Climate pirate
Think back to all the challenges humanity has overcome, all the challenges you have overcome, is the current climate change crisis really a challenge too big for us to tackle? The human brain is a problem solver: innovative, creative and experimental. Currently we have more humans on Earth than ever before and many of us are well educated, highly skilled and incredible talented. We have the innovative potential that is needed to solve the climate crisis, we just have to unleash it.
Motivation is the biggest driver that exists. At the same time, it is the hardest challenge in the fight against climate change. How do people get motivated to work towards green house gas emission reductions if there are literally millions of people free riding? It is the biggest tragedy of the commons problem we ever faced. Do we get motivated if we know the potential negative consequences for ourselves? I, personally, am not able to picture the negative future that awaits me. And since I can not picture it, I do not draw motivation to act from dooms day scenarios.
Calling climate change a crisis and treating 2018-2030 as the most important epoch in human history is what got me motivated. It incorporates the negative future we might face as the reason why we call it a crisis but it does not focus on it. It focuses on “what stories will you tell when asked about this important time in history”. Nobody wants to tell their children and grandchildren that they knew about the threats and did nothing, everyone wants to be able to tell an exciting, exceptional and heroic story. This is what motivates me to take actions and to
Motivation is the biggest driver that exists. At the same time, it is the hardest challenge in the fight against climate change. How do people get motivated to work towards green house gas emission reductions if there are literally millions of people free riding? It is the biggest tragedy of the commons problem we ever faced. Do we get motivated if we know the potential negative consequences for ourselves? I, personally, am not able to picture the negative future that awaits me. And since I can not picture it, I do not draw motivation to act from dooms day scenarios.
Calling climate change a crisis and treating 2018-2030 as the most important epoch in human history is what got me motivated. It incorporates the negative future we might face as the reason why we call it a crisis but it does not focus on it. It focuses on “what stories will you tell when asked about this important time in history”. Nobody wants to tell their children and grandchildren that they knew about the threats and did nothing, everyone wants to be able to tell an exciting, exceptional and heroic story. This is what motivates me to take actions and to
be a driver in a world of free riders.
Historic events have historic characters. We are living in a time that will be of historic importance and we have to choose which role we want to play. I choose the role of a climate pirate. This identity aligns well with my love for the ocean, my desire to explore and travel sustainably and my current location, the Caribbean. But that is not why I choose the role as pirate. In the golden age of piracy (around 1700), pirates managed to build a system of social equality that exceeds the equality found in modern states today. They mastered effective collaboration through scale rather than growth and through their genius skills of story telling, they were the talk of all towns. There is much we can learn from how pirates achieved their goals in the golden age and many modern successful movements, companies and personalities use the same techniques.
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I reduce my carbon footprint by 60% by 2030 and I will go out of my comfort zone to increasing my carbon hand print by speaking up and voting for change I am working towards creating a better world by questioning and improving the status quo with innovative thinking and creativity I seeking out collaboration to increase the scale of my actions and ideas I tell optimistic and compelling stories that inspire and motivate |
On going projects/ideas
The Sargassum podcast: Bringing the newest inventions and knowledge regarding Sargassum into your living room with an engaging podcast that interviews scientists, managers, entrepreneurs, fishermen, artists and many more.
Global Coral Reef Week: Let's redesign Coral Reef Scientific Meetings! Global Coral Reef Week is a new conference concept, situated between an in-person and a virtual meeting. Local hubs will make it possible to network in person with colleagues. The hubs will be connected to each other with plenary talks from global and regional experts.
Practical climate change solution from the ocean: Sargassum, a super abundant macro algae is capturing some of the CO2 that we put out into the atmosphere and turns it into biomass. At the moment that biomass rots away on Caribbean beaches returning the CO2 back into the atmosphere and affects the local community negatively. What if it could be turned into a long term CO2 capture? Or if we could harvest energy from it before the CO2 returns to the atmosphere?
Climate change Sabbatical: I quit my faculty position to spent my time, energy and skills on practical solutions for climate change. Next to working on the above projects, I also document small and large actions I do during my Sabbatical on my instagram account.
Global Coral Reef Week: Let's redesign Coral Reef Scientific Meetings! Global Coral Reef Week is a new conference concept, situated between an in-person and a virtual meeting. Local hubs will make it possible to network in person with colleagues. The hubs will be connected to each other with plenary talks from global and regional experts.
Practical climate change solution from the ocean: Sargassum, a super abundant macro algae is capturing some of the CO2 that we put out into the atmosphere and turns it into biomass. At the moment that biomass rots away on Caribbean beaches returning the CO2 back into the atmosphere and affects the local community negatively. What if it could be turned into a long term CO2 capture? Or if we could harvest energy from it before the CO2 returns to the atmosphere?
Climate change Sabbatical: I quit my faculty position to spent my time, energy and skills on practical solutions for climate change. Next to working on the above projects, I also document small and large actions I do during my Sabbatical on my instagram account.
