DIVE LOG DECEMBER 25 ISSUE 415

Captain Paul Watson was a co-founder of Greenpeace in 1972, the founder of Sea Shepherd in 1977 and the founder of the Captain Paul Watson Foundation in 2022. He is also currently a national director for Sea Shepherd France and Sea Shepherd Brazil. To learn more about Paul Watson or the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, visit paulwatsonfoundation.org Captain Watson’s most recent book is Biocentrisme published by Denoël in October 2025. His book SOS Oceans en Détresse! will be published in March 2026. Captain Watson’s books Urgent! Save Our Ocean to Survive Climate Change and Dealing With Climate Change and Stress can be purchased at signature.paulwatson.com

three guards refused me entry; when I tried to speak to a representative, a superior intervened to shut me down. Their slogan trumpeted “solutions for the world,” yet every solution centered on new technologies for the fossil-fuel industry. I recorded a video suggesting a real solution: stop killing whales. Japan wasn’t interested. Although COP30 was held in Amazonia and more than 3,000 Indigenous people traveled to attend, only about 650 received accreditation for the Blue Zone. In contrast, fossil fuel executives received roughly 1,600 badges. Coal, gas, and oil were omnipresent—so, too, were the 30,000 people who marched through Belém’s hot, humid streets in protest. The most arresting moment came when thousands of Indigenous people surged toward the Blue Zone entrance, forcing the contradiction into global view: the original stewards of the forest barred from meaningful participation on their own land. My ship, the John Paul DeJoria , berthed near the Green Zone alongside Greenpeace’s Rainbow Warrior. We welcomed hundreds aboard beneath a Brazilian flag altered to replace green with black—mourning the lost forests—and bearing the slogan “Sem Azul Não Há Verde” (Without Green there is no Blue). Speaking with Indigenous leaders at COP30 confirmed what three decades of these spectacles have taught me: governments, bound to current political and economic realities, are incapable of delivering realistic solutions. Human dominance has driven a steep decline in species and ecosystems. We keep reaching for anthropocentric tools to solve an ecological crisis that demands biocentric thinking. We need solutions that recognize the rights of all living beings—from microbes to great whales. Ecology’s basic laws are not up for debate: Diversity: the strength of an ecosystem depends on the diversity within it. Interdependence: species are bound together in mutual reliance. Finite resources: growth has limits, set by carrying capacity. When one species—ours—steals the carrying capacity of others, diversity and interdependence erode, and the system’s ability to support life collapses. Indigenous peoples understand this. They see the world biocentrically and can conceive of biocentric solutions. We need a COP in the heart of Amazonia, presided over by Indigenous leaders, to consider the rights of forests, the ocean, and all living species. After 30 years, we cannot rely on world leaders to solve climate change. Shackled to the fossil-fuel industry, they arrive for the show—without substance, without action. Environmentalists and Indigenous nations must act— without compromise and without co-option. The alternative is the only thing COP has consistently delivered: more of nothing that matters.

Governments and corporations ignore warnings about threats to our planet.

“We don't change the world without making waves.” Paul Watson

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DIVE LOG Australasia #415 - December’ 25

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