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Publicized major oil spills and natural-gas leaks certainly capture our attention. And over the past 30 odd years, there have been many. They include accidental releases of fossil fuels into the environment (with millions of gallons noted in parentheses) in Kuwait during the Gulf War (240-336); Bay of Campeche, Mexico (140); Trinidad and Tobago, West Indies (88.3); Fergana Valley, Uzbekistan (87.7); Nowruz Oil Field, Persian Gulf (80); Angolan coast (80); Saldanha Bay, South Africa (78.5); off Brittany, France (68.7); off Nova Scotia, Canada (43); Genoa, Italy (42); Exxon Valdez spill off Alaska (11); and BP's Deepwater Horizon platform leak in the Gulf of Mexico (205). But as this in-depth EcoHearth report indicates, these represent—thanks to millions of unsupervised, abandoned, improperly capped wells—just a small percentage of both the number of leaking wells and the amount of oil and gas released. Read on...

Something all humans share, from celebrities to the homeless, is breathing the air. Not so obvious is the quality of that air and how it impacts our health. While we think of global warming as something taking place high above our heads, it’s easy to forget that those heat-trapping and often chemical-laden gases affect our lungs here on the ground before they make their way up to the clouds. Read on…

Coal has been an integral part of American power generation since the late 1800s. While that technology has in some ways benefited our society, we now recognize the ecological hazards and health risks associated with using coal as an energy source. Coal by itself is not harmful; however, the byproducts of burning coal raise serious health and environmental issues. And the vague laws governing the disposal of the toxic byproducts of coal-fired power plants, laws that allow each state to determine its own rules for its plant sites, are another cause for concern. Read on…

Fifteen years ago the hawksbill sea turtle in my hands would have been hog-tied, whisked hundreds of miles, slaughtered and carved into trinkets.

Today, this rare survivor of a critically endangered species swam free.

On Baja’s Pacific coast, an adult male hawksbill sea turtle found its way into a fisherman’s net. In the past, for the fisherman anyway, such a thing would have been considered a stroke of good luck. The endless demand for turtle meat, eggs, skin and shell on the black market can provide a nice payday to anyone willing to endure the low-level risk of being caught.

Hawksbill turtles, once common, are now the rarest of the rare due to decades of being hunted for their beautiful shells, which get carved into combs, broaches, and other adornments.

These days, however, a Mexican grassroots conservation movement called Grupo Tortuguero has challenged the old ways and shaken things up a bit. A network of thousands of fishermen, women and children count themselves among its ranks.

Noe de la Toba, the fisherman who caught this turtle, is the nephew of the local lighthouse keeper who is a sea turtle champion himself. Noe contacted Aaron Esliman, the director of Grupo Tortuguero. Esliman dispatched a call, an email and several Facebook messages to network members throughout the region, who responded immediately. The turtle was swiftly moved by another fisherman to the nearby office of Vigilantes de Bahia Magdalena, where a team led by Julio Solis, a former turtle hunter himself, took care of the turtle, checking it for injuries. The turtle was measured and weighed, ID tagged and then quickly returned to the ocean. Images and details were shared immediately on Facebook and Twitter, on websites and over beers.

The fishermen involved weren’t paid. They just did it. It was no one’s “job,” but it was everyone's responsibility. They weren’t motivated by fear or money, but pride, dignity and camaraderie instead.

People just like them are rescuing animals every day. Thousands of sea turtles are saved each year. The number of sea turtles in Baja’s ocean has been on the rise. One turtle rescue at a time.

Fifteen years ago experts had written off Baja’s sea turtles. The population was too small and the pressures on them too great, the thinking went. And yet, the endurance of this one turtle tells a very different story.

If the survival of endangered species is just a battle of the budgets, they—and we—will lose. But if it’s a matter of will, commitment and love, I’ll put my bet on the turtles to win.

The hope conveyed in this turtle story is embodied by Julio Solis and beautifully described in his own words in the award winning short film by the good folks at MoveShake.

The hope we have for the restoration of endangered wildlife is the motivation behind our new online magazine, WildHope. It highlights compelling wildlife conservation success stories and moves you can make to create more. I hope you will check it out. We have come a long way indeed.

As we watched that lucky hawksbill swim gracefully into deeper water, we all felt good, optimistic and grateful. It was a moment of joy, not because one turtle was saved, but because we understood that this one experience just might be a trend, a movement, a collective shift in consciousness. And because a world with sea turtles is much better than a world without them.

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Additional resources:
Deep Ocean Reverence: An Interview with Wallace 'J.' Nichols

Wallace "J." Nichols, PhD is one of the world’s leading advocates for our oceans. J. is either founder or  cofounder of many active ocean conservation, coastland preservation and  species restoration projects, including Grupo Tortuguero, Ocean  Revolution, WiLDCOAST and  the EcoDaredevil  Award. Currently, J. works with and advises several conservancies,  universities and organizations to advance ocean protection, including an energetic and creative group of international graduate students. He is also on the EcoHearth Board of Advisors.

Tomorrow is "Save the Frogs" Day! Why do we need such a day? Frogs have been disappearing worldwide at unprecedented rates, and currently one-third of the world's 6,485 amphibian species are threatened with extinction. This should come as no surprise since frog populations are being assaulted from many directions at once--global warming, pollution, habitat destruction, infectious diseases, over-harvesting and invasive species being the greatest menaces. Despite this onslaught, there’s a lot you can do to reverse this disturbing trend. First let's look at why frogs are so important to the environment—and to our very survival. Read on…