09 April 2010

Shift: Roundup of Mission Blue Session 6

Session 6 of Mission Blue Voyage wasn’t a traditional TED speaker session — instead, it was a time for people in the audience to get up and champion their own ideas. Back on the first night of Mission Blue, seven “idea champions” stood up to pitch an idea. (An eighth champion came on board the next day.) Everyone in the audience chose a project, and for the next three days we met in working sessions, at meals and on hikes, to talk about how to move these ideas forward. At Friday’s Session 6, called “Shift,” each team reported on their progress. Look for news — lots of news — in the coming weeks as these plans start into motion.

Above, Arjun Gupta presents the results of a group working on pan-Pacific protection — linking small points of hope into a protected oceanscape. As he said: “How do you fund the protection of 56 thousand square miles of ocean? Mile by mile.”

Here, Chandra Jessee presents the results of her group, which is working on Arctic protection. The need is real right now, she says, because of the new opening of the Arctic pack ice across the Northwest Passage, allowing in ships, fishing fleets, hunters and drillers. “Basically, the Arctic’s parents are going out of town, and industry wants to throw a party and trash the place.”

As another audience member said after hearing these eight plans:

“Keep pumping up the audacity. We’ve got $18 billion worth of work to do in a very short while.”

Photos: TED / James Duncan Davidson

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