When school shootings become real
I followed the Columbine shooting in Colorado spring of 1999. Of course I did. I was living in Minneapolis, doing my BA in Political Science at the U of M Twin Cities, living with my best friend Mariann and the man who was to later become my husband, Arild, in a dingy apartment near campus and we were watching it from our living room which had a mice problem but that was ours nonetheless – and we were shocked and saddened. I saw Bowling for Columbine that came out in 2002, at which time my husband and I had moved back to Norway, with our then 1 year old son William.…
SHARE this questionnaire! You could win an iPad!
Please help me – fill out this questionnaire for the GoJelly project on perceptions of jellyfish and microplastics – Bonus – you could win one of five ipads! QUESTIONNAIRE LINK It should not take you more than 6-10 minutes to fill it out and I really want as many answers as possible so please share the survey as well – especially if you know any commercial fishers, or people from the tourism industry or similar. You can find more information about the GoJelly project here – our aim is to develop a solution to plastic pollution that exploits the jellyfish blooms experienced globally and using this as a resource for…
The Once and Future Treaty – newest published article
This is an article that is written by myself and my now three most favorite co-authors from my BBNJ adventures in New York City earlier this school year and it was available online today November 10th 2018. My coauthors are: Elizabeth De Santo Elizabeth Mendenhall Elizabeth Nyman You can download it for free until the end of the year – so hurry up and get your copy before it is no longer open access: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308597X18307048?dgcid=coauthor The articles abstract is as follows: The current regime governing Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ) as a global commons has resulted in overutilization of fisheries resources and patchwork attempts to regulate resource extraction. States are looking to…
Secure Fisheries Symposium in Colorado
This week I am participating in the Secure Fisheries symposium in Colorado (of all places). SECURE FISHERIES is a program that works with local, regional, and international stakeholders to strengthen fisheries governance, combat illegal fishing, and promote sustainability. Secure Fisheries launched the Fisheries Conflict Research Consortium (FCRC) in November 2017 after convening the first Fisheries Conflict Workshop at One Earth Future’s headquarters in Colorado, USA and this is what I attended this week. I had not been part of their consoritum before, but my colleague Elizabeth Nyman at Texas A&M knows many of the researchers that are part of this consortium and this year, she secured me an invitation to become part of this group.…
TEDx style talk – how to prepare
I was recently invited to be one of the plenary speakers of the Fulbright annual conference in Puebla, Mexico, having a TEDx style talk – which immediately got me nervous since – well – I love TED talks *imposter-syndrom-kick-in* So first thing first – get a book on TED talks! I figure – I can watch as many TED talks possible but it probably helps to read (reading helps everything – I am a book-a-holic and read probably way too much fantasy and future dystopia and young adult novels for my own good, but it is a good escape from the realities of climate change and microplastic pollution and ocean…
Texas plastic pollution symposium
Tuesday, October 30, 2018 my colleague Elizabeth Nyman and I went to Corpus Christi in southern Texas for the Texas Plastic Pollution Symposium. We had two presentations there; the first on international law and plastic pollution and the second was a presentation of the GoJelly project. The purpose of this symposium was to bring together scientists, students, coastal managers, and elected officials to share research on plastic pollution conducted around the State of Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. This was particularly interesting to me as a Fulbright Arctic Chair with a focus on plastic pollution, as it gave both Liz and I the opportunity to meet with colleagues from all…
Blog post in the Washington Post
So my friends and I who went to New York City for the negotiations for the Biodiversity treaty approached the blog Monkey Cage in the Washington Post after the fact and asked if they would be interested in an article about precisely what you could learn from the negotiations. They were interested and seldom have we worked so fast and so well in order to reach a very tight deadline for this article to get out in a timely fashion, as soon after the negotiations as possible. I mentioned the article in my post about the negotiations themselves but I feel it deserves a post in itself to highlight the…
Off to New York City, the UN and international negotiations
Part of my job while here in the US is to follow the negotiations of the upcoming treaty on biodiversity protection in areas beyond national jurisdiction, with a special focus (for me) on plastics and the Arctic, with the Arctic ocean being an emerging ocean as the ice is melting and more of it is becoming navigable. The negotiations are taking place for two years in New York City, twice per year, and there was an organizational meeting in April that my friend and colleague Elizabeth Nyman from Texas A&M University at Galveston – where I am affiliated – works, in the Maritime Studies program. The first meeting proper was…
School har started!
Only two weeks after coming to Houston, the kids started school! The two youngest started in Kindergarden and in 5th grade and the oldest in 9th grade – a Freshman in High School. It really was not as easy as it is for me writing this though. 1- The kids had to have a truckload of new vaccinations – and even THEN – we had too few… that means we have to have more within about a month, or the children will not be allowed back in school. And unlike California, I am not allowed to just sign the dotted line and pretend I am against vaccines. They actually have…
Welcome to Houston
And here we are – we have arrived finally in Houston after flying via Amsterdam – and we are so excited! The kids were great – and I am so proud of them! My brother picked us up at the airport and my mom and dad were at the apartment, having packed out our stuff that we shipped and gone shopping for the basics (you forget how much basic stuff you have really – like a plunger, garlic press, potato peeler – not to mention towels and wash cloths). The apartment is stunning – much nicer than I can even start to explain – but I have added some photos…
