In this Voices.Earth podcast interview, we speak with Andrew Merrie, a sustainability scientist at the Stockholm University’s Resilience Centre, and the founder of RadicalOceanFutures.Earth, which is dedicated to creating a prototype that reimagines our future oceans to guide efforts towards more sustainable ocean governance.
When it comes to creating a vision for saving our oceans, the combination of science and art can offer a clear picture of what is possible in terms of finding solutions. For RadicalOceanFutures.Earth, this project is founded on the belief that sometimes science fiction might succeed where scientific papers fall short.
The project brings together art and science and merges scientific fact with creative speculation. Radical Ocean Futures uses an empirically informed background on existing and emerging trends in marine natural resource use to develop scenarios that incorporate existing environmental, technological, social and economic trends.
Some examples of these scenarios include how to bring oceans back from the brink, how to manage rising tides, as well as the future of fisheries.
The organization chose a .Earth domain because of the community aspect of the .Earth domain tribe.
“For me, it very much felt like a community of people and organizations who are engaged in the same kinds of projects I’m interested in,” said Andrew. “It’s obvious that this is a set of like-minded people who want to change the world. For me, it also felt like .Earth very eloquently and clearly explains the stakes that we are talking about – this is a whole planet initiative.”
Following are highlights from our interview:
- A high-level overview of Radical Ocean Futures, the mission and vision behind this art/science fiction effort. (1:00)
- How these scenarios are grounded in science. (4:15)
- Andrew’s vision for the ultimate outcomes of this project. (9:30)
- Why they chose to use a .Earth domain. (13:36)
- What the future hold for Radical Ocean Futures. (15:00)
To learn more about Radical Ocean Futures, please click here. In addition, if you are also launching a project that reimagines the future of Earth, and would like to make the .Earth domain part of your core branding, click here to secure your own .Earth domain name.
