the best things that we're doing right now. We could always do more of it. I'm thrilled to hear that Arman was up here, you know, making local voices heard on Capitol Hill and you know for those of you who were in other countries I would say the same you know really making sure that you

r voices are heard as much as possible. Being the first to speak up, if someone's not asking you the question, answer it anyway. And, and really make sure that those voices are involved. I can't agree more. The last thing, you know, Jennifer, you have brought up so many. Beautiful thoughts in my brain, but we'll have to grab some coffee sometime. I'm thinking what we'll need to do, but I'll think about. Next time. And you know, we're both though in the in the chat said I'm 16 and I'm from Texas.

And I was like, okay, what is it that, what a, as an example, can do in this, like how, how does, how does Roberta play a role in this? And I'm thinking. Let's try to practice what we're preaching. We're learning these concepts. We're learning these topics. We're learning ways of interacting with folks. This is a critical opportunity for, I'm also a member of Gen Z for us to learn these skills whenever, you know, It's often said we're the leaders of tomorrow. We're also the leaders of today. An

d in these spaces, whether we're in a council or a youth group or at school. And you've got like maybe a working group committee or a subcommittee on this or that or just Think about how you're able to break down silos and cross collaborate because that oftentimes allows you to work on and build those skills that you need to be able when you're in these larger spaces recommend, oh, let's let's break down these barriers because I've already done it before and I know what it feels like to work mor

e cohesively. And, you know, there's a wonderful. Quote by John Lewis, who's an amazing felt civil rights advocate making rest in peace. He mentioned that it oftentimes it takes courage to say the things that are unpopular even though when you know what is right. And in a world that are unpopular even though when you know it is right. And in a world that works shooting for us all. Collaborating across disciplines is what is necessary and that is right and a lot of people don't see that as as the

thing that we need right now but we desperately need so so thanks so much for for queuing that up in my head. Yeah, we all need to talk more. I mean, and, and sibling. You know, I mean, you know, John Lewis was the originator of the phrase, good trouble. But, you know, you, this is not somebody, who was ever in my memory unc, at least publicly. So yeah, like let's have this conversation. Yeah, thank you both. It's hard to even summarize everything that you have both touched on because It's such

a broad and expansive conversation and and you know, we've used a lot of US specific examples in this so far, but I think that, you know, anybody who's watching who is not from the United States can still, you know, take a lot of these concepts back home to your communities and apply them in a context that makes the most sense for where you live. And I think that that's really kind of the crux of what we're getting at here is that everything we talk about today can be. You know changed or you k

now adapted to whatever your situation is at home what works best for you. Now I also mentioned in the chat because Jenny you brought up the our ocean conference. I just wanted to let folks know if you are already planning on attending, if you are already registered and you are planning to go to the our Ocean Conference, please let us know. We would love to be able to connect you with network members on the ground. Now. Moving to this next question. We kind of you both already touched on a lot o

f What might be touched on with this question too. So, you know, we just got a little bit more specific. We're gonna get even more specific now. Talking about policy priorities both nationally and or globally that you believe can maximize synergies between the ocean climate and how can collective action campaigns be designed to leverage these synergies. Now the follow-up questions for this also kind of address, you know, how do we you know, integrate the needs and concerns of coastal communities

, how can we ensure that nontraditional stakeholders, whether that means indigenous communities or, you know, other members of coastal areas or, you know, non traditional being. Public libraries or you know other NGOs or after school programs like there's so many different. Groups and communities you know the word community can mean a lot of different things so we've already kind of talked about a lot of that stuff and I think that that's still important to touch on but I really want to ask both

of you if you think that there's anything really specific. I have a feeling I know one of the things that might be brought up here and if it's not brought up I will mention it but yeah I'll just throw that out there if there's any specific policy priorities that we can kind of maximize ocean and climate advocacy over. Again, can I start with the umbrella there and then we can kind of scope down because I know Arman's gonna have some really good examples here. Go for it. So yeah, I mean the firs

