When OCR was founded I was given some wise advice by sacred tree-monkey Julia Butterfly Hill. Hill had become a celebrity on account of her particular act of courage – which she attributed to her deciding what she wanted to…
An Honest Broker
Travel report – the Republic of Georgia
I’ve recently returned from the Republic of Georgia where I was invited to give an environmental “keynote” address to the International Maritime Organization (IMO) meeting at the bi-annual Georgian International Maritime Forum (GIMF), and take a chair in a panel…
Those Pesky Corporatists
We’ve just filed our comments on the Administration’s efforts to eviscerate the Endangered Species Act (ESA or “The Act” hereinafter). For me this was a challenge because most of my comments on proposed actions are reviews and critiques of Draft…
The Mother of Ten Thousand Things
“The named is the mother of ten thousand things” is the conclusion of the first quatrain of the Tao Te Ching. This is particularly poignant for me, being conversant in numbers, and a wrangler of words. The quantity “10,000”…
Hobbling the NEPA Process
We’ve just filed our comments on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) Review. NEPA started out as a seven-page act signed into law in 1970 and serves as the over-arching document that ties together the application of all other…
The Grief of Tahlequah
Tahlequah, one of the last survivors of the endangered Southern Resident Orca population, is carrying her dead calf for the seventeenth straight day. She has traveled more than 1,000 miles with her dead baby, carrying her daughter along and…
False Flags and Foul Intentions
Francisco Goya – El Bobilicon from “Los Desperates” 1864 Over the last few weeks the entire world has been staring aghast at our southern border as agents from our Customs and Border Patrol were tearing children away from their…
Uh oh. There goes the neighborhood…
Francisco Goya – Saturno devorando a su hijo Back around the turn of the century, our National engagement with the Sea started coming up on everyone’s sonar. For the majority of our Nation’s history the ocean was considered “immeasurable”…
Press Release on National Ocean Policy
Press Release Date: June 20, 2018 Contact: Michael Stocker, mstocker@ocr.org 415.464.7220 Trump Administration Drowns National Ocean Policy WASHINGTON, DC – Yesterday, with a stroke of his pen, President Trump repealed the National Ocean Policy – a guidance document representing over ten years…