Jim McNeill
Jim McNeill is a British polar explorer with over 35 years of expeditions in the polar regions. His extensive safety skills and experience in extreme environments have made him a sought after consultant. His clients include BBC (Frozen Planet, Human Planet, Last Explorers, Natural World Series), Paramount Pictures (Captain America), mining companies, and companies building helicopters and airliners. He founded the Ice Warrior project in 2001 and has since trained over 380 people and conducted 7 major expeditions. His expeditions across the Arctic have given him the opportunity to monitor polar bear populations for the Norwegian Polar Institute, as well as putting together a yearly scientific program for scientists to monitor the effects of climate change. He is an ambassador for Hauser Bears, a charitable organization committed to the conservation of bears worldwide and is the Vice president for the Arctic Expeditions for Sea Research Society.
3 words to describe Nature?
Humbling. Universal. Indomitable
3 things Nature taught you?
About myself
About my frailties and how insignificant we really are individually and collectively
About my capabilities
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Ellesmere Island, Canada
Dartmoor, Devon, England
Outer Hebrides, Scotland
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?
Vulnerable yet fascinated
When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?
Fresh, inquisitive
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?
Amazed and reminded that life is fragile
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel…?
Energised and pensive - in that order
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?
Euphoric
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel…?
Thrilled, alive
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Mountain person in a polar or desert environment
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
I was brought up in a humble house on a council estate in North London at the back of which there were wildflower meadows surrounding a babbling brook. I spent hours, days, nights exploring the area in huge detail. From tadpoles to field mice, from groundsel to Timothy grass and beetles to butterflies, I had my own sanctuary. Nature is all around us.
Chunlei Guo
Chunlei Guo is a professor in Optics and Physics at University of Rochester. He is a Fellow of American Physical Society and Optical Society of America. He also serves as the Editor-in-Chief for one of the most widely recognized handbooks in lasers and optics, CRC Handbook of Laser Technology and Applications (2nd Edition).
Often inspired by species in nature, from lotus to butterflies to spiders, his research at Rochester led to the discoveries of a range of highly functionalized materials through laser processing, including the black and colored metals, and superhydrophilic and superhydrophobic surfaces. These technologies have a broad range of applications and have been covered extensively by the media, including the New York Times, CNN, MSNBC, BBC, Discovery, The Economist, Popular Science, Time, ABC, and many more (read here). Over the past few years, he has been working closely with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in developing technologies for global sanitation, water conservation, renewable energy, and sustainability. He discussed his work in the TEDx below.
3 words to describe Nature?
Peaceful. Inspiring. Eternal.
3 things Nature taught you?
Humility
Kindness
Knowledge
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Okavango delta (Botswana)
Himalaya mountain range (Tibet)
Cappadocia (Turkey).
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Calm
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Curious
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Energized
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Passionate
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Awakening
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Reflective
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
I like them all.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
A hiking trip with a few childhood friends. We were going further and further along a woody road with no end in sight. We were nervous but all wanted to keep going...
Michael Rosenblum
For more than 30 years, Michael Rosenblum has been on the cutting edge of the digital ‘videojournalist’ and Citizen News revolution.
During this time, he's led a drive for video literacy, and the Democratization of Video and Video news. His work includes: the complete transitioning of the BBC's national network (UK) to a Vj-driven model, starting in 2002; the complete conversion of The Voice of America, the United State’s Government’s broadcasting agency, (and the largest broadcaster in the world), from short wave radio to television broadcasting and webcasting using the ‘VJ” paradigm (1998-present); the design behind Current TV in partnership with former US VP Al Gore; the construction of a national hyperlocal citizen journalist network with Verizon; and the construction of NYT Television, a New York Times Company and the largest producer of non-fiction television in the US.
He has partnered with a number of major media companies including The Guardian (UK), USA Today, New York Magazine, The Travel Channel and others to create video ‘Academies’ where anyone can learn to report, shoot, edit and produce video on their own.
In 2009 he co-founded TheVJ.com, along with his wife, Lisa Lambden, an online video training site.