t that we're focusing on is an international policy goal to US policy to increase climate ambition from national and subnational governments. So when I say subnational, I'm meaning like at the state, municipal, or more community level. And all components of civil society, including the private sector. All of this is needed to protect the ocean from the serious impacts of greenhouse gas emissions. So we are really working not just. I mean, you what a lot of Americans don't know. For example, is t

hat individual states have bilateral agreements. So, with, with foreign countries. Texas and California are actually great examples of this that have bilateral agreements with a variety of countries. So in getting that that state and local Really working on like as a policy priority and we did this is something we talked about a little bit already, but really focusing on ocean-based climate solutions and really demonstrating that it's critical to the climate effort. So if we are going to meet th

e international goal to limit the global warming to 1.5°C. The ocean based climate solution can provide up to a fifth of the emissions reductions needed to meet that. And it's also really important to growing the sustainable blue economy. Now I could go on for quite some time about sustainable blue economy, but I don't want to take up too much time. But when we say nature-based solutions, we're talking about and and again,'re talking about and again Armand touched on this a little bit already re

storation and and again Armand touched on this a little bit already, restoration and conservation of coastal marine ecosystems, restoration and conservation of coastal marine ecosystems, protecting natural carbon sinks like coastal marine ecosystems, protecting natural carbon sinks like wetlands, protecting natural carbon sinks like wetlands, seagrasses. That's a ton of benefit to human communities and the ocean, including sequestering carbon, providing habitat space to rebuild by diversity and

protecting coastal areas from the impacts of storm and sea level rise. Which is a huge part of the adaptation effort. So we do a ton of stuff with marine protected areas, which is something else that I could talk about for a very long time, but won't. And lead on a ton of initiatives including the ocean conservation pleas which is as we're looking to for those of you you you are probably way more familiar with ocean policy than I am. So I'm very confident that many people in this audience know w

hat 30 by 30 is, which is the international commitment to conserve 30% of ocean and land by 2,030. One of our efforts that we're focusing on is, okay, you know, until the high seas treaty was passed last year, there was no real mechanism for, protective, for marine protected areas on the high seas legally. So a lot of what we've been looking at is helping like First of all, our commitment to preserve 30% of our domestic territorial waters, but also working with other countries to, to protect 30%

of their waters and having it be a international effort because marine protected areas are not as simple as saying we're going to protect this area. You have to actually have the infrastructure and the resources. To protect it. So it's not an MPA and name only. And so as such our effort is the ocean conservation pledge. And we're thrilled Belize just signed on last week. So we're up to 20 signers, and we're going to have an event, about OCP at the ROOM conference and we have you know big plans

for what that can be in the next couple years as we move sort of from the signatory. Bayes to the OKAY, well what are we going to do with all of those phase? So yeah, it's from a larger. Global level, but Armand certainly has the experience on like hands-on on the local community level. So I'm really interested to hear what you have to say there. Retweet to everything that you just said or rex I don't I don't even know what it is they say. But what I was going to say was that yes, yes to all of

those things and There are so many different beautiful pieces going on, pieces of policy within the US, other countries, global, the UN resolutions, etc, etc. And I'm thinking, you know, of course, I could talk about 30 by 30, America the Beautiful by the Biden administration. I can talk about the conservation knacks that we're seeing across the US. We can talk about the high seas treaty as well. These are all really beautiful things. And, and so much more and Laura by if there is anything speci

fic, please mention it, but then, I also wanted to say with all of these policies coming up. What is really important is for us to be like be able to identify which ones. The most meaningful and intentional and equitable impact. Because in a lot of the bills that may have a very pretty name to it. It's like the conservation and indigenous peoples act of something something something. But within the build, you're seeing language around. Maybe it's not doing land back. Maybe it's not recognizing s

overeignty. Maybe it's not recognizing the the ways in which indigenous folks already interact with our lands and our waters. Maybe it's taking land away from already the disinfranchised groups. It's important for us to be able to look at these pieces of legislation or resolutions. And analyze it and. Good break it down because we need more equitable policies. One of the biggest things that I had the opportunity to work towards was the what Jennifer had already mentioned. The 30 by 30. And there

