2016 ANNUAL REPORT THE SAFINA CENTER “We look at the world through our own eyes, naturally. But by looking from the inside out, we see an inside-out world...In our estrangement from nature we have severed our sense of the community of life and lost touch with the experience of other animals...understanding the human animal becomes easier in context, seeing our human thread woven into the living web among the strands of so many others.” —Carl Safina Making a case for life on Earth The Safina Center 80 North Country Road Setauket, NY 11733 Making a case for life on Earth www.safinacenter.org [email protected] 631-675-1984 PROFILE PROFILE CHRIS JORDAN Environmental Found-Object Artist and Photographer; Safina Center Creative Affiliate Much of our relationship with the living world is so heartbreaking that an artist must not just get us to look, they must get us to not look away. Chris Jordan’s work is so unexpected that it is riveting. Chris’s ability to conjure lovely details from hideous realities—so that we cannot look away— is truly genius. — Carl Safina To Chris Jordan, an environmental found-object artist, photographer and Safina Center creative affiliate, creating is more than just making something...it’s about making people feel something. And his latest work, a film about the albatrosses of Midway Atoll in the heart of the Pacific, is all about making people feel a very specific emotion: grief. Chris Jordan with his photography equipment at Ruby Beach, Olympic National Albatross are what first connected Jordan to Carl Safina and the Safina Park, Washington. Photo: Matthew London Center in the late 2000s. When he had conceived of the idea for his “I have come to believe in transformative power of grief,” says “Midway: Message from the Gyre” photography series, Jordan dove Peter Neumeier, CFA, President and Founder of Neumeier Poma Investment Counsel Jordan. “I think just looking at the horror doesn’t give us energy to into researching the birds he’d be photographing. And that’s where he do anything, just makes us more despairing and hopeless. We see an came upon Safina’s work. issue, like climate change or the ivory trade, and think it is too big for PETER NEUMEIER “Of course when doing my research I came upon Carl’s book ‘Eye of the us to make a difference. It’s not until we grieve what’s being lost that CFA, President and Founder of Neumeier Poma Investment Counsel; Safina Center Supporter Albatross,’” says Jordan. “I devoured that book and totally fell in love we can actually see our love for the world and start moving forward.” And besides investing wisely, Neumeier local causes. with Carl, so I wrote him about the project and months later we had the “Peter Neumeier proves the possibility Jordan’s film, which is nearing completion and which he plans to show ensures his business gives back in a direct way. good fortune of meeting in person on the island of Kauai in Hawaii.” of something that I have been skeptical “Two decades later, my wife and I were involved at the Mountain Film Festival in Telluride, Colorado, in May, helps about: that even in our present system, “Our company and employees also donate with groups of community volunteers that Mutual friend Hob Osterlund, a Safina Center fellow and albatross facilitate viewers’ experience of grief by jumping between internal and money strategically invested can truly five percent of our annual profits to local non- were successful in stopping the construction expert, coordinated the meeting between Jordan and Safina. Jordan external narration through a visual flow-of-consciousness. Viewers see work for good in the world. There profit groups here on the Monterey Peninsula,” of a new dam on the threatened Carmel River, says that meeting with Safina had a powerful effect on the outcome of through Jordan’s eyes, then through the eyes’ of albatross. They see is enormous optimism in his brilliant says Neumeier. and also halted the building of a new freeway his Midway photographs. the beauty of the natural world, but also something very ugly: a lot approach.” — Carl Safina in a beautiful canyon on the edge of Carmel,” of plastic. The foundation for Neumeier’s care and “I kept saying ocean plastics were a symbolic tragedy, a says Neumeier. “We’ve been involved in As a chartered financial analyst and president concern for the natural world was laid in the mirror for humans to look in and see our own reflection of “In my film I use a lot of contrast to help conjure grief,” says Jordan. supporting many kinds of environmental and and founder of an investment firm, Safina 1960s. It was then he spent his childhood the destruction of our natural world,” says Jordan. “But “I use that grief to build a doorway people can step through and social causes ever since.” Center supporter Peter Nuemeier helps and