Since the early 1970s, Donald White has been a dedicated conservationist. He received a B.S. degree in Geophysics in 1972 from Indiana University, and accepted work as an oil exploration geophysicist in Texas. Influenced by his deep feelings on conservation, White moved to Hawaii in 1975; where he taught high school physics to pay the bills while establishing himself as a leader in early marine conservation efforts.
White incorporated Save the Whales – Hawaii (STWH) in the summer of 1976; this corporation would later be re-named Earthtrust. Using this organization as the vehicle for growing public support to end whaling, he created one of the world’s first successful Save the Whales expeditions, simultaneously helping create the Greenpeace whale movement in the United States. The Earthtrust ship Ohana Kai and its volunteer crew successfully confronted, boarded, and documented Soviet whalers north of Hawaii in 1977 in a joint Earthtrust/ Greenpeace expedition. This expedition resulted in international television coverage by ABC, and was a major step in popularizing the cause of whale conservation, setting the stage for a decade of action.
Drawing from his background knowledge of dolphins, computers, and physics, White created Earthtrust’s Project Delphis dolphin conservation and cognition research program in 1985. Conducted in cooperation with Sea Life Park in Honolulu, Hawaii, this cutting-edge project has brought together Ph.D’s in marine mammal science, nationally known computer technologists and designers, and conservationists in a project which may alter the way humans and dolphins interact in the future. The principle focus of Project Delphis is dolphin/human interaction through video and computer technology. White serves as Project Director, involved in the creation of new hardware and software for the project. He believes that a change in the way humans think of dolphins is necessary for any long-term solutions to be possible, and that Project Delphis can accomplish this change.
Don White’s goals have been ambitious: to develop Earthtrust from a barely-funded group of volunteers into a conservation organization working globally at the forefront of the most difficult environmental issues. His vision of a global Earthtrust included high-tech and low-overhead operations, linking a worldwide network of Earthtrust field representatives and supporters by fax and electronic mail. This has in large measure been achieved: Earthtrust is today recognized as the premier Pacific organization investigating infractions of the IWC whaling ban, the leader in the conservation campaign to ban driftnet fishing and police the United Nations Driftnet moratorium, a respected pioneer in dolphin cognition research, the most influential Western conservation organization in Taiwan (saving dolphins and tracking the trade in endangered species), a strong international participant in forums from CITES to the United Nations, and a credible force for positive change and environmental education in many parts of the world.
White sees Earthtrust as a tool for preservation of the earth’s species and habitat, for himself and for people who share a commitment to efficient real-world action. He believes that individuals CAN make a difference.