was a gap in that in which We there were organizations that didn't understand. Yes, we need marine protected areas. But most importantly, we need to be taking in advice and hearing what indigenous voices or island voices are saying about marine protective areas. We can't say no fishing at all in a particular area. When a particular group of people have been fishing there for hundreds and hundreds of years. How could we put, how could we outside of their scope? Go into their community and say, y

ou can no longer fish here. That is an equitable. That's That is not just. And so when we are looking at elevating policies, priorities either on a national or global scale, we have to be able to do a little bit more research. It's, it's on us. Because yes, we can follow the the leadership of organizations that are saying this is what we need to advocate for. Yes, there's some of that trust in there, but then also we have to be well-informed and educated advocates, activists. Because we need to

make sure that things that we are supporting are just an equitable and sustainable. Otherwise, As I mentioned before, we are doomed to recreate and recreate the harms that we are already experiencing. Laura, were there some specific ones you'd like to bring up at this point? Yeah, I think both of you touched on a little bit. Marine protected areas. That's just my personal passion where where I love to focus on as an ocean climate solution but both of you kind of mentioned it and Arvon your point

about just you know putting our critical thinking hats on and making sure that we're not just you know putting out blanket statements for these policies where, you know, it might not be just or equitable. Is extraordinarily important and such a good point. To make during this conversation because, you know, there are ways to work around it too because the purpose of having, you know, just to use marine protected areas as a specific example, you know, if, okay, we can't. You know, block fishing

over here, that's completely fine. There's a very good valid reason why people should be allowed to fish in this area. Okay. How about over here? Let's create a highway. Of marine protected areas in the open ocean where there isn't really a fishing industry and you know. Fish and marine life don't know the boundaries of marine protected areas and when they are outside of those boundaries they are no longer protected but they don't know that and so you know making interconnected marine protected

areas and closing those gaps is really important but we still also really need to have these indigenous fishing grounds in the availability and and you know allowing them to continue their you know cultural and and livelihood practices so yeah I think both of you touched on a lot of really specific ones I just marine protected areas that one is particularly near and dear to my heart. Jenny, were you going to say something? No, I was just gonna say like an add to that like it's not it's it's hard

er to talk about but like also we have to involve industry in this. You know, when we talk about sustainable blue economy, that's where like I get really jazzed like and then you start talking about the intersection between marine protected areas. Marine spatial planning, which is kind of like if you will, zoning. On the coast. What you could do but being smart about it and involving industry from the beginning so that we can really be sure that people's livelihoods are in can in fact be enhance

d. By conservation member measures as opposed to it doesn't necessarily just mean losing jobs. So, but making sure that industry is involved in that and that we're really balancing. All these voices as we have this conversation. So there's like less protesting and more like agreement. Is, always a good thing. Exactly. Absolutely, Jenni. That's I think exactly what Armand was talking about earlier on, you were talking about, you know, the interdisciplinary cross disciplinary collaboration and int

ergenerational too. Cross disciplinary collaboration and intergenerational too quite honestly I think is another one especially as we're going to talk about youth coming up here in a second. So yeah. Actually, we are talking about youth right now. So, you know, as we're talking about all of these things. A lot of these big policy. Conversations to be had can be quite overwhelming for, you know, a young person who is not necessarily directly involved in their government. You know, you can vote, y

ou can protest, you can, you know, even if you're too young to vote, you can still be involved. You can attend 10 attend town halls, excuse me, and you know, still let your voice be heard. But what are some of the other ways? How else can youth become involved in driving these? Actions and how can the institutions that we're talking about you know whether it's the government or NGOs or other nontraditional stakeholders, you know, schools, universities, that kind of thing. How can different measu

res be implemented to, you know, really support young people, young voices, and in both of your respective work. Have you found any specific strategies that are really effective in mobilizing young people specifically within this space. I think, let me go first. Yeah. So, you know, let me start by saying I, I think the answer to so many of these questions is the only really wrong thing to do is nothing. Right. I mean the both the bad and the good news about the state of our ocean is that there i