teenage years growing up in Southern then Carl said, ‘No this is its own tragedy, those individual reconnect with their love for the world. As a culture we live in fear clients assemble lucrative stock portfolios. But California, exploring and enjoying the One of those causes is the Safina Center. birds are dying and we’re to blame. That struck me so of grief; we think of grief as despair. Yet if we avoid grief to avoid there is one thing that makes him stand out canyons, hills and beaches. Over time, hard. He sees individual creatures as their own beings. depression…we miss out on love.” “Personally, Carl’s writing and the work of from other investors: he puts his money where Neumeier says he noticed the wild places he He helped me get out of my mindset of appropriating the the Safina Center have helped crystallize Jordan’s work, which spans the gamut of media from photography to his mouth is. loved get developed and paved over. This tragedy on humans. my thinking about how to live out my film to found objects, revolves around moving people to experiencing didn’t sit well with him. “Neumeier Poma Investment Counsel, which environmental values—meshing my love of grief. Connected to his current film is his current “Midway: Message I founded in 1985, invests in small company “It was painful to see the harm to wildlife, the the natural world and a desire to protect it, from the Gyre” series—a collection of photographs of albatross stocks in the U.S. stock market,” says coastline scarred and the air turn smoggy,” while working in a competitive, capitalistic carcasses filled with ocean plastics. These lifeless bodies were once Neumeier. “We’ve been quite successful over says Neumeier. business world,” says Neumeier, who adds, beautiful, living creatures. In viewing Jordan’s photographs, his the years, and we utilize an investment and audience must confront their grief for these lost beings. By doing so business philosophy that reflects our personal As a college student in the earlu 1970s, “Carl’s amazing abilities as an they may just realize how much they love albatross and the Earth’s values regarding the environment and social Neumeier enrolled in an ecology class. Over inspirational writer, interwoven with other creatures. They may ask themselves what they can do; how issues.” the course of the semester, Neumeier realized a message of hope, has helped me to they can support initiatives, send letters, support groups whose work the extent of the environmental destruction stay optimistic and maintain my moral Working mostly with foundations, inspires them and live in a way that’s more considerate of the planet.” occurring all around him, but also the fact compass. I think many of us need that endowments and pension funds, Neumeier’s that a pro-environmental movement was Jordan says he’s grateful to be a part of the Safina Center family kind of help.” firm, based in Carmel, California, uses a stock beginning to take shape around him. because it has allowed him to touch a vast and important audience selection process that eliminates any company When Neumeier isn’t busy working, he enjoys with his artwork. they feel are deleterious to people, animals or There were other people out there who were hiking; boating; watching wildlife; traveling; concerned about the declining state of the gardening; playing golf, seeing friends; and “Without the Safina Center, I’d just be this dude in my studio who the environment. Neumeier chooses to buy natural world, and this was heartening to spending time with his wife, nieces and makes art and puts it out there,” says Jordan. “Now I’m getting my stocks from include those involved in clean Neumeier, who, along with his wife Gillian, nephews. From Midway: Message from the Gyre. Credit: Chris Jordan art in front of more people — and more people who may be able to energy and energy efficiency. began to get involved in activism, especially initiate positive change, than ever before. 2 2016 THE SAFINA CENTER 2016 THE SAFINA CENTER 39 FRONT COVER PHOTO Humpback whale in the Great South Channel. TABLE OF CONTENTS Photo: Carl Safina FOUNDER’S MESSAGE THIS PAGE (Left) Great-horned owl adult, owlet and European starling. by Carl Safina 4 Photo: Carl Safina. (Right) White rhino family in South Africa. Photo: Carl Safina. 2016 YEAR IN REVIEW 5 BACK COVER (Top) Carl Safina explores coast of Svalbard. Photo: PROFILES Christian Aslund/Greenpeace. Chris Jordan 2 (Bottom) Elephant family, Kenya, Africa. Photo: Carl Safina. Hob Osterlund 19 Peter Neumeier 39 PROGRAMS Carl Safina’s Work 10 Fellows Program 12 Sustainable Seafood Program 22 MISSION ESSAYS At The Safina Center we advance the case for When Animals Teach, It's Special by Carl Safina 11 life on Earth by fusing scientific understanding, emotional connection, and a moral call to action.