Student film highlights plight of the oceans
23rd March 2009
A group of
students from Ridgeway School in Plymouth have made their concerns
about the state of the world’s oceans clear through a hard hitting
film. ‘The Other CO2 Problem’ is a seven and a half
minute animation starring characters from King Poseidon’s Kingdom
beneath the sea and laments the fact that Doctorpus, Britney Star,
Michelle Mussel, Derek the Diatom and other subsea creatures are
suffering as the ocean becomes more acidic as a result of human
activities; the film ends with Poseidon demanding that we
terrestrials sort the problem out and stop pumping more and more
CO2 into the atmosphere to be absorbed by the sea, with
potentially disastrous consequences.
The film has been previewed at two prestigious scientific
meetings, first in Copenhagen where it was seen by more than a
hundred international scientists and policy makers attending the
International Congress on Climate Change earlier
this month.
Dr John Baxter a scientist working with Scottish Natural
Heritage was there and was clearly impressed: “This was a clear,
creative and inspiring message from the younger generation to the
politicians who will shortly negotiate the future of our planet,
the future planet that this younger generation will inherit from
us.”
Its
second showing was at a meeting of the Royal Institution in London
as part of a presentation by Dr Carol Turley, a research scientist
from PML, on the little appreciated spectre that is ocean
acidification.
Dr Turley a leading authority on ocean acidification, had
approached the school to create the film after seeing a previous
animation on the related subject of Climate Change, for which the
students had won a prize in competition organised by ‘EUROCEANS’,
an EU marine science initiative. Whilst most people are now aware
of global warming the idea that the oceans are becoming more acidic
is largely unknown outside of the scientific community. Carol
Turley wants to redress the balance and felt that the best people
to make the point are the generation who will have to ‘pick up the
pieces.’
Carol takes every opportunity to raise the debate amongst those
who make decisions and sees this film as an important weapon in the
battle to bring it to a wider audience: “The world is waking up to
the seriousness of ocean acidification and how it could affect our
future oceans if we continue to emit CO2, through
burning fossil fuels, at the rate we’re doing at the moment; the
future looks bleak for the oceans unless we act now. The students’
film makes that point very clearly in an entertaining way using
language we can all understand, they have done a great job. I’ve
shown it twice to influential audiences and on both occasions it
has gone down really well. I’ll take this film, ‘The Other
CO2 Problem’, to the very top if I get the chance”.