s so much to be done. That there is so much for you to do. Right? I mean, it mean, whether it's a beach cleanup. Whether it's, you know, attending the youth summit at our ocean conference, whether it's like, there are so many levels and some of them just because some of them are less visible doesn't make them less impactful. That is something I've learned a lot about in the last 21 years of diplomacy. Visibility is not the same as impactful. So I, you know, anything you're doing, if you're taugh

t, you're here, you're here, you're learning about this. You're here. You're learning about this. That is fabulous. For those of you who are in a place for those of you who are in a place where maybe you're just on the cusp of like figuring out what you want to do for university or maybe you're just on the cusp of like figuring out what you want to do for university or what you want to study. One of the things that's really struck me since I took this job is how badly we need more young people t

o consider. Policy jobs is an option. I think that a lot, you know, I find that even within the federal government, members of Congress are surprised other people at the State Department don't know that we're here or what we're doing, right? So we need to do a better job of getting that out there. We need to, like I want more young people to know that policy is an option. Domestic and international. So obviously as the Department of State, we are the lead on a lot of these international discussi

ons. My boss was the head of delegation for the high seas treaty for things like that. But also I work a lot with the environmental protection agency and they're the lead in our conversations with the G 7 and the G. 20 where we're talking about a lot of these issues. We work a ton with NOAA for those of you who are not in the United States. It's a national I'm going to do this wrong. National, oceanic and and atmosphere association. Yeah. Administration, Oceanic and Atmosphere Association. Admin

istration, that's embarrassing. Yes, they do ocean and space stuff. They and they do a ton of stuff internationally as well as domestically so at that level like if that policy level or if international work intrigues you but you're also committed to the environment. Their opportunities. I am Arlene negotiator on ocean issues for G 7 in G. 20 and I have worked with colleagues in a whole bunch of the countries that I have seen here. So their opportunities for you to work. Locally, but if you have

, you know, if you want to work for the government, that is not the same thing as selling out the environment. There are walls for you, as as Armand said early on, working within the system to, to impact, you know, we have, I'm in the Noah Ocean Guardian, Youth Ambassador Program. I love that for you, Lydia. I love that for all of us. That's fantastic. So yeah, there are a ton of opportunities as you're making these choices. And so if anyone is interested, I would recommend going to careers. Dot

gov if you're an American citizen and there's all kinds of information in there about not only, be, you know, working as a civil service officer, for the State Department, but also I'm a foreign service officer. There's all kinds of information in there as well to do that. I want us to engage with young people more. Gen Z is gonna bear the brunt of this moving forward and there's a lot of interest. I mean, again, as you can see on this call, a lot of interest, ton of activism. I don't know that

we always do the best job of that. You know, I'm Melissa posted in in the chat information on how to connect and get updates from the US delegation at the Ocean Conference so you can see what we're doing. I'm also going to put a plug in for Instagram which is science diplomacy all one word underscore U.S.A. And I'll put that in the chat or if Melissa if you could put a link in the chat for that as well. If you interact with our posts, like I work with a lot of people who I have to struggle with

if I'm candid to if they're gonna submit something to post on the site like no one wants to see a bunch of people standing in front of a podium. This is not interesting, especially to young people. And that's what I say a lot to my office. Like, if your 16 year old niece would not stop scrambling and look at this, I don't want to post it. So interact with our posts. You know, and that's the feedback that we need for, you know, our public affairs office to say like, these are the posts and engag

ement people. I want to know what gets you excited about what we're doing because a lot of what we're doing is really exciting and we have to find better ways. To get it out there so that people know it's an option. And that was a lot of talking, but this gets me really jazz. That's why I wanted to do this today. I was really excited. I, you know, the UN The UN definition of youth is anyone under 35. Alright, like. That's a little bit crazy to me, but no one asks. You know, so like the first yea

r I was here, I didn't know that and I was having a conversation with the organizers for, And I'm like, what's our youth engagement? Like, what it, and she starts talking, I was like. No, no, no, I was like, well, can we, you know, can we get like MUM groups involved? Can we get like, you know, scouting? I was a Girl Scout, so I'm like really passionate about that. You know, and she goes, oh, you mean actual children. And I was like, I don't mean like. Brownies, I'm not talking about like 5 year

