The word “Noise” resides in an etymological basket along with the words “annoyance” and “obnoxious.” “Noise” is thought to have been derived from the Latin “noxia’ (to hurt or damage), and Middle English “nausea” (to quarrel). Although some etymologies reach…
Category: Public Policy
Layers of Distraction
A pretty tumultuous week has thwarted my plans of digging into the Barcelona Animal Communications Symposium. In the wake of senseless attacks on tourists on the Barcelona Ramblas, the importance of scientific inquiry pales. We can only hold the victims…
The Big Wheels of the Oil Industry
Under the rubric “If it ain’t broke, smash it!” of the current Administration, we’ve been busy the last two weeks reviewing and filing public comments on some items that fell out of Executive Order 13975 (EO) which seeks to clear…
The Tantrum of the Oilmen
If it wasn’t otherwise abundantly clear, the splurge of Executive Orders (EO) over the last two weeks confirm that the US President has handed the reins (or should I say “handed the reign”) of the executive branch over to the…
Where the rubber doesn’t hit the road
I am stepping outside of our remit to send only ocean-specific issues in our newsletters to invite you to engage in Participatory Democracy. In these extraordinary times most of us living beings are looking on with horror as the litany…
The Spirits of Earth Day
Just once a year, for the last 47 years, we as a nation have taken a day to pause and reflect on how much we love this planet. For those who were not around and up on your hind legs…
The way ahead
For those of you “just waiting for the other shoe to drop” on the “election collusion” inquiry with the hopes that it will somehow stop – or at least slow down the rapacious industrial policies being thrown at us by…
Pinging ocean noise – a harbinger of things to come?
I want to give a shout out to all of the folks who are sending me links to an ongoing news story about an incessant “pinging noise” up in the Nunavut Arctic areas of the Fury and Hecla Straits (between…
Report from the Georgian International Maritime Forum
Through a set of circumstances too Byzantine to unravel here this week I’ve found myself in Batumi, the Republic of Georgia on the coast of the Black Sea delivering and address to the Georgian International Maritime Forum (GIMF) While…
Acoustical Habitats and Aquatic Noise
I’ve just returned last week from the 2016 Aquatic Noise conference (AN2016), a gathering of souls who have taken it upon themselves to examine, poke, prod, regulate, and abuse our common interest in Marine Bioacoustics. This conference happens every few…