One Promise: How a Postcard Changed Behaviour for a Year

0:00 Picture a kid in an aquarium in Durban, standing in front of a penguin exhibit with a pen and a postcard. Now, she writes one sentence and drops it into a little box. That sentence turned into one of the best pieces of evidence we have that small promises change behavior. Now think about this, like a postcard and one handwritten sentence dropped into a post box beside a penguin exhibit. More than a year later, researchers emailed those people and asked a simple question: "Did you do it?" Over half of the people who answered could describe exactly what they changed at home. And if you've been feeling like the ocean problems are a little too big for you, this episode is for you. Welcome back to the "How to Protect the Ocean" podcast. I'm your host, Andrew Lewin.

0:40 I'm a marine biologist and science communicator that covers everything under the ocean pretty much, We cover a lot of ocean news, ocean conservation, ocean science to keep you updated on what's happening so that you kinda get to understand what you can do little by little, whether it's, do something at home or send an email to a government representative to help the ocean a little bit more. And to be honest, there's a big vote coming along in the US, a huge vote. And for the environment, if you vote a certain way, you will be helping the environment a lot better. There's been a lot of cuts to programs, opening up marine sanctuaries, looking at deep sea mining and not listening to, Indigenous people. I'm not here to tell you how to vote, but if you love the ocean, you know which way, you should vote.

1:21 and I think that's really important. So anyway, like there's little things that you can do, always something that you can do. And this week, like we've covered a lot. On Tuesday, we covered like why nobody can name a marine protected area, and on Wednesday, we covered a reef that rebuilt itself in six months of heat because the food web was intact. And yesterday, we talked about, why saying fishing is bad pushes away people that we need to have in the conversation. And maybe while you were listening, you felt something heavy, Because all of that is a lot, and coral bleaching is a lot, collapsing shark populations is a lot, climate targets we're missing is a lot. And you care, and that's great. And caring this much about something this big can freeze you in place at times. And there's a name for it. It's called eco-anxiety.

2:02 And when it gets bad, it turns into kind of an inertia that it's a problem that you just can't stop. And the problem is so huge that every single thing you could do feels pointless, so you do nothing, and you feel worse. And you know like what's interesting? I have ADD. I just found out this year that I have ADD. I always found it really difficult to start a project, whether it's something at home or something for work or something like the podcast at times. So if I had to batch record episodes and I just kept delaying or not wanting to start or not knowing where to start or just I couldn't figure out how to start that. And then because I didn't start it, I wouldn't get it done and then the evening is done, I have to go to bed. the anxiety starts to build up a little bit that I didn't get it done.

2:44 Now I have to change my plans tomorrow to do it, but I don't or maybe I change my plans but I don't get it done. And then I just continue to do that and every day that I don't do it, The anxiety builds up and builds up and I get in a really crappy humor and I take it out on other people and it's just, it's a cascade of things. I've figured out a lot of different strategies and I'm not perfect by any means, but I've kind of figured it out where the more I get to it right away, the better. So the more I listen to something and think through something, the better I feel about that and getting it accomplished. And that's great, Cause when the problem is so huge that any single thing you do feels pointless, you do nothing. and then you feel worse that's not great, like, I wanna tell you where my own work started because it started with that exact same feeling except that it wasn't mine.

3:33 Years ago, I was out of school, like out of my master's, and with my head full of statistics and science, and I had a question from a family member. and this person is a paramedic in New York City, smart, busy saving lives for a living, and he was great. I mean, New York City is pretty hectic at times. and they asked me, "Should I be worried about this climate change thing? Like, what's really going on? Is this something that should be pressing?" And my first reaction, I'll be honest, like, it was a little bit of like, "How do you not know this stuff? Like, you're a smart guy. You've been doing it." Then it hit me. Of course, they didn't know. They were running out, like into emergencies all day. They were busy doing paramedic stuff in New York City. They had their own life, their own stress, their own priorities. Nobody had ever explained it to them and why they need to fit that into their life.

4:15 So that was one of the moments that pushed me towards communication, and taught me something I've been relearning ever since. Most people care, but they're just overwhelmed with stuff. And, in a time where there's so much data coming at us, whether it's information or like worries or something, Everybody's overwhelmed, and nobody's handed them like a first step that fits their life completely. So what is that first step that fits actually look like, for that, I wanna take you back to South Africa, to an aquarium in Durban and a campaign built around one penguin Now, the African penguin is one of the most charismatic birds on the planet. It brays like a donkey, it waddles. It's found nowhere else in the world other than Southern Africa, and it's in serious trouble.

4:57 Wild numbers have dropped as much as 90% over the last century. Now, back in 2011, Gabrielle Harris, an educator at the South African Association of Marine Biological Research, which runs uShaka Sea World in Durban, came up with this idea. Most conservation campaigns ask for money. What this one asked for was something else. It's kind of interesting. The campaign was called Penguin Promises, its tagline was kinda cool, "We don't want your money, honey, we want your love." I thought that was like a cool saying. And here's how it worked. Like visitors at the aquarium, often families, often kids, would pick up a printed postcard, and on it they would write one change they promised to make in their daily life to help the ocean.

5:38 One promise to the penguins. That's it. And then they'd walk over to a specially designed post box right by the penguin exhibit and they'd drop it in. It could be like use a reusable bag, turn off the lights, pick up litter on a beach, take shorter showers, like simple things, and in their own handwriting. So like as you write it out, you try, like, "This is what I'm gonna do," and like internally you wanna do it more and more. And by 2015, more than 10,000 promises had been collected. And when the team looked at over 500 cards, they noticed a pattern. Women were more likely to make promises than men. Most of the people making the promises were under 20, and most of them were visiting as families. But collecting promises is the easy part.

