Climate change has duly found itself the center of attention recently.

It took until the final hours, but the UN Summit in Bali recently concluded with a compromise for our blue planet. Andrew Revkin's blog at the New York Times, Dot Earth, provides a good wrap-up. Also, just prior to the Summit, the IPCC released its Climate Change 2007 Synthesis Report, laden with strong declarations on climate change and its impacts. The report stated for example that "warming of the climate system is unequivocal," and warned that "anthropogenic warming could lead to some impacts that are abrupt or irreversible."

The report squarely puts the blame on human society, but also makes it clear that we have the policy and technological options to mitigate global green house gas emissions and reduce, delay, or avoid many climate change impacts. The report stressed the urgency to act, however, warning that "delayed emission reductions significantly constrain the opportunities to achieve lower stabilization levels and increase the risk of more severe climate change impacts."

Additionally, in early December, the U.S. made a major stride towards climate action when the U.S. Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee passed the proposed Lieberman - Warner Climate Security Bill, a key step in the legislative approval process.

View the IPCC Climate Change 2007 Synthesis Report.

Track the Lieberman-Warner Climate Security bill.

Meet Sanctuary Sam, not your average spokesperson - he's 4' 7" tall, but more than 7' nose to tail, weights in at a solid 550 pounds, spends most his time hanging out in the water eating fish, and well, he's a sea lion!

Not just any sea lion - Sanctuary Sam is on a mission to raise awareness among the American public - especially children - about the marine environment, highlighting the current problems facing the ocean, including pollution, marine debris and habitat destruction.

Sanctuary Sam will be appearing in a variety of communications and educational vehicles and is expected to make a big splash - "What Smokey Bear did for our nation's forests, Sanctuary Sam has the potential to do, making ocean issues real for all Americans," said Daniel J. Basta, director of the sanctuary program.

So look out and find ways to use Sanctuary Sam in your educational programs or personal ocean awareness campaigns.

Become Sanctuary Sam's friend and learn more about why the ocean matters by visiting his MySpace page.

View the full story from the National Marine Sanctuary Program.

If you think pink dolphins only exist as stuffed animals, think again. This summer there were at least two sightings of a pink dolphin in Calcasieu Lake, an estuary in southwestern Louisiana. The dolphin was described by its viewers as "an uncanny freak of nature, an albino dolphin, with reddish eyes and glossy pink skin," and it was thought to be a young traveling with its mother.

Sightings of a pink dolphin in Louisiana might be a surprise, but such is not the case off the coast of Hong Kong and in the Amazon River basin.

The South China Sea is home to hundreds of Indo-pacific Humpback dolphins, Sousa chinensis, a coastal species with a range from South Africa to China and northern Australia. While most individuals of the species are shades of gray, white and pale yellow, those that occur in the Peal River Delta between Hong Kong and Macau are pink. Hong Kong's pink dolphin, a tourist favorite, are now threatened due to habitat loss and over-fishing.

The pink Amazon River dolphin, Inia geoffrensis, known as "bufeo colorado" in Peru and "botos," in Brazil is considered the most intelligent among the world's five freshwater dolphin species. The pink Amazon River dolphin is now officially endangered.

View photos of the pink dolphin sighting in Louisiana.

Learn more about the Indo-pacific humpback dolphin.

Learn more about the Amazon River dolphin.

Act for dolphins today!

If your idea of weekend food shopping is heading off to the farmer's market to by locally grown, in-season produce, you're officially a "locavore."

The New Oxford American Dictionary recently announced "locavore" as the 2007 Word of the Year. The term locavore was coined by a small group of women in California two years ago as part of their rallying to encourage people to eat food produced within a 100-mile radius of their homes. Since then the locavore movement has been spreading across the country.

Eating locally carries many benefits for individual and planetary health - foods tend to be fresher and laden with less or no preservatives (making them healthier), and foods have a much smaller carbon footprint since long distance transportation is avoided.

Ocean Project Partners may be interested in teaming up with local food producers to feature more local foods in their restaurants or food concesssions areas next year, and providing visitors with more information about how to become a locavore in your community.

Learn more about sustainable food consumption.

Read Deep Economy, The Ocean Project's "Ocean Book of the Month," to learn more about building local sustainable economies.