olds. I'm talking about like young people who are making decisions about their future right now, you know, who were looking at what their education is gonna look like. Do I wanna do university? What's it gonna be? I'm in university. Like what path do I want to take? Talking to her was like you're younger than 35 and you're organizing this thing like that's insane for that to be like our definition. I mean, you're you're almost middle-aged at that point. That's like, no. So we really need to do

is get people I want people engaged in seeing us as an option and seeing all the ways that they can do this. As they're making these choices. And that they see policy and, you know, working with their governments, whether that is local like Arm line is doing at the municipal level or whether that's at the federal level like I did to really see the that NGOs are NGOs and and this in civil society, really great path. To you know what Laura is doing is a fantastic way like it has a huge impact. But

this is an option too. And so if you're more suited to that and you like that then You know, I want you to know that you can. That you can do that as well. Thank you. Thank you, Jenny, for that I was going to mention for My point of view, I'm like one of my favorite person. To read their content and just follow along with their work, as a role model. Dr. Aiana Elizabeth Johnson and that my name might be very familiar to some folks. Just an amazing black woman who is a marine biologist and You k

now, she gave a TED Talk talking about the ways that you as an individual can engage in climate work. And in summarization she says what are you what are you what are your passions What are things you're good at now? Of course there's always ample opportunity for you to grow and find new ways and find new skills for yourself. To think about the culture. And the consciousness that we are going to operate in. Let's say we're able to flip the strip switch and fossil fuels is gone. Maybe we're able

to flip the switch and all of the systems that are oppressing people. Or maybe we're flipping the switch and we're able to get past climate change. What does that future look like for us? Our people in the mindset of being able to operate in a world. In which we are putting the environment and our people first. That requires us to think. About the roles we play in that future. When we're organizing together, when we're trying to end fossil fuels or whether we're trying to find agreements. We hav

e to operate in community. There's there's space in there for everyone. And if it's, if it's you. Love the connection of music, we need people like that in the future to create the entertainment, to create. Moments where we're able to rejoice. And also understand sadness and there is therapy in music, whether it's art, being able to depict images. And showcase what we're living for, why we need to continue to do this work, why the world is so beautiful. And so I'm thinking about, you know, how,

how do we, Gen Z, play a role in this? We and oftentimes are I'm untouched by the disparities. Of the past, not in a way that we're not experiencing the trauma. Yes, there is that. There's generational very well exists. But when we're entering these spaces, We're not already like in a box. We still have these fresh new ideas and oftentimes it's heard like, yeah, we need young people because they have fresh new ideas and that's not just a cliche. We are able to think outside of the box in a very

creative way. We're able to bring new ideas and all of these opportunities whether it's with with Laura in the Ocean project or other youth organizations that you're working with or Girl Scouts or Scouts of America, etc. These are opportunities in which you are learning things. And there are so many more opportunities for young people. You may have gotten connected to this by another organization and you are learning something. What I'm saying to you is when I was in high school, I was only volu

nteering at at an aquarium, the Texas State Aquarium. And I only wanted to be a marine biologist. I wanted to study jellyfish and water quality. I did those things and from my research I learned that I didn't want to just do L work. I found that the thing that I loved and and woke up and thinking about the most was taking the research for doing in the lab and communicating that with people. I loved making the connections between. Our world science and people and and marine science in people. And

so I took that opportunity and go, this is something, this is my niche. Breaking down the barriers of complex scientific concepts. And connecting people with it because I know a future that we're shooting for, people understand signs. The shoot the future that we are shooting for people understand the way that they are connected to our natural world and connected to people and the natural systems in place. And that was my n. And so for you, I'm saying the role that youth play is finding the nic

he that we are able to, the finding those gaps. Leveraging our, our natural skills, our talents, the things that we are growing into and being in these spaces. One thing I didn't talk about was Laura had mentioned it being the co-founder of Gulf of Mexico youth climate summit in Corpus Christi, Texas, a part of the Gulf South in the Gulf of Mexico and then the US for folks that aren't familiar. There are tons of institutions. Tons of commissions and tons of working groups, but they're all primar

ily filled with older adults. My co-founder Maggie Peacock and I, after, you know, a late night phone call, I've just. Quite frankly, ranting about how flushering it is to be young professional experts in these spaces and not having a seat at the table was infuriating. And what we decided to do together. Was unite our skills. You know, we said we're no longer waiting for a seat at the table. We're going to make a table of our own and we are going to bring people to those tables that are missing.