He has also designed, built and implemented VJ-driven news channels around the world, including Time/Warner’s New York 1, Associated Newspapers (UK) London based Channel 1, Young Broadcasting stations in the US, Switzerland’s largest commercial TV broadcaster, TeleZuri, as well as a host of smaller projects such as Eritrea’s ERI-TV and Sri Lanka’s SLBC. His consulting clients include The BBC, McGraw-Hill, TV-24/Germany, TV4/Sweden, Oxygen Media, National Public Radio, Danmarks Radio (DK), TV-3 Sweden, Norway & Denmark, Tokyo Broadcasting, Korea Broadcasting.
As a producer, Rosenblum has produced or overseen production on more than 3000 hours of programming for both network and cable. His shows have included the long-running TRAUMA: LIFE IN THE ER, Paramedics, Police Force, Labor and Delivery, Science Times. These series have aired on TLC, Showtime and National Geographic. He has also produced for ABC, CBS, Oxygen and the BBC. Most recently his groundbreaking 5Takes series for Discovery has completely rewritten the production paradigm. The company currently has more than 350 hours in production for this year alone.
He has conducted his unique VJ training classes and boot camps all over the world, from Thailand to Marrakech, and has lectured extensively both overseas and in the US. He recently entered into a partnership with Discovery Communications to set up the Travel Channel Academy, a national training facility open to anyone. For 8 years he was an adjunct professor of communication at New York University, where he taught “Television and the Information Revolution”, a course of his own design and at The Bauhaus in Germany. Prior to that he taught at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism. His Brussels based Rosenblum Institute trains European journalists to work as vjs. He is the author of Videojournalismus (germany) and iPhone Millionaire (McGraw Hill, 2013).
He and his wife live both in New York and in the UK and teach at Oxford University in Britain.
3 words to describe Nature?
Real. Unmediated. Honest
3 things Nature taught you?
Who I was
Who I am
Who I could be
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Coast of England at Northumbria
Middle of Sahara Desert
Lamu, Kenya
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?
Humble
When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?
Connected
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?
Terrified
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel…?
Grateful
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?
Alive
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel…?
Connected
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Ocean
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
When I was about 10 years old, my father had a friend named Eddie Durban who had a wood Lightning sailboat - 19 foot. No motor. One day, he took me out for a sail and we turned up into a series of small estuaries that ran in the wetlands that are now almost gone on the East Coast. The boat was silent, but it ghosted along, and as we drifted in the marsh, the whole place around us seemed alive and vibrant.
Wallace J Nichols
Dr. Wallace "J" Nichols - called a “Keeper of the Sea" by GQ Magazine, “a visionary" by Outside Magazine, a "water warrior" by AQUATICS International and a "friend of the sea" by Experience Life Magazine - is an innovative, silo-busting, entrepreneurial scientist, movement maker, renown marine biologist, voracious Earth and idea explorer, wild water advocate, bestselling author, sought after lecturer, and fun-loving Dad. He also likes turtles (a lot).
In 2010 Nichols delivered the commencement address at DePauw University where he also received an honorary doctorate in science. In 2011 he was inducted as a Fellow National member of the Explorers Club. In 2014 he received the University of Arizona's Global Achievement Award. And in 2017, he was presented by Fijian Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama the Champion of Change Award at the World Oceans Festival on Governor’s Island, New York.
Nichols has authored more than 200 scientific papers, technical reports, book chapters, and popular publications; lectured in more than 30 countries and nearly all 50 states; and appeared in hundreds of print, film, radio, and television media outlets including NPR, BBC, PBS, CNN, MSNBC, National Geographic, Animal Planet, Time, Newsweek, GQ, Outside Magazine, USA Today, Elle, Vogue, Fast Company, Surfer Magazine, Scientific American, and New Scientist, among many others.
His book Blue Mind, published in summer 2014 by Little, Brown & Company, quickly became a national bestseller and has been translated to numerous languages and inspired a wave of media and practical application.