So you're out to dinner and craving seafood, concerned that your selection is an ocean-friendly choice you reach to grab your handy sustainable seafood wallet guide only to realize you forgot it at home. Oh no! Who you gonna call? Fish busters? No, the FishPhone!

The FishPhone is the nation's first sustainable seafood text messaging service - just text 30644 with the message FISH and the name of the fish species in question, you'll get texted back with an assessment of the speices and better alternatives if your selection has significant environmental concerns. The FishPhone is an initiative of the Blue Ocean Institute.

Another smart alternative is the Monterey Bay Aquarium's Seafood Watch Guide, now available for cell phones and other mobile devices with an Internet connection - just log on to www.seafoodwatch.org and you'll be automatically directed to the online pocket guides. You can also order regional seafood guides.

Learn more about sustainable seafood consumption.

The U.S. National Research Council report entitled "Increasing Capacity for Stewardship of Oceans and Coasts: A Priority for the 21st Century" assesses past and current capacity-building efforts to identify barriers to effective management of coastal and marine resources encountered in coastal nations, particularly in the developing world. The report includes recommendations on strengthening marine and coastal protection and management capacity.

For more information, including an executive summary in PDF format, visit the National Academies Press website.

Some Ocean Project Partners may be interested in a new report that can help with communicating about conservation. EcoAlign, a new strategic marketing agency focused on energy and the environment has released their first EcoPinion Survey Report, a survey of 1,000 Americans conducted the first week of November, on communications and language commonly used by companies and stakeholders in the energy and environment space.

The EcoPinion Survey confirms a "green gap" exists around terms such as energy efficiency, energy conservation, demand response, smart energy and clean energy, and customers' understanding, acceptance and perceptions of value around those terms. For example, most consumers can't articulate the difference between the phrases "energy conservation" and "energy efficiency," with only 13% of respondents thinking energy efficiency has to do with saving money or cutting down on fuel costs.

The green gap in communications is contributing to a growing misalignment between customers' stated intentions, e.g., their desire to be more green or frugal with energy consumption, and their actual behavior.

Download a free copy of the full EcoPinion report.

Did you know that in the U.S. alone more than 100 million trees are destroyed each year for junk mail, plus 28 billion gallons of water and enough energy to power 2.8 million cars?!

The average American adult receives 41 pounds of junk mail per year. Stopping junk mail and catalogs keeps trees in the forests doing what they do best: providing oxygen for us to breathe, absorbing C02 to keep our planet cooler, and keeping watersheds and, ultimately, the ocean healthy.

The Ocean Project is partnering with 41pounds.org to stop junk mail and help conserve our blue planet. For $41, the folks at 41pounds.org do all the leg-work to reduce your junk mail by 80-95% for five years including almost all credit card applications, coupon mailers and magazine offers, plus any catalogs you specify.

Sign up to slim down by 41 pounds today, and in the process you can also choose to have $15 of the paid amount go to helping The Ocean Project continue to do our work with and for you and our other Partners!

It's simple and effective! Sign up online to stop your junk mail or call 866-417-4141.

Free postcards about this new service are available in bulk for distribution at Earth Day, World Ocean Day, and other events. If interested, you can contact Bill Mott at The Ocean Project anytime at 401.709.4071 or bmott@theoceanproject.org.

National Oceanfest 2008 is an opportunity to celebrate our common connection to the ocean, and help chart the course for its protection.

National Oceanfest 2008 is being planned for October 9th - 13th in Hyannis, Massachusetts. The conference will include presentations on the state of the ocean and exhibits from federal agencies and companies in ocean science and technology. Oceanfest will also include maritime venue and open house tours from Woods Hole to Provincetown.

The International Aquarium Congress (IAC) is an important and prestigious event for the public aquarium industry held every four years. The IAC gathers professionals from public aquariums all around the world to share and learn about new developments in conservation, research, technology, management and other related issues for the industry. A mini exhibition is also held concurrently during the event, for businesses that offer products or services for the public aquarium industry.

The Shanghai Ocean Aquarium is organizing the 7th IAC to be held October 20th - 24th 2008 at the Shanghai International Convention Center.  The Ocean Project will be there and hope you will make the event, too!