The ocean is dying... I just watched this great little Attenborough documentary on the topic. I was turning this problem over in my mind today and thinking about it. Another previous BBC program I watched dealt with birds, and it struck me that birds and humans have a very good synergy together - we work together well, and part of this is because humans cannot occupy the birds' niche. We can live in every part of the earth, but we can't fly. Birds benefit from human activity... one snippet of video today explained how nuthatches were happy about the passing of cars on a roadway, because the cars broke open the nuts that had fallen on the asphalt. Humans romanticise about birds... we admire their colors and their miraculous ability to fly.

The ocean is also a place where humans cannot live, and so I started thinking about why the ocean is being damaged so much by humans, even though it is not our home. I realised that the problem is we can't see fish like we can see birds. Everyone has been enchanted at bright color pictures of the coral reef, or at the sea life in a city aquarium. But when you're out boating, all you see is a blank slate - a horizon of the surface of the water. A boater cannot develop an emotional attachment or a bond with the beautiful marinelife that lives under his boat. It strikes me that the answer to preserving the sanctity of our oceans is to make ways for humans to see under that water. With all the new technologies we use in the field of medicine, there must be a way to create a little consumer good which allows recreational boaters to see what's happening below them in the water. A simpler idea would be that someone could sell little underwater "camera traps" to boaters. These are little video cameras or still cameras which are triggered by motion.

Elizabeth May, the green party candidate for prime minister in Canada in 2008 has a long and storied past of speaking out candidly and forthrightly about matters which are important to her. Here, she attempts to teach the policy makers in eastern Canada about how forest ecology works.

One of the mass extinctions going on that folks in the usa are completely unaware of... the amphibians around the world are dying off.

If you're on the front page, touch the title text to see a film about this

A wonderful 8 minute interview.

Jonathan Rosen apparently has woven a lot of poetry and some philosophy into his book... the title was inspired by a DH Lawrence poem which begins: "Birds are the life of the skies, and when they fly, they reveal the thoughts of the skies"

• the interview