Our guest this week is Rachel Labbe-Bellas, founder of Montreal Canada-based O’Land Stations which hydrates the world's largest entertainment events & venues with profit-oriented cylindrical water stations that reduce single use plastic - one of the biggest issues now facing our planet.

It’s quite the success story, from launching right at the beginning of the pandemic - when most all major events were cancelled, pivoting during that time, and now gaining their stride as they have hit the ground running with a solution for reducing single use plastics, specifically at large events, from sports to music to conferences and events of all types where clean, cold, and quick delivery of water for an attending public is needed, and where it is also an economical tool for the event host or the event organizers. They’re building an economy around an enormous plastics pollution problem.

Rachel shares her journey from marine biology to entrepreneurship, the challenges faced during the pandemic, and the success of her company in promoting sustainability at large events. The conversation highlights the importance of partnerships and data-driven solutions in creating a more sustainable future. We discuss role of host cities for major events like the FIFA World Cup, the innovative solutions for water dispensing, the impact of their efforts in reducing single-use plastics, logistics of delivering water stations, the dynamics of market demand, and the unique offerings of their business model. The conversation also touches on manufacturing challenges, expansion plans.

Rachel has traveled the world and earned a biology degree from McGill University in Quebec, and a Master’s in ecology degree in Brazil. She’s a quadrilingual and has lived in Panama, Barbados, Italy, Philippines, and Brazil, studying tropical ecology. She worked 7 years at 5 Gyres institute as a science programs and development manager, and a corporate relations manager. She worked as a Development Coordinator for Dr. Sylvia Earle at Mission Blue, and was also a science research associate at Scripps Institute of Oceanography in La Jolla, CA. Dec 2015, she was part of 14 women from around the globe who set sail for 19 days to make the unseen seen, from the toxics in our bodies to the toxics in our seas. Their mission was to explore the issue of plastics

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Leigh Anne Lindsey, Producer Sea Storm Studios, The Sea Ranch, North Sonoma Coast

Scott & Tree Mercer, Co-hosts/Producers, Mendonoma Whale & Seal Study, Mendocino and Sonoma Coasts.

Planet Centric Media is Media for a Healthier Planet. Resilient Earth is a project of this 501 (c) (3) non-profit that is developing & producing media to elevate awareness of the interconnectedness of all living things.

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Carl talks about the pressing issue of ocean plastics and his organization's efforts to combat this global crisis. They discuss the origins of OpenOcean's Global, the facts and myths surrounding ocean plastics, and the innovative solutions being implemented worldwide. The conversation emphasizes the importance of collaboration, citizen science, and the need for systemic change to address plastic pollution effectively. They explore the challenges of recycling, the health risks associated with plastics, and innovative solutions for cleanup and prevention.

takeaways

• OpenOcean's Global aims to aggregate and visualize ocean data.
• Plastic pollution is a significant global challenge, with 75% found on shorelines.
• The majority of ocean plastic originates from a few countries with poor waste management.
• Citizen science plays a crucial role in gathering data on ocean plastics.
• Understanding the flow of plastic waste is essential for effective intervention.
• The UN Treaty on Plastics faces challenges from key countries.
• Our ocean plastic map allows citizen scientists to report pollution.
• Plastic pollution significantly impacts marine life and ecosystems.
• Plastic production is expected to triple by 2040, worsening the crisis.
• There are over 4,000 hazardous chemicals found in plastics.
• Plastic in homes contributes to increased fire risks during wildfires.
• Identifying the source of plastic pollution is crucial for solutions.
• Innovative toolkits can help communities track plastic sources.

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Leigh Anne Lindsey, Producer Sea Storm Studios, The Sea Ranch, North Sonoma Coast

Scott & Tree Mercer, Co-hosts/Producers, Mendonoma Whale & Seal Study, Mendocino and Sonoma Coasts.

Planet Centric Media is Media for a Healthier Planet. Resilient Earth is a project of this 501 (c) (3) non-profit that is developing & producing media to elevate awareness of the interconnectedness of all living things.

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Watch the video of his presentation here on YouTube: https://youtu.be/nZ4NgdnmFf8

This episode is about Dr. Josh McInnis who presented at our 6th Annual Ocean Life Symposium October 2024. Topic: Determining the Ecology and Community Structure of West Coast Transient Killer Whales in the Northeastern Pacific. Josh is from the windy seaside city of Victoria BC, Canada. His research focuses on the ecology and behaviour of marine mammals in British Columbia and Monterey Bay, California, with studies focusing on the foraging behaviour, diet, and ecology of transient (Bigg’s) killer whales and Risso’s Dolphins. They gather information with the help of NOAA, Oregon State University, Pacific Wildlife Foundation, ACCESS (which we interviewed before), and a bunch of whale watchers from Canada to Baja.

