Earth Day at Waterspirit

Once again, the week of Earth Day was full of fun, water-honoring Waterspirit activities!

We hosted our annual Earth Day Beach Cleanup on Sandy Hook on April 25. Our group, including many students from Kean University, braved the drizzly conditions to pick many bags of garbage off of the beach. Many thanks to everyone who braved the weather to protect the beach, and a special thank you to the Sandy Hook Rangers and to Monmouth Clean Communities for making this event possible.

On April 26, Watespirit’s Scott Carlin gave the homily during the Sunday service at the United Methodist Church of Red Bank. Many thanks to that community for the invitation to deepen our collective understanding of the connection between water, Earth care, and faith.

The Waterspirit team— both staff and volunteers— also visited green fairs in Red Bank, Fair Haven, Tinton Falls, and Montclair throughout the week. At each event, we played water games and did contemplative exercises to deepen our appreciation of life-giving water.

Would you like to invite Waterspirit to your town’s green fair, or to give a presentation for your community? Reach out to us today!

International Marine Biodiversity

Waterspirit’s Executive Director spent the past two weeks attending important negotiations about marine biodiversity at United Nations Headquarters in New York City. These sessions were the third and final Preparatory Commission meetings for the Agreement on Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (also called the BBNJ, or High Seas Treaty). This was the member states’ final attempt to reach agreement about important mechanisms that will allow this treaty to successfully launch at the first COP for the ocean in January 2027. However, not as much progress was made as we had hoped for. Member states will still need to find common ground about financial rules, functioning of subsidiary bodies, and other critical operational issues at COP-1, rather than hitting the ground running with all procedures in place. We also have lingering questions about how the BBNJ will work in conjunction with other UN mechanisms such as the International Seabed Authority, which is currently negotiating a mining code that could allow deep sea mining in international waters to begin.

 

What are some of the things that the BBNJ will do?

-        Create and monitor Marine Protected Areas in international waters.

-        Connect countries with resources to protect marine biodiversity.

-        Incorporate Traditional Knowledge in marine biodiversity protection.

-        Use the precautionary principle and cumulative impacts as guiding analytical approaches.

 

Waterspirit will continue to stay connected with the BBNJ process and the first COP for the ocean, to be held at United Nations Headquarters from January 11-22, 2027. If you are a UN-NGO representative who would like to join this work, please consider connecting with the Faith in the Ocean coalition to prepare for this conference.

ONE LAST CHANCE: COALITION TO UNITE AGAINST NEW YORK FOSSIL FUEL PIPELINE THREATENING NEW JERSEY

A coalition of environmental, fishing, business, and community groups will gather to urge Governor Sherrill and the Tidelands Resource Council to deny the license and prevent construction of the pipeline. At this stage, a two-step process remains: first, the Tidelands Resource Council will approve or deny the application following a recommendation from the NJDEP; second, Governor Mikie Sherrill’s administration must concur with that decision – making this the final opportunity to stop the project before construction can begin. This is a rare opportunity for the Tidelands Resource Council and the public to protect their tidelands against a destructive New York project.