Long
distance from LA, the television star I know best from Cheers, and who has just
completed a season of Damages, Ted Danson wanted to talk about some other kind
of damages, to our oceans. Enthusiastic as could be, he told me about Oceana,
an organization interested in changing ocean policies worldwide. An evolution
of American Oceans Campaign, he co-founded with a partner 20 years ago, Oceana
is inaugurating an annual benefit on Saturday July 10 in Water Mill overlooking
Mecox Bay, hosted by Lois Robins and Sue Cohn Rockefeller. Ted Danson urged me
to attend. 

Cautioning about such
concerns as overfishing: We could fish out our oceans commercially. Canadian
Cod won’t come back. 90% of our big fish, marlin, sword, and tuna are gone. We
throw away 30% of the world catch, so in addition to overfishing, we are
wasteful. By bottom trawling, we destroy coral reefs where small fish feed so
we are destroying the top and bottom of the food chain. And all this is
fixable. He also spoke about the damage done by drilling, the Gulf of Mexico
being a prime case in point, reason enough to develop wind power as they are
doing in other countries. We need to develop new industry and put a moratorium
on deep well drilling. Look at what the oil spill did. We cannot blindly more
forward. We are a moron culture, but we can fix it. He is optimistic about
being smart and attacking the problem with grace.

 Go to OceanaSplashParty.org
for more information.

 And will he be joining us on
July 10?

Trying to, he said,
explaining an obligation that may keep him at home in Santa Monica. But who
knows now that it has been announced: Jackson Browne will be performing.

And last week’s screening of
Countdown to Zero at Goose Creek also featured a Q&A with the impassioned producer,
Lawrence Bender, who spoke about a potential global disaster no one is really talking
about: the nuclear threat. No matter what happens with oceans or other environmental problems, our planet may go down faster. As this film makes powerfully clear through an array of speakers including Valerie Plame, Gorbachev, Musharraf, and Jimmy Carter, while
we are all aware, we seem to be asleep when it comes to this more cataclysmic threat. Worldwide disarmament is needed. Are
you listening, Pakistan, Iran, North Korea?