Enhance ReadabilityTHE UNEQUIVOCAL OCEAN CRISIS
The following is the first of a three-part excerpt from One Person Acted and Everything Changed, a book that chronicles ten accounts of extraordinary people who risked everything to change the world.
magine for a moment that you have verifiable, scientifically proven information about an unfolding situation that is destroying half the species on the planet, and, if left unchecked, the very earth as we know it. Imagine further that political and business leaders all over world hold the same knowledge, yet will not take action to stop it either because it could impact their economies or cut into their profit margins. You understand it is up to your generation — not your children’s generation, but your generation alone — to prevent and reverse the destruction, because if you fail to act now, it will simply be too late.
Finally, imagine you possess the skills, knowledge, experience, and courage to educate the world’s population and inspire them to change course and prevent further destruction. You will need to devote every bit of energy, money, effort, and years of life you have left in the hope it will be enough. You must risk standing up to big government, big oil, big business, powerful politicians, self-serving lobbyists, and astonishing corruption and apathy. Would you take on that challenge?
Louie Psihoyos chose to do exactly that, with no halfway measures. He is out to expose complex, global environmental issues and advocate sustainability through the use of film, photography, social media, and collaboration. He founded the Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS) to serve as the catalyst.
While Oceanic Preservation Society may not sound revolutionary, consider that OPS is a double-entendre for special operations — military-speak for a small number of undercover, highly trained individuals who carry out secret missions on unsuspecting targets. This is precisely what OPS does. Their mission statement is as strong as it is succinct: Expose the Truth. Protect the Planet.
Logic may dictate that protecting the health of our oceans would not, and certainly should not, necessitate covert operations, so the question is: Who or what are we saving the oceans from? And why did this National Geographic photographer abandon his successful and enviable career to devote his life to the OPS mission? What urgency is driving him to take out all the stops — projecting his message on movie screens in over 220 nations, and on the face of such iconic buildings as the Empire State Building, the United Nations building, and St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome — in order to get the word out as quickly and broadly as humanly possible? Why are he and his team employing the latest in undercover technologies, including hidden microphones, buttonhole cameras, and James Bond inspired stealth vehicles?
The answers to those questions are best revealed by following the trajectory of Psihoyos’ career, by examining the current threats our planet is facing, and by peering inside the worlds of science, politics, business, and the illegal sale of endangered species.
rom the time National Geographic hired him at the age of 23, Psihoyos wanted his photographs to make a difference in the world. He was the first photojournalist hired in a decade by the highly revered magazine, an action that reflected their appreciation for not only his ability to compose a great photo, but also for his technical skills, his intellect, and his deeply held values.
“I came from the school of what you might call a concern photographer, in that if you could show man’s inhumanity to man, you could influence change,” Psihoyos said.
Psihoyos proved he could effect change with a story he proposed and shot for the magazine in 1983. Influenced by an earlier story he had photographed on the incredibly high value of the things we discard into landfills — such as materials we first mine and later consider garbage — he was inspired to investigate recycling, an experiment being piloted in only two cities in the United States. That particular National Ge