Sea Reef is uniquely positioned to spark social transformation. As an IRS Section 501(c)(3) non-profit entity, we have demonstrated environmental stewardship, albeit in a narrow context of keeping boating sanitary waste out of our local waterways. The principles applied then contain the seeds of what is needed now. Our group of scientists, thought leaders, field conservationists and concerned citizens have developed nine strategies for affecting change in social behavior, attitudes and actions. These strategies are integral to our overall approach.
Saving Coastal EnvironmentsStrategy 1: Consciousness-Raising
Strategy 2: Social Liberation
Strategy 3: Emotional Arousal
Strategy 4: Self-Reevaluation
Strategy 5: Commitment
Strategy 6: Countering
Strategy 7: Environment Control
Strategy 8: Rewards
Strategy 9: Helping Relationships
Sea Reef exists to:
- Stimulate creative and innovative approaches and solutions to coastal waters;
- Support the education of young students in the importance of the coastal environment;
- Provide funding/scholarships to students, or groups of students who present projects that utilize technology within the coastal environment to protect and preserve local waters;
- Establish collaborative relations with other ocean conservation and preservation organizations to leverage the outcomes of our incubator projects into larger scale applications;
- Receive contributions of funds by gift, devise, bequest, or otherwise and to apply same to furtherance of the foregoing and related educational, scientific and charitable purposes;
- To apply for and utilize grant funding for above purposes.
Popular efforts to slow environmental degradation are typically reactive. Events such as annual beach cleanups and rescuing marine life from water borne garbage, abandoned fishing nets and lines are examples of sincere grassroots attempts to counter massive environmental impacts. As clean-up crews comb shorelines, some recreational boaters are simultaneously discharging waste into local waters. Lacking alternatives, countries around the world transship, bury, burn and scatter to the winds and waters refuse, including pollutants and poisons, of every description. Cruise ships, airplanes and cars discharge massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere while transporting millions upon millions of eager tourists around the world to glimpse fading landscapes and unstable shorelines. Behaviors borne of ignorance and the absence of effective alternative approaches leave us with heroic but sadly limited one-off remedial efforts.
The looming issue is a lack of behavioral and cultural stewardship that confines concerned citizens to beach cleanups and similar initiatives. Environmental management and remediation strategies must reach into the hearts, minds and behaviors of people, enabling them to take action and hold those around them to task.
Our era calls for dramatic changes in culture and behavior without which a reversal in coastal environmental decline is impossible. Renowned environmental lawyer Gus Speth states: We need a “spiritual and cultural transformation.” Transformation is often borne of crisis, and that time has arrived. Some call it a tipping point.