See his publication: Foraging behaviour and ecology of transient killer whales within a deep submarine canyon system

Josh D. McInnes ,Kevin M. Lester,Lawrence M. Dill,Chelsea R. Mathieson,Peggy J. West-Stap,Stephanie L. Marcos,Andrew W. Trites

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0299291

And this article published: March 20, 2024

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0299291

Transient killer whales have been documented hunting marine mammals across a variety of habitats. However, relatively little has been reported about their predatory behaviours near deep submarine canyons and oceanic environments. We used a long-term database of sightings and encounters with these pre

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Leigh Anne Lindsey, Producer Sea Storm Studios, The Sea Ranch, North Sonoma Coast

Scott & Tree Mercer, Co-hosts/Producers, Mendonoma Whale & Seal Study, Mendocino and Sonoma Coasts.

Planet Centric Media is Media for a Healthier Planet. Resilient Earth is a project of this 501 (c) (3) non-profit that is developing & producing media to elevate awareness of the interconnectedness of all living things.

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This week, and in the following few weeks, you’ll be hearing speakers from the 6th Annual Ocean Life Symposium that was broadcast on public radio and shown Live on YouTube Oct. 18, 2024. Sea Storm Studios and Planet Centric Media teamed up with Mendonoma Whale and Seal Study to produce this annual event about the health and future of our oceans and the marine life that lives within them. Today’s speaker is Howie Garrett, President of the Orca Network based on Whidbey Island in Puget Sound Washington near the Seattle Bay Area. In this presentation, Howie raises the little discussed concept of 'Orca sociology'. He starts by sharing a report from the Center for Whale Research.

Orca Network's Whale Sighting and Education Project encourages observation to increase awareness and knowledge about the Southern Resident Community of orcas (J, K and L pods), Bigg’s Transient orcas and other cetaceans, and foster a stewardship ethic to motivate a diverse audience to take action to protect and restore their critical habitat. Orca Network, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, is Connecting People with Whales in the Pacific Northwest. They are committed to a diverse, inclusive and equitable environment for their board, staff and volunteers. email Howard Garrett at howard@orcanetwork.org. His wife Susan Berta said, “We are all intricately connected, from tiny plankton to forage fish, salmon, orcas, tall firs and cedars, mountains, rivers and the ocean. It is time to reflect, to reconnect, and to respond as better caretakers of our planet.”

Here is the longer YouTube

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Leigh Anne Lindsey, Producer Sea Storm Studios, The Sea Ranch, North Sonoma Coast

Scott & Tree Mercer, Co-hosts/Producers, Mendonoma Whale & Seal Study, Mendocino and Sonoma Coasts.

Planet Centric Media is Media for a Healthier Planet. Resilient Earth is a project of this 501 (c) (3) non-profit that is developing & producing media to elevate awareness of the interconnectedness of all living things.

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In this episode, we speak with Casondra Sobieralski a lecturer at San Francisco State Universities’ Digital Media and Video Art Departments. She is also a visiting lecturer at Northeastern University (which is where Mills College was in Oakland). She has an MFA (A Masters of Fine Arts) in Conceptual & Information Arts, and a PhD Film & Digital Media. Her work examines the intersections of Media Studies, Archaeology, and media archaeology. She has done a video installation for adults about climate change and is now creating a multiplayer game so that youths from around the world could play in the same immersive space while also learning about environmental concerns and what they can do in the process.

The video installation was called Atargatis’s Siren (we’ll talke more about Atargatis in this episode) In “Atargatis’s Siren,” the Eastern Mediterranean Sea itself serves as media, delivering information about climate change via warming regional water temperatures, the consequential inundation of invasive tropical species, and rising sea levels. Her current focus is in Immersive digital storytelling (video installation, 360 video, AR (augmented reality) & /MR (mixed reality), sound mapping, women's history and archaeology; historical soundscapes; and digital heritage.
She has managed web re/design projects for several UC, Berkeley departments including The Bancroft Library, the Institute of Business and Economic Research, and the Office of Sustainability. Her roles included visual design, user experience design, graphic design, writing and editing content, video production, and photography.

Find out

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Leigh Anne Lindsey, Producer Sea Storm Studios, The Sea Ranch, North Sonoma Coast

Scott & Tree Mercer, Co-hosts/Producers, Mendonoma Whale & Seal Study, Mendocino and Sonoma Coasts.

Planet Centric Media is Media for a Healthier Planet. Resilient Earth is a project of this 501 (c) (3) non-profit that is developing & producing media to elevate awareness of the interconnectedness of all living things.

