From The Lab to the Water w/ a Surfer, Activist, + Molecular Bioscientist
Clifford Kapono was the ripping surfer/not-so-mad scientist behind the project figuring out if surfing is making us sick. A biochemist that knows his way out of a barrel is something we need more of as the planet and oceans become more polluted. TSJ looked into Cliff’s story.
Sample:
I ask him more about his environmental endeavors. The Surfer Biome Project has continued to cause a positive buzz over the course of nearly two years. Cliff and his colleagues are actually searching for signs of antibiotic-resistant organisms in order to determine whether or not the ocean spreads the resistance. We also talk more about what it means to be an indigenous environmentalist—and what that means.
“My whole thing,” he says, “is how do we exist in our surroundings? That’s both a scientific and also a very Hawaiian or indigenous concept. I think among Hawaiians it’s like, we adjust our behavior around nature, but that’s not necessarily the way in Western culture. As a Hawaiian, there’s a relationship that’s established that we know. We have the songs, the chants, and the feelings of being connected to something bigger than ourselves. There isn’t even a Hawaiian word for nature. We just are our surroundings, and that’s a very typical sentiment for a lot of indigenous cultures.
“In my work, I see that there’s a strong disconnect between the relationship of man and his surrounding environment. That’s the fundamental issue with why we have pollution, antibiotic resistance, the mismanagement of agriculture. We see the land as separate from our own health. As in, environmental health is not human health. But what I’m trying to do is change that perspective with my work. To cure diseases of the land, within nature.”
Click to THE SURFERS JOURNAL for the profile on Clifford Kapono
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