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Category Archives: Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science

“Surreal” Sharks: Learning From The Best

October 1, 2016 DReynolds

I am excited to share that the Xploration Awesome Planet episode staring iconic explorer/adventurer Philippe Cousteau and featuring the University of Miami’s Dr. Neil Hammerschlag and his Shark Research and Conservation Program team and Predatory Ecology Lab dropped nationally today on the FOX network.

The episode, shot in Biscayne Bay and the Atlantic waters off Miami, focuses on Dr. Hammerschlag’s research work with sharks, as well as showing that these majestic creatures are not the scary ‘monsters’ depicted in movies and books but are important parts of our planet’s ecosystem.

Aside from my incredible love for sharks, this episode was especially meaningful to me because I was with Philippe and Neil that day (please see the blog that I wrote earlier this year entitled We’re Going to Need a Bigger Boat about this amazing experience by clicking here) and was actually featured in the piece when Philippe interviewed me as I worked to measure one shark and perform various experiments on the boat’s transom.

As I said during the episode on television today, being with two of my science heroes and the sharks was “surreal.” As I also said, the experience “brings everything we learned in the classroom into the real world and that everything actually matters and that it’s all real.”

I have been privileged to participate in five University of Miami shark tagging adventures but to be with Dr. Hammerschlag and his team plus Philippe Cousteau from EarthEcho (and on whose International Youth Leadership Council I serve as a member) was something that I will never forget.

Thanks to my school, Palmer Trinity School, and especially the program’s sponsor, Dr. Caroline Hammerschlag, for allowing us to spend the day with the Shark Research and Conservation program to learn from everyone on board, as well as to conduct some super cool hands-on science on these magnificent creatures.

Thanks to Philippe, Neil and the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science for an amazing experience and for again showing the world that these incredible creatures are not so scary after all!

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A September to Remember

September 12, 2016 DReynolds

As the warmest summer on record nears an end, this month is shaping up to be a “September to Remember” for The Sink or Swim Project. I want to update everyone on a few of the amazing events that we will be participating in as we continue to publicly discuss the risks that South Florida faces from global warming and especially sea level rise, as well as possible solutions such as the need to dramatically increase the use of solar power and other sustainable energy solutions as we transition away from the use of fossil fuel before it’s too late. With these important topics in mind I hope you will join us at one or more of these events or, at the very least, join the discussion;

1. Climate Change Discussion & Round Table with John Podesta, Chairman Hillary for America / 2:30 PM, Monday, September 12^th / Key Biscayne, Florida

John Podesta, Chief of Staff for Former Secretary of State and current Democratic candidate for the Presidency of the United States, Hillary Clinton, will lead a Round Table discussion on Climate Change on the 12^th at 2:30 PM at the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science (RSMAS) Auditorium and I am so very humbled to have been invited to participate in this important discussion along with some of our region’s leading scientists, lawmakers and clean energy entrepreneurs.

Thanks to Susan Glickman from the Southern Alliance on Clean Energy for inviting me to attend and to the University of Miami RSMAS campus for hosting this important discussion. To learn more about the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, please visit: http://www.cleanenergy.org/. To Learn more about the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine & Atmospheric Science please click visit:http://www.rsmas.miami.edu/. To learn more about Mr. Podesta, please visit:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Podesta.

2. Secretary John Kerry & The United States Department of State / Our Oceans Conference / Thursday & Friday, September 15^th and 16^th / Washington D.C.

I am thankful to be a member of Philippe Cousteau’s inaugural EarthEcho Youth Leadership Council and in that capacity will be attending the 2016 Our Ocean One Future Leadership Summit at Georgetown University in Washington D.C. on the 15^th and 16^th. During our time together I will visit the Ocean Conservancy to discuss ocean policy, attend the Our Ocean One Future Summit, visit Capitol Hill, and hear Secretary of State John Kerry conduct a Town Hall.

Secretary Kerry will be hosting the 2016 Our Oceans Conference and in doing so plans to call today’s youth to action to protect our worlds’ waters and its inhabitants. The Conference shall focus on threats to our oceans in four areas including; Marine Protected Areas, Climate Change, Sustainable Fisheries and Marine Pollution. Speaking of Secretary Kerry, to watch a video he has made related to the event and the importance of our oceans, click here.

The learn more about The Our Oceans, One Future Leadership Summit visit http://ourocean2016.org/#event.

3. Smithsonian Water Ways Lecture / 6 PM, Friday, September 16^th/ Miami Springs, Florida

The Florida Humanities Council has selected the historic Curtis Mansion here in Miami Springs as one of six locations to host the 2016-2017 Smithsonian Exhibit ‘Water/Ways’ (http://curtissmansion.com/MoMS/) and on Friday September 16^th at 6:00 PM The Sink or Swim Project will be presenting a lecture on global warming and sea level rise entitled Sink or Swim For Kids (Of All Ages). Following our talk we will also be answering questions on a range of global warming topics from the audience.

You can learn more about the event by clicking here or visiting (http://curtissmansion.com/delaney-reynolds-sink-or-swim-for-kids-of-all-ages/) and I hope you will join us, as well as tell your friends and family to come out for what should be a fun night.

Please consider following The Sink or Swim Project on social media (Twitter, Instagram or Facebook), as well as sharing our work with a friend or two. The work ahead of us to protect our planet is both sizable and significant but, together, we can make a difference. For your support of our work, and reading, thanks so much!

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Children Solve Global Warming at COP 21 United Nations Simulated Climate Negotiations

December 7, 2015 DReynolds

While the world’s climate negotiations are taking place in Paris at the Conference of the Parties (COP21) at the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, a simulated negotiation took place here, in Miami, on December 5^th at the Frost Museum of Science that included 60 high school students from the Upward Bound program along with 120 students from StarBot Academy, Breakthrough Miami’s middle school STEM Program. I was proudly asked to act as a Climate Advisor to some of the children and was assigned to the group that represented the world’s developing nations including Pakistan and the Middle East, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, and the Island Nations.

The program, which was sponsored by Breakthrough Miami, the Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science, Dream in Green and the University of Miami’s Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science was a mock-UN climate negotiation that educated the children on climate change including social and economic impacts to the world’s various nations. It was fascinating to see the depth that children as young as middle schoolers undertook in considering how a changing climate will impact jobs, industry, technology, agriculture and, of course, various aspects of the environment. I am not surprised by the children’s understanding of these issues, I see such reactions all the time as I present my Sink or Swim initiative to children, but it sure was encouraging.

Organized by Climate Interactive’s World Climate Project, the children not only learned about many climate related topics but used a policy decision making simulator called C-ROADS (Climate Rapid Overview and Decision Support), which was developed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Climate Interactive, the University of Massachusetts at Lowell, and Ventana Systems. The children from each country or group of countries then created an action plan that addressed the concerns of their member nations and then entered into robust, often passionate, debate from the auditorium stage as they argued their position and facts in support of their temperature goals.

It was a wonderful experience being with the children and so many passionate people. I am also happy to report that working together, negotiating with one another, we were able to set climate temperature goals (an increase of no more than 2%) that, if the world’s ‘real’ (current) leaders can accomplish the same result that the children did will lead to tremendous improvement in the future. To the children that participated, as well as the sponsors, thank you for allowing me to be with you. To those who are negotiating the real agreement in Paris, please do your best to set the most aggressive goals possible and know that what you are doing will soon be in the hands of the children that were with us here in Miami and around the world. We, the children of the world, are counting on you and if a bunch of kids can come to a helpful agreement then we expect you can too.