J. is currently Chief Evangelist for Water (CEH2O) at Bouy Labs, a Senior Fellow at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies' Center for the Blue Economy, a Research Associate at California Academy of Sciences and co-founder of Ocean Revolution, an international network of young ocean advocates, SEE the WILD, a conservation travel network, Grupo Tortuguero, an international sea turtle conservation network, and Blue Mind a global "movement of movements" sharing the new story of water.
He co-mentors a motivated group of international graduate students and serves as an advisor to numerous non-profit boards and committees as part of his commitment to building a more creative, stronger, more progressive, and connected environmental community.
J. lives with his partner Dana, two daughters and some cats, dogs, and chickens on California's Slow Coast, a rural stretch of coastal mountains overlooking the Monterey Bay where organic strawberries rule, mountain lions roam and their motto is "In Slow We Trust". The Nichols chose to settle down in this area after trekking the entire 1,800 kilometer coast from Oregon to Mexico.
3 words to describe Nature?
Primal. Creative. Home
3 things Nature taught you?
Humility
Solitude
Confidence
3 most treasured Nature spots?
50 miles offshore and 50 feet deep from Bahia Magdalena, BCS Mexico
The source of Mill Creek in the Santa Cruz Mountains
Greyhound Rock
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Optimistic
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Connected
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
Awe
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Hopeful
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Warm
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Nostalgic
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Yes on all!
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
11
Share with us a childhood nature memory.
Backpacking to Deep Lake, in Wyoming, when I was 11 and feeling like I wanted to feel that way a lot more throughout my life. The origins of “blue mind” research, practice, philosophy and the growing global movement.
Nicole Stott
Nicole Stott has explored from the heights of outer space to the depths of our oceans. In awe of what she experienced from these very special vantage points, she has dedicated her life to sharing the beauty of space ~ and Earth ~ with others. She believes that sharing these orbital and inner space perspectives has the power to increase everyone’s appreciation of and obligation to care for our home planet and each other.
A veteran NASA Astronaut, her experience includes two spaceflights and 104 days living and working in space on both the Space Shuttle and the International Space Station (ISS). She performed one spacewalk and was the first person to fly the robotic arm to capture the free flying HTV cargo vehicle. Nicole was the last crew member to fly to and from their ISS mission on a Space Shuttle. She was also a crew member of the final flight of the Space Shuttle Discovery, STS-133.
Stott is the first person to paint a watercolor in space, which is now on display at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in DC.
As a NASA Aquanaut, in preparation for spaceflight and along with her NEEMO9 crew, Nicole lived and worked for 3 weeks on the Aquarius undersea habitat, the longest saturation mission to date.
Now retired from NASA, Nicole combines her artwork and spaceflight experience to inspire creative thinking about solutions to our planetary challenges, to raise awareness of the surprising interplay between science and art, and to promote the amazing work being done every day in space to improve life right here on Earth. She is the founder of the Space for Art Foundation and co-founder of Constellation.Earth.
She recently was featured in the National Geographic documentary series, hosted by Will Smith, about our planet called “One Strange Rock”, she is featured in the award-winning short film “Overview” by Planetary Collective, and she is a regular supporter of BBC radio and TV with a special focus on space exploration and our home planet.
3 words to describe Nature?
Peace. Life. Reflection
3 things Nature taught you?
Appreciation
Everything is connected
Respect
3 most treasured Nature spots?
On a space station in awe of the view of Earth from space.
Bari reef in Bonaire
My backyard
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
At one with something much bigger than myself.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel...?
Chilly and wanting to look up and appreciate the majesty of the trees surrounding me.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel...?
A little bit of fear, total respect for the power and beauty and unpredictability, and like I should keep a very respectful distance.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel...?
Relaxed and in awe and with an increased awareness of the fact that we live on a planet.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Like curling up on the couch with my dogs.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel...?
Like a kid in Florida on the beach before a big rain.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
All of the above. If I had to pick it would be ocean (surrounded by mountains, forests and desert).