Achievements
14th December "If tiny corals can build a reef..." Talk to inspire people to take climate action at Climate Social forum
13th December Eco Champion Award 2020 International Climate Action Challenge
13th December Featured project leader International Climate Action Challenge Impact Summit
18th of November "Klimawandel und Meeresbiologie". Talk about climate change and marine biology for Klimagruppe Nidwalden in Stans, Switzerland.
1st of November Plenary talk at dear2050 on coral reefs and climate action.
31st of October - 8 November Exhibition of my science slam piece at dear2050 science and art exhibtion
23th of October Published scientific article Shifting away from the business-as-usual approach to research conferences
20th of October "Klimawandel und Meeresbiologie". Talk about climate change and marine biology in Zug.
19-20th of October Extinction Rebellion booth at Spring into Action summit for teenagers
19th of September TEDx talk in Luzern, Switzerland How a Marine Biologist turned Climate Pirate
4th - 12 September Bicycled from Switzerland to the Netherlands (~900 km)
3rd of September Completion of Climate Reality Leadership Training
1st of September Illustration on Climate Illustrations instagram
August -Sept 2020 Mentor, Ambassador and Challenger for International Climate Action Challenge
26th August 2020 "Klimawandel, einfach erklärt". Talk about climate change for Klimagruppe Nidwalden in Stans, Switzerland.
10-23rd August 2020 Consultant and technical support for virtual conference organisation of eDBSB meeting
18th of July 2020 Spring into Action speech at the #notgoingback extinction rebellion event in Bern, Switzerland
1-14th of July 2020 1st Global Coral Reef Week. free virtual conference for coral reef scientists, practitioners and enthusiasts with 1396 participants and and over 10'000 views on zoom and YouTube.
January - May 2019 Ecology and Biology consultant and grant writing for Sargassum R&D project by Fearless Fund
August - December 2019 started Pirate points, gamifying sustainable behavior at the Center of Marine Resource Studies. With pirate points as incentive, students were encourage to share their ideas on how to lead a more sustainable life style and to implement their own ideas.
13th of June 2019 launched Climate Pirate Workshops for the students at the Center of Marine Resource Studies. These workshops help the students to network as delegates from the organizations and clubs they are part of at their home university and bring back new skills that help them increase the success and reach of their projects.
23rd of Mai 2019 Organized and lead "brains on fire" a climate change brainstorming session during the 39th scientific conference of the Association of Marine Laboratories of the Caribbean.
22nd of Mai 2019 convinced the board of the Association of Marine Laboratories of the Caribbean that we need a sustainability committee and became the chair of this committee with several motivated committee members
9th of Mai 2019 Started a week long discussion about climate action, emission reduction and offsetting on the coral scientist list serve coral list with people subscribed.
2nd of Mai 2019 School for Field Studies blog post titled be a climate pirate.
30th of April 2019 Gave a presentation about climate change to the South Caicos High School kids
15th of April 2019 Innovative take-home exam on mangrove and seagrass restoration and protection. Students worked a whole day on letters, presentations, popular science articles etc., addressing a Caribbean stakeholder of their choice.
26th of March 2019 Rewrote climate change lecture for Marine Ecology course. Inspiring talk that gave my students the desire to do more towards climate justice.
13th December Eco Champion Award 2020 International Climate Action Challenge
13th December Featured project leader International Climate Action Challenge Impact Summit
18th of November "Klimawandel und Meeresbiologie". Talk about climate change and marine biology for Klimagruppe Nidwalden in Stans, Switzerland.
1st of November Plenary talk at dear2050 on coral reefs and climate action.
31st of October - 8 November Exhibition of my science slam piece at dear2050 science and art exhibtion
23th of October Published scientific article Shifting away from the business-as-usual approach to research conferences
20th of October "Klimawandel und Meeresbiologie". Talk about climate change and marine biology in Zug.
19-20th of October Extinction Rebellion booth at Spring into Action summit for teenagers
19th of September TEDx talk in Luzern, Switzerland How a Marine Biologist turned Climate Pirate
4th - 12 September Bicycled from Switzerland to the Netherlands (~900 km)
3rd of September Completion of Climate Reality Leadership Training
1st of September Illustration on Climate Illustrations instagram
August -Sept 2020 Mentor, Ambassador and Challenger for International Climate Action Challenge
26th August 2020 "Klimawandel, einfach erklärt". Talk about climate change for Klimagruppe Nidwalden in Stans, Switzerland.
10-23rd August 2020 Consultant and technical support for virtual conference organisation of eDBSB meeting
18th of July 2020 Spring into Action speech at the #notgoingback extinction rebellion event in Bern, Switzerland
1-14th of July 2020 1st Global Coral Reef Week. free virtual conference for coral reef scientists, practitioners and enthusiasts with 1396 participants and and over 10'000 views on zoom and YouTube.