6:19 The team wanted to know the hard thing. Did people actually keep them? So they followed up with the people. More than 12 months after the visit, they sent emails to the people who had left their addresses on the card. And they would just ask, "Do you remember your promise? Did you keep it? And why or why not?" Over 55% of the visitors who responded could describe the changes that they made at home, more than a year later from one sentence on a postcard. That's pretty incredible. And when people explained why they kept their promise, two reasons kept coming up. The first was their kids or grandkids. They want to leave a better world for them. And the other one was the penguins. They felt connected to that bird 'cause as they were writing out the card, the postcard, and putting it into the post box, they were watching these penguins looking right back at them and having a good time.

7:02 They didn't wanna let them down. So why did the postcard work when many of the campaigns fade the minute you walk out the door? Like, a lot of times when people go to aquariums, they look at the aquarium, they look at all the different exhibits, and they have fun, and they enjoy it, and maybe they talk a little bit about it, but they may not fully grasp all of the topics that are there and all the actions that you can take. It might be a little overwhelming, or they just might breeze over it. But look at what that postcard asked people to do. It was specific. One change. That's it. Written in their own words, and they come up with their own stuff. And it was written down by hand. That turns a feeling into a commitment. And it was small enough to start that day, One habit, something you can begin before dinner.

7:43 And of course, it was tied to something that they loved, that penguin that they saw, they connected with, They watched it swim, plus the kid standing right beside them, like, they all saw that. Now, there's a broader lesson to this. Most of what's driving biodiversity loss comes down to human behavior. A friend of mine always says conservation is really about managing people. The planet will sort itself out eventually, and the question is how we behave in the meantime, and our behavior changes one person, one habit, one promise at a time. Now when the big problems feel a little overwhelming, here's a question that helps me the most: What can I do in my own community? Coral bleaching and wildfires feel a long way from my household here in Burlington, Ontario.

8:24 My family, my neighbors, my work, and the people I see every week are right here, and that's where my effort goes the furthest. And there's something I'd add. Like if you join a group that does the things together, a beach cleanup crew, a local conservation organization, a citizen science project, you can get the impact of the activity, and you get something that matters just as much for your eco-anxiety. And you also get people around you who share your values. You can talk about the environment without feeling like you're getting attacked online. That's the kind of community that keeps you going. And it doesn't have to be something that feels like homework. Some of the best ocean action looks like a day out with your friends. It's really not that difficult. Remember MPA Day out from Tuesday's episode?

9:05 Every August 1st on the KwaZulu-Natal coast in South Africa, a local group called Wild Alliance Africa celebrates the Aliwal Shoal Marine Protected Area. And in 2025, four of them walked 32 kilometers down the beach from Happy Wanderers Beach to Illovo River. Friends and neighbors joined for stretches along the way, and as they walked, they stopped and talked to people on the beach about the protected area just offshore, and they recorded the wildlife that they spotted. Now, this year they did it again and added guided dives, snorkeling, and citizen science, as well as a film screening. They made a whole day of it. Now, four people on a long stretch of sand. Now, they had a great day outside with people they like. They introduced a few hundred beachgoers to the reef in front of them, and they came home inspired.

9:51 That goes a long way. That's what keeps people in this for the long haul. So here's your one call to action, it's the one that ties this whole week together. I want you to write down one specific ocean promise that you can make. Put it somewhere where you'll see it every day, maybe on your bathroom mirror as you get ready every day, or you tell somebody about it. Or make it like a family thing if you have a family. Make it specific. Say, I'll look up the MPA nearest me and visit it this year," or, "I'll comment on the next marine protected area consultation in my region," or, "I'll sign a petition, where I see fit," or, "I'll ask where my fish came from every time I buy it." Any one of these actions from this week that we talked about, they work, And so does your own.

10:32 You could take that action. Stick it on the fridge, the bathroom mirror, your laptop, then tell someone, your partner, your kid, a friend, or even me if you want. Drop it in the comments if you're on Spotify, or you can DM me. My links to my socials are in the show notes. I'd love to read them, and I'd love to see how you keep up with them. I want you just to picture yourself a year from now, like that note that's still on the fridge of maybe a little bit faded. You've kept your promise long enough that it's now just a part of, the way you live. It's a habit. And your kid asked you about it, and they made their own. A friend saw it, and they picked one too. And that's how those penguin postcards worked. One sentence, kept for a year, passed along to people around you.

11:13 Let's be honest, the ocean's problems are big, but you're allowed to start small. And no, you don't have to make a big difference. You can just start small. It makes you feel better about what you're doing, and you start to show by example what you can do. You're leading by example. And the people who stick with this long enough to see, like, that real change are usually the ones who kept their souls alive along the way, by getting outside, having fun, and doing it together. I wanna thank you for spending the week with me if you've listened to all of these. I think it's really kinda cool how we communicate the ocean, and, like, from protected areas that nobody can name, to the reef that rebuilt itself, to the fishers who we need on our side, to the one promise on a postcard. We talked about a lot, and there's a lot you can take, a lot of action that you can take.

11:54 So let me know what your promise is, 'cause I would love to know. To be honest, my promise, and has always been, is to talk about the ocean five days a week. I get to do that. Maybe a little bit more than that, but I get to do that. And it's a lot of fun when I get to do it, and I feel better about myself when I get to do it. And the fact that you are listening, I really appreciate it because it's not just going into the void, and I appreciate you listening. And to be honest, if you ever got help from this podcast, I would love to hear about it. My socials are in the links below. If you're on Spotify, just hit me up in the comments, but I would just love to hear more about that. But anyway, that's it for today's episode. This has been another episode of the How to Protect the Ocean podcast. I am your host, Andrew Lewin. I want you to have a fantastic weekend.

12:35 We'll talk to you next week on Monday, and happy conservation.