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Dave Seter has been named Sonoma County Poet Laureate 2024-26. He is a civil engineer, essayist, and poet. He is the author of the full-length poetry collection Don’t Sing to Me of Electric Fences (Cherry Grove Collections, 2021) and the chapbooks Night Duty (Main Street Rag, 2010) and Somewhere West of the Mississippi (forthcoming from Mammoth Publications, 2025). Scott and Tree Mercer met Dave after we had a conversation with Bill Keener, former Executive Director of the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito (and current Cetacean Field Research Associate) who felt Dave Seter was someone we might want to speak with. This is a casual converstation with him, and we intersperse it with his poems and other information. Informed by his career in the field of environmental protection, Dave writes about social and environmental issues, including the intersection of the built world and natural world. He is also studying Lithuanian and has translated a number of poems by contemporary Lithuanian poets into English and published them in literary journals. His poems have won the KNOCK Ecolit Prize and received third place in the William Matthews competition. He is the recipient of two Pushcart nominations. His poetry book reviews have appeared in Cider Press Review, Poetry Flash, and Tupelo Quarterly. He has been an Affiliate Artist at the Headlands Center for the Arts, and has served on the Board of Directors of Marin Poetry Center. See more about Dave, his published and upcoming works, and his Graduate Thesis https://daveseter.com/.

If you have questions, or would like to speak with the hosts, please send us a message here. Thanks for listening to Resilient Earth Radio & Podcast!

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Thank you for listening, subscribing, & supporting Resilient Earth Radio!

Leigh Anne Lindsey, Producer Sea Storm Studios, The Sea Ranch, North Sonoma Coast

Scott & Tree Mercer, Co-hosts/Producers, Mendonoma Whale & Seal Study, Mendocino and Sonoma Coasts.

Planet Centric Media is Media for a Healthier Planet. Resilient Earth is a project of this 501 (c) (3) non-profit that is developing & producing media to elevate awareness of the interconnectedness of all living things.

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We talk with former UC Davis Design Professor, Ann Savageau, about her efforts to raise plastic pollution awareness with not only her design students, but with people worldwide through a special project called BAG - Bags Across the Globe. In the early 2000s, she created a design class at UC Davis called “Principles & Practices of Sustainability for Designers”. We also talk about the UN's international treaty on plastics, why it was not finalized, and what happens next. The UN international plastics treaty being negotiated aims to create a legally binding agreement to tackle global plastic pollution by addressing the entire life cycle of plastics, from production and design to waste management, to significantly reduce plastic waste and transition towards a circular economy through measures like phasing out unnecessary plastic products, improving recycling, and promoting sustainable alternatives. However, the 5th and final UN session to produce the first legally binding treaty ended in an impasse. Talks are to resume Summer 2025.

We discuss California bag legislation that will go into effect January 1, 2026. See more info here. We bring up exciting new discoveries for alternatives to existing plastics, and we mention the OCTO Group (Open Communications for the Ocean) which helps connect ocean professionals to knowledge and networks. Over 100K ocean professionals in 120 countries use OCTO programs each year.

If you have questions, or would like to speak with the hosts, please send us a message here. Thanks for listening to Resilient Earth Radio & Podcast!

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Leigh Anne Lindsey, Producer Sea Storm Studios, The Sea Ranch, North Sonoma Coast

Scott & Tree Mercer, Co-hosts/Producers, Mendonoma Whale & Seal Study, Mendocino and Sonoma Coasts.

Planet Centric Media is Media for a Healthier Planet. Resilient Earth is a project of this 501 (c) (3) non-profit that is developing & producing media to elevate awareness of the interconnectedness of all living things.

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We talk in early January 2025 with Captain Paul Watson in this 21st episode about his captivity in Greenland (we covered his July 21, 2024 arrest in episode #1 with the President of Sea Shepherd France Lamya Essemlali). We discuss what happened, why this all came down, how he got the notice December 17 that he'd be freed, and what he and the Sea Shepherd France and Brazil, along with the Captain Paul Watson Foundation will be doing next. He became a total rockstar during his 5 months of captivity. We touch on all the support he received during that time, from Presidents like French President Macron to actors like Martin Sheen and Pierce Brosnan, to environmentalists, like Dr. Jane Goodall and Dr. Sylvia Earle. Captain Paul talks about Japan, Denmark, the US, Canada, the Faroe Islands and more, particularly about the Interpol "red notice" which was used as a political tool against this well-known anti-whaling activist, a founder of Greenpeace, Sea Shepherd, and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, and star of WHALE WARS, a reality TV series that aired on the Discovery Channel for many years. Japan did NOT like that media attention, and thus this story unfolded from our very first episode where we talked with Sea Shepherd France President Essemlali when she was en route from Paris to visit him in his Greenland jail cell last August. This is a story for the ages. Listen in as we uncover insights about this fascinating and inspirational human being - Captain Paul Watson. He now lives in Paris France with his wife and 2 young sons, one of whom is a chess champion...must be learning a few moves from his dad! Bravo, Captai

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Leigh Anne Lindsey, Producer Sea Storm Studios, The Sea Ranch, North Sonoma Coast

Scott & Tree Mercer, Co-hosts/Producers, Mendonoma Whale & Seal Study, Mendocino and Sonoma Coasts.

Planet Centric Media is Media for a Healthier Planet. Resilient Earth is a project of this 501 (c) (3) non-profit that is developing & producing media to elevate awareness of the interconnectedness of all living things.

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We still have time to make a positive impact on the future of life on this planet.