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
10
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
On the space station we are traveling at 17500 mph or 5 miles per second, so we orbit the Earth every 90 minutes, which means that every 45 minutes we are presented with a stunning sunrise or sunset out the window. I loved to watch the Earth during the 45 minutes of "night". The glinting lights below outlined where the people were in contrast to the deep darkness of the oceans that cover most of our planet. The ever-changing weather moved above it all. The lightening of a thunderstorm in Florida whipped its way around the planet, flashing light over it like neurons firing across a brain. It was like I was watching all the beautiful action below me with the mute button on. It reminded me of thunderstorms from my childhood when I was growing up in Florida, and how I had imagined that the thunderstorm was happening only over my town, and when it was gone, it was gone. It had never occurred to me that the storm was zooming around the world, like the nervous system of a planet that looked alive. From space, I saw that lightning never exists in one place. It’s constantly on the move. This revelation led me to understand the life-changing truth of the undeniable interconnectivity of everyone and everything on Earth and that whatever happens in one part of the planet affects the whole. The reality check that we live on a planet, we are all Earthlings, and the only border that matters is the thin blue line of atmosphere that protects us all.
Richard Titus
RICHARD TITUS was named one of the Wired 100 in 2010. Serial entrepreneur and executive, Richard has a passion for technology & innovation. His startups include Razorfish, Schematic & Videoplaza. Titus's most recent startup, Prompt.ly, was co-founded in 2013 and sold in 2016 to Breezeworks.
More recently, until February 2017, Richard led customer experience for Samsung Electronics Visual display division globally. While there he led User experience & design globally, and portions of its product planning & new product development functions for Consumer Electronics & Digital Appliance divisions. Richard has been an active blockchain investor & advisor for 5+ years, his most recent ICO’s include Hive and 2030.
Richard previously he held senior leadership roles at the British Broadcasting Corporation (Future Media Controller) where he launched iPlayer and the BBC mobile service and subsequently served as CEO of Associated Northcliffe Digital, the digital holding company of DMGT’s (Daily Mail) digital holding company. He is based in San Francisco, California.
3 words to describe Nature?
Warm (even when cold), Calm, Home
3 things Nature taught you?
Respect for my limitations
Humility around our role on earth
Awe of the complexity, grandeur and ingenuity
3 most treasured Nature spots?
Iceland - the whole damn thing
Atacama desert, Chile
Yosemite Valley, California - which is magical even now after 10+ visits
When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel...?
Mediative effect of the waves
Longing to escape wherever I am (swim away).
Eagerness to jump on a wave.
When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?
I love the forest for the organic.
The surprise that the bed of pine needles could be so rough, prickly and yet simultaneously soft and welcoming.
When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?
It’s funny I just saw one in Nicaragua this week. A melding of fear, awe and fascination with the danger & power + warmth of what lies beneath the surface.
When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel…?
My house is in the hills and faces east. I watch the sunrise every day its part of my meditation routine. I feel a sense of rebirth, beginning, but also quiet contemplation. Happiness. No sunrise has ever made me feel sad.
Sunset, I always feel a mix of sadness about those things left incomplete and relief from the same burden.
When my daughters were younger, I used to wake them up to watch the sunrise. We pretended we could conduct it! "ok over there lets get a little more opacity on the water now. People work with me there’s too much bloody purple.. " that kind of thing. They loved it. They still describe those memories as some of their favorites.
When you hear thunder, it makes you feel...?
Tumultuous Excitement
Expectation
Occasional dread
When my daughters were young, and somewhat afraid of thunder & lightning, I used to lay in their room (high on a hill where we felt on par with the storm) and I would pretend I could “speak storm” - translating the sounds into funny conversation.
When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel…?
Anxiety. Its the only storm sound I don’t like. Years of danger rock climbing and camping. Wind was something that could cause significant distress.
Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?
Mountain for sure. though ocean gets a strong 2nd mention.
On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?
Nature is where I go to recharge - even nature photos help me center myself.
Share with us a childhood nature memory?
As a child we drove from Orange County CA to Washington DC across the country. Twice. I remember being astounded at the diversity of landscape, the way it evolved and iterated. I found the land and nature would reflect themselves in the people. The Stoicism of the montana’ians. The Friendliness of the midwest farmers…