Happy 2025 - by Tim Zimmermann
Okay, I’ve had an amazing time ashore for the past few weeks. But enough. Winter has really settled in here on the Eastern Seaboard, and I have had had my fill of frigid temps and shoveling snow. Time to head back to sweaty t-shirt weather, and get Laughing Gull moving again. She has been waiting patiently on a mooring in Falmouth, Antigua. Lucia, from Antigua Yacht Club Marina, was kind enough to send me a status update. That looks pretty nice to me. From Antigua I will sail to Guadeloupe, then St. John, then Puerto Rico and on up into the Bahamas for a few months. Then it is on to Bermuda, the Azores, and Ireland.
Resolutions and Reinvention
The start of the year is always a moment for resolutions and reinvention. I am reluctant to make any grand declarations about goals for 2025, because talk is easy. All I can say is that I will continue to try and do better.
For anyone thinking about what they can do with regard to climate change, Yale Climate Connections has a good breakdown of all the actions and solutions individuals can take. It’s a nice example of how many positive directions there are out there for us on an individual level, if we are open to them. And I love the fact that YCC emphasizes that sharing and discussing any changes you make with your family and broader community is the key to creating ripples that lead to broader change.
In my New Year’s reading I also came across this creative website focused on flightless travel. It has lots of interesting ideas involving cargo ships, trains and other alternatives to flying everywhere, that look tempting. 2025 is going to feature lots of difficult news, I expect. But we are all in control (or mostly in control) of our own lives and decisions. So it is a good year to be thoughtful and purposeful in our choices. That is one meaningful way to resist any negative forces and developments.
The Rise of AI
What happens when you take a newsletter post like “Superyacht Gomorrah,” give it to an AI like Google Notebook, and ask it to generate a podcast? If you have ever wondered, we’ve got you covered. Scary impressive, no? And that is the point of sharing it here: to illustrate that AI has now reached a sophistication that is, to me at least, kind of mindblowing. I already use ChatGPT all the time, instead of Googling, and for mariners, it is becoming a key tool in weather forecasting and routing.
Whether you have noticed or not, we are officially well into the next great human revolution, the Era of AI, and I don’t think anyone knows for sure where it will lead. Like all technologies, AI can be both an engine for good (it can help design strategies to combat climate change, diagnose diseases, and solve other big human problems), and an engine for evil (it can be used as a weapon of war, create deep fakes, and disrupt all the online networks of modern life). However it is used, AI is already creating huge energy demand which will have to be addressed (though at least it can be a useful energy-intensive technology, unlike the absurd energy waste of Bitcoin mining).
The potential for malign use of AI definitely makes me nervous, and humanity’s technological prowess often seems to outrun human wisdom. But if you’d like a good conversation about where AI stands, the issues in play, and its future, I recommend this interview between Bari Weiss of Honestly, and Sam Altman of Open AI. 2024 was another year of record heat, which is no longer much of a surprise. But people all over the planet are definitely starting to notice, and want to do something about it, according to this global survey of climate attitudes.
Looking Ahead
There is always the caveat that attitudes shift when actual policy options (like meaningful carbon taxes), come into play. But I don’t think there is any question that we will eventually reach a global tipping point in favor of accelerated policy solutions, especially if we hit dramatic inflection points, like food shortages or impactful changes to the Gulf Stream. The only question is how long it will take to get there, and what sort of damage will have been done by the time we do.
Can’t end on that note. So, how about a fascinating history of the iconic BBC Shipping Forecast? And more here!
