Year End Wrap Up

Weeeeelllllll . . . so much has happened this year its hard to know where to start . . . Things in California have been keeping me busy enough that quite a bit of momentum was lost on Coastopolis, but hopefully that'll all change come the new year. We'll have a new President, we'll have a new administration, and we'll have a (re)newed belief that this country can be great and rise to meet the many challenges before it . . . but let's face it; we're also carrying quite a bit of baggage into the New Year too. While I'll leave it to other blogs to list the litany of problems and challenges that arose over 2008 lets just glance at the "coastal" year: the third most costly hurricane season on record, ongoing bad news with regards to sea level rise, more plastic in the ocean than is fathomable and to top it all off, no money.
I know this is a pretty grim way of looking at 2008. To be sure there's been quite a few wonderful things that have happened not only in the country & the world, but in the lives of millions everywhere. Still, It's the author's current mood to think, "2008, glad that's over with." I'm off to Mexico for the New Year celebrations. Hope that everybody's celebrations are joyous.

Happy New Year from everybody at Coastopolis!

. . . brief aside

I'm still working on the recap of the conferece, as much for my sake as anything . . . but before I continued I felt like posting a little interjection about Coastopolis. I've been communicating with various folks about the site and in one of the most recent correspondences a little description of the site turned out sounding quite nice. I'm posting what I wrote here, I hope Linwood Pendelton over at Ocean Values doesn't mind that I'm recycling things that I've sent him (a plug should be fair trade right? click on his picture for a good "interview" w/ him)

I think the main difference that I envision for Coastopolis is that, as opposed to some websites that I've seen out there, I hope the site becomes kind of an "enabling experience" as opposed to a simple blog, forum or bulletin board. I feel that with certain "web 2.0" features its easier and easier for people to access, relay and use information across a spectrum of fields and (hopefully) it can be done in an attractive manner. My goal is for the site to have a fairly broad audience, because that's the whole point - for coastal stakeholders of diverse backgrounds to see what the other is seeing, and maybe even see the way that the other is seeing certain coastal issues.

. . . the tag line for the Coastal Living magazine is "for people who love the coast", but just take a quick look at the headlines & articles on the website . . . I think we would all agree that there's a lot more to "loving the coast" than a Shrimp, Tomato & Watermelon Salad, not that it doesn't sound delicious . . . Loving the coast, for me, means trying to understand the coast, and living on it, or visiting it responsibly. Loving the coast means engaging with that environment in a way that makes your presence a sustainable one. It's high time that we really start loving the coast, and not just the idea of it.


. . . so there's my little aside. Thanks LP.