Bruce Shillingsworth, aboriginal activist

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"Put the water back in the river!"

October 15th, 2019

Sydney, Australia
filed under:

Solving Climate Change

Talks
"In the beginning, we worried about how we were going to keep some weird, previously unseen invertebrate alive. "But I quickly realized that the most challenging species in the aquarium isn’t on the wet side. It’s on the dry side: It’s us. How are we going to engage our audience and get them to care about and want to know more about and do more on behalf of the animals and the ocean when we all act in our own self interests? "That remains the big challenge for humanity."

Marine scientist Julie Packard, after forty years of leading the world renowned Monterrey Aquarium in California, made these remarks upon her departure from the job in January (1/15/25). She had been asked by an interviewer: "As human societies evolve, so do the challenges they face. At the aquarium, how does that dynamic come into play?"