“There comes a time when humanity is called to shift to a new level of consciousness . . . that time is now.”
Wangari Maathai, author of Unbowed, winner of 2004 Nobel Peace Prize
The marine environment is in crisis, but we are all too tired to hear about it. No one can figure out how to change the current economic system driving these problems or how to get people to change their behaviour in the age of over consumerism and individualism. We don’t like to be told what to do by scientists and experts. Somehow scientists and science have failed to inspire people so much so that it has become acceptable to deny and ignore the messages of leading science and simply chose to pursue our individual goals in life.
But still, we put emphasis on the rational over emotional, teach our children to be independent and to think logically and base decision making on logical analysis of facts. We prioritise academic subjects over arts, by not encouraging creativity, creative thinking or self -expression in a similar, systematic, continuous way in our daily lives, or in our schooling systems as we do academic abilities. We stress the importance and self-worth of academic over arts so much so that our systems have plenty of jobs for one but not the other.
This systematic enforcement of one and not the other to the point where many people who happily sing, dance, act, draw and paint as children, become self-critical, shy and non-confident and uninterested about doing most or any of these when adults. In the process of suppressing the development of the right side of our brain we have become a society of left brain dominated people, and have made science and arts so inseparable that to do one means you can’t be taken seriously to do the other. I think that encouraging humanity as a whole to unlock the potential of the right side of brain, the collectively connected, the emotional and the creative together with the current technological and scientific advances and abilities will enable us to reach solutions for effective marine conservation.
I strongly believe that this we need projects that engage and connect the two ways of thinking. And that we need to seek out, fund and implement future joint art and science initiatives, not just for those working in academia, conservation and science policy, but in variety of workplaces as well as in our everyday lives. Learning the use creative arts as a problem solving tool could have a beneficial effect in encouraging new discussions on the usefulness of prioritizing STEM subjects ARTS subjects in education, about the way we bring up our children in general, and about the way we prioritize economy and profit making over the interests of nature and conservation. This is bold view of how society should be changed, but could lead to a positive message to all that the humanity does have a chance if we radically change the way we think today and that we could achieving this through practical, creative collaboration with science and arts.