Just over two decades ago, Geoff Green was awed by the sight and sound of thousands of chinstrap penguins in Antarctica. If young people could have similar experiences of wonder, Green thought, it would shape their engagement with our natural world. Today, the founder and president of the SOI Foundation has overseen educational expeditions for more than 3,000 youth from around the world and expanded to work with partner organizations involved in research and conservation. These ocean journeys of a lifetime always include a youth element, with participants joining scientists, Elders, artists and other visionary leaders who guide them toward building a more positive world. Green spoke about his vision — for SOI and the ocean — last fall while on the foundation’s inaugural Ocean Conservation Expedition, a 22-day journey along the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia and through the Bay of Fundy.

On the expedition guest list

The premise for this month-long expedition is to bring together people involved in the oceans who often don’t connect. They work in silos, whether they’re government [workers] or academics or fishermen or youth. By bringing people together, you create the relationships that you need if you’re going to find sustainable solutions. So, we’ve got the Canadian Wildlife Service, which is largely focused on seabirds; we’ve got Parks Canada, which works through the national park system on conservation and education; we have students and professors; we’ve got groups of Indigenous youth from across the Maritimes. And the list goes on. Industry is a critical piece of this puzzle, too. When people are connecting, learning, listening to each other, that’s when the magic happens. It inevitably leads to new ideas, to partnerships, to initiatives. 

On protecting the ocean

The ocean is the lifeblood of the planet. Seventy per cent of this planet is covered by water. We should have called it planet Water, not planet Earth. When you hear what oceans mean to people, it’s incredible. Everybody loves the ocean, yet we’ve treated it like a dumping ground. So there’s been a disconnect. Now we’re starting to understand how important it is for biodiversity, for our life. 

On moving beyond ice

Students on Ice was a simple idea, which imagined that if we could expose youth to the cornerstones of our global ecosystem, it would change their perspectives. Over the last two decades, the program has evolved to include culture and history, flora and fauna, and big issues like climate change, but also mental health and careers. It’s become a much broader program. Participants used to be only Canadian students, and now we’ve had youth from 57 countries. That’s cool because it’s global youth addressing global issues together.