And so both her and I, we now represent over 200 youth from the Gulf South, Mexico and Cuba included and which we've created this table and the vision that we see of the future is taking place right now. We're working with indigenous folks. We're working with disenfranchised community, marginalized community, black and brown. You name it, the minorities that have been missing from the table, we created that space and this is a niche of our own. What I'm saying for you is that you have the tools

you have the skills you have the powers to use your voice right now if you're waiting for the queue to to take some action maybe today is that day maybe this year's that year and I'll also add in there also make sure to take care of yourself because this work is incredibly overwhelming and many times things do not go the way that we want them to do. And that is because that is as designed. There are so many systems holding us back. And so when you're doing this work, think of your outlets as we

ll. Mental health is incredibly important and and that's that's that's what I'll leave it at. Yeah, Armand and Jenny, both of you. Thank you so much. That's it's This has just been a wonderful conversation and you know, I think both of you touched on. So many different points that I feel I'm just like sitting here listening to I feel like this one question itself could be its own like webinar series on honestly because there's so much to say and and I think you know Jenny you talked a lot about

you know how how the US State Department specifically is thinking about engaging with young people. And then Armand, you came and talked about how young people can engage with institutions like the State Department. And again, we are using very US based examples in this conversation. But as I said before, all of this is super applicable to wherever you are in the world. And Armand also touched on, you know, finding your niche, finding what works best for you. And I will also shout out Ion Elizab

eth Johnson again, but a different project that she worked on called the Climate Venn diagram. And Armand, if you could find the link possibly and send that in the chat, I think it's just climate then. Dot com. I love that and I will you know, shout that from the rooftops as much as I can because it really kind of. Soilifies everything that you both have talked about in for this question, you know, finding what works best for you. What do you want to do? What needs to be done and what are you ab

le to do? And, you know, when young people are able to figure that out really early on in their advocacy journey, I think that that kind of spreads around and other institutions whether they are you know still in the early phases of involving young people in their you know conversations and programming and and whatnot or they are already doing a really good job of that more and more of these kinds of institutions and different kinds of stakeholders are kind of waking up to this idea that young p

eople just need to be involved and actively want be involved. So the more you raise your voice, the more you interact and engage with these kinds of institutions, the greater impact you will have. And the last thing that I will say before I were a little short on time for the Q&A. The last thing I will say is everyone watching today, congratulations because you've already done step one. You have, you know, registered for this webinar. You showed up and you are watching it and that is enough for

today. You took the initiative and you wanted to learn more, you wanted to engage and that is absolutely where your mind needs to be to, you know, really start advocating in your communities. So all of that to say, we have a couple of questions here in the Q&A. A couple of them have to do with advocacy training specifically, so I'm just gonna click go through those. Certificates will be at the end if you send us a feedback form. All of the sessions for the same time will be at 5 p. M. General or

GMT time 5 pm not 6 pm now I do want to touch on 2 of these questions. One of them actually in here is can African youth also have such opportunities? Yes, that's exactly what I was saying before. Again, we used a lot of American and US-based specific examples today, but all of what we're talking about can be applied to wherever you are in the world. Yeah, absolutely. Laura, can I follow onto that super quick? You know because his his next question is can they have such opportunities in the U.S

.A. and You know, the answer is both yes and I will say yes and. I would recommend anyone who is interested in studying in the United States or coming from a program in the United States. Go to your the US Embassy website in your country and there will be a lot of information about how to apply for a student visa or how to apply for a visa for certain programs to come to the United States and study and or participate and and things like that. But then we really want and like I used to do this wh

en I my first tour was in Cameroon and I worked in the cultural affairs office and so my favorite thing was seeing people go to the United States for these programs and then come back and the impact that they had at home. So, you know, we absolutely would love to have you study in the United States. And then I want to see, you know, what, what then that does, you know, I mean, I saw someone in the chat say, like, African, you know, Nigerian teenagers need this information. Yeah, they do. Like, w

ell, frankly, America, all of them do. But, you know, we know how will you then take that and mobilize when you get home. And so, yes. Please do check out. You know, when I see somebody saying can't afford the studies in the United States. Oh, I get that a lot of American kids can't afford studies in the United States. I feel your pain deeply on this. I there there are like, you know, and there's your student advisor at the embassies. Will should also have information about scholarship programs.