January - May 2019 Ecology and Biology consultant and grant writing for Sargassum R&D project by Fearless Fund
August - December 2019 started Pirate points, gamifying sustainable behavior at the Center of Marine Resource Studies. With pirate points as incentive, students were encourage to share their ideas on how to lead a more sustainable life style and to implement their own ideas.
13th of June 2019 launched Climate Pirate Workshops for the students at the Center of Marine Resource Studies. These workshops help the students to network as delegates from the organizations and clubs they are part of at their home university and bring back new skills that help them increase the success and reach of their projects.
23rd of Mai 2019 Organized and lead "brains on fire" a climate change brainstorming session during the 39th scientific conference of the Association of Marine Laboratories of the Caribbean.
22nd of Mai 2019 convinced the board of the Association of Marine Laboratories of the Caribbean that we need a sustainability committee and became the chair of this committee with several motivated committee members
9th of Mai 2019 Started a week long discussion about climate action, emission reduction and offsetting on the coral scientist list serve coral list with people subscribed.
2nd of Mai 2019 School for Field Studies blog post titled be a climate pirate.
30th of April 2019 Gave a presentation about climate change to the South Caicos High School kids
15th of April 2019 Innovative take-home exam on mangrove and seagrass restoration and protection. Students worked a whole day on letters, presentations, popular science articles etc., addressing a Caribbean stakeholder of their choice.
26th of March 2019 Rewrote climate change lecture for Marine Ecology course. Inspiring talk that gave my students the desire to do more towards climate justice.
Learning the ropes
Sustainability and conservation engagement before I turned pirate
October 2017 – current Association of Marine Laboratories of the Caribbean
Board member (Treasurer).
Dec 2014 – Aug 2016 Society for Conservation Biology Wellington Chapter
Committee member (Clubs representative and communications). Nest box and rat trap monitoring for Places for Penguins.
Jan 2014 – Aug 2016 Victoria University of Wellington
Volunteer field assistant including bird nest surveys, nocturnal frog surveys and chew card surveys.
June 2014 United States Fish and Wildlife Service
Volunteer field assistant for island wide bird survey on Palmyra Atoll.
2007-2011 [project 21], Student Organization for Sustainable Development
Member, six months as project manager, six months as member recruiter and eight months as president. This included organising a successful project launch including securing of funding, website and corporate identity design, launch campaign including a prize draw and media relations (EnergieWG).
January 2009 Member of the conference planning committee for Alliance for Global Sustainability Annual Meeting, in Zurich, Switzerland.
Advisor on sustainable conference planning.
January 2009 Member of the conference planning committee for the 2009 Student Summit for Sustainability, Annual Meeting of the World Student Community for Sustainable Development, in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland.
Social and networking events coordinator.
Summer 2009 Attendance of Global Humanitarian Forum’s Inaugural Youth Forum 2009 organized by Kofi Annan
Spring 2008 Participated in ETH Zurich’s ecoworks initiative
Summer 2008 Attendance of Friends of the Earth conference and workshop on sustainability
June -August 2006 Conservation volunteer for St. Eustatius National Park, Dutch Caribbean
Hiking trail and botanical garden maintenance, delivering educational programs for children (snorkel club and school visits), coral reef monitoring.
Board member (Treasurer).
Dec 2014 – Aug 2016 Society for Conservation Biology Wellington Chapter
Committee member (Clubs representative and communications). Nest box and rat trap monitoring for Places for Penguins.
Jan 2014 – Aug 2016 Victoria University of Wellington
Volunteer field assistant including bird nest surveys, nocturnal frog surveys and chew card surveys.
June 2014 United States Fish and Wildlife Service
Volunteer field assistant for island wide bird survey on Palmyra Atoll.
2007-2011 [project 21], Student Organization for Sustainable Development
Member, six months as project manager, six months as member recruiter and eight months as president. This included organising a successful project launch including securing of funding, website and corporate identity design, launch campaign including a prize draw and media relations (EnergieWG).
January 2009 Member of the conference planning committee for Alliance for Global Sustainability Annual Meeting, in Zurich, Switzerland.
Advisor on sustainable conference planning.
January 2009 Member of the conference planning committee for the 2009 Student Summit for Sustainability, Annual Meeting of the World Student Community for Sustainable Development, in Kreuzlingen, Switzerland.
Social and networking events coordinator.
Summer 2009 Attendance of Global Humanitarian Forum’s Inaugural Youth Forum 2009 organized by Kofi Annan
Spring 2008 Participated in ETH Zurich’s ecoworks initiative
Summer 2008 Attendance of Friends of the Earth conference and workshop on sustainability
June -August 2006 Conservation volunteer for St. Eustatius National Park, Dutch Caribbean
Hiking trail and botanical garden maintenance, delivering educational programs for children (snorkel club and school visits), coral reef monitoring.