Last week, our GhostNets Australia Program Manager, Jess Leck, joined an OceanX panel discussion hosted by Redlands at the Sydney Greenhouse Climate Innovation Hub.
Alongside other marine scientists, Jennifer Matthews (UTS) and Vanessa Pirotta (Macquarie University), Jess shared how different disciplines are tackling different ocean challenges, highlighting that there is no single pathway to creating meaningful change.
Jess introduced students to systems thinking, encouraging them to look beyond the symptoms of environmental problems and consider the complex social, political and economic systems that sit behind them. Perhaps most surprisingly, she might have dashed some idealistic dreams of a career in marine science by dispelling the common assumption that working to save the ocean means working in the ocean. More often than not, the greatest opportunities for impact lie in navigating people, policies, markets and relationships to address the root causes of environmental issues.
The panel marks the beginning of the students’ own innovation journey. They will now apply what they have learned to develop solutions to ocean challenges of their choosing, and we look forward to seeing the ideas they bring forward. This was the second year Jess has been invited to speak, and if these student’s ideas are anything like last year’s, the future is in great hands.