There's a lot of American universities who are really interested in attracting talent from overseas to come and being part of their international student program. And there are a lot of scholarships available as well. So I would really, if you were, if that is interesting to you, that information is out there and we would love to have you. Yeah, I think there's a lot of questions in here that I don't think we're gonna have time to get to. So I do apologize, but a lot of these questions are defi

nitely things that are going to be answered in sessions 3, 2, 3, and 4 of advocacy training talking about more specific, you know, ocean climate literacy and outreach and engagement and how to, you know. Collaborate and work with other institutions and organizations and individuals. So I can't specifically touch on all of these questions today. However, I do have an email address right down here, L Johnson at the Ocean Project. Org. If any of you have questions you'd like to email me, feel free.

But yeah, I Well, Let me see here. We have so many good questions. I feel awful that we can't touch on all of these. But again, please feel, please, please, please, please see if you can join us for sessions 2, 3, and 4. Again, event planning and fundraising, actually this is backwards, I apologize. Session 2 is social media and communications. Session 3 is event planning and fundraising. And then session 4 is campaign organizing. So we really hope that all of you are able to join us for those

conversations. And again, just talking about the World Ocean Day action theme, feel free to check out what we have going on every month. And then for those of you who are asking a lot of these questions in the chat and the Q&A. You know, part of attending advocacy training is so that you are able to, you know, you all have existing skills. You all have the things that you individually are good at. And you are attending advocacy training probably for a lot of different reasons, but we really hope

that we can help, you know, sharpen and develop the skills that are really necessary for collective action. So all of that to say is when you're done with advocacy training and you feel like you want to do more. If you are interested in hosting event, World Ocean Day is June, the eighth and that is a wonderful opportunity for you to put these skills into action. Try your hand at organizing an event or campaign. And we have tons of different resources available on our website. So I highly highly

highly recommend that you go check them out at World Ocean Day. Org. If you already are planning an event or know of an event in your community, we also have a place on the website where you can go and submit that and it will populate on the map and our calendar. So anywhere in the world, somebody can look and say, I want to do something for ocean conservation in my area. They can look and see where you're at and hopefully attend and support your campaign or event. So, you know, there's a lot o

f opportunities available for everybody here and we, I also saw some questions about recordings. All of the recordings for all of the sessions will be uploaded to the World Ocean Day YouTube channel. Shortly after each session. So I think that's it for now. We are at the top of the hour. I just want to say a huge thank you to Jenny and Armon both of you are so so phenomenal in your respective roles and I think this was a wonderful conversation. Jenny and Arman, I hope to see you both at Chow in

June. It would be really wonderful. We can all get to grab, grab a cup of coffee together. But yeah, I just want to leave you all with a happy rest of your Saturday and hope to see you next week as well. Greatly appreciate the opportunity Laura and it's such an honor to be able to share some space with you Jenny and I hope that we're able to collaborate sometime in the future. We represent a lot of the you know, marginalized and black and brown youth in the Gulf of Mexico and so it's so beautifu

l that these are concepts that you see, you're bearing intentional around, but very, very thankful for this opportunity to share my experience. Same, thank you. I really appreciate it, Laura. This is such a wonderful program. I'm, I want to thank everybody who took the time and in some cases stayed up so late to hear what we had to say. And I'm grateful for you. I'm so grateful for all these young people who care. And because that is that's the first step and it's the biggest. So thank you so mu

ch. Yeah, thank you guys both so much again and have a wonderful rest of your weekend and Saturday. Bye everyone. Hi everyone. Goodbye all