13 News for the 31st

By Daniel de la Calle Three years ago you really needed to scrape at the bottom of the barrel to come up with news on the web about Ocean Acidification.  Today I am “only” posting 13 items and have to leave at least 10 more out: ≈≈≈≈64% of the waters existing outside national jurisdiction, the […]

Protection

By Daniel de la Calle »Could the protection of marine areas be counterproductive? That is what Professor Ray Hilborn, from the University of Washington’s School of Aquatic and Fisheries Sciences, believes. Professor Hilborn stated in late February during an interview for an Australian radio station.  You can read the transcript HERE and listen to the […]

A List of Lists

By Daniel de la Calle   We are still in January, the month of lists and resolutions for the remaining 11 months or the rest of our lives.  Here I list of some of those lists: •The Center for Biological Diversity announced their Top Ten priorities for 2012. Here is the list: 1    Save the […]

Autumn News

By Daniel de la Calle       •Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute scientists have launched a sophisticated, unique tool to study the effects of Ocean Acidification on deep-sea animals in their native habitat, using free-flowing water.  The idea behind Free-Ocean Carbon Enrichment (FOCE) is to create a test area on the seafloor where seawater pH […]

Ocean Acidification News, Again

By Daniel de la Calle   I know it has been a while since we last posted news about Ocean Acidification and other related environmental problems on the blog.  In an effort to catch up with the latest information out there, here we offer a first list:     •Scientists launched the Berkeley Earth Surface Temperature […]

In South America This Fall: In April!

By Daniel de la Calle   Today we want to briefly share with you our plans for A Sea Change during the upcoming months.  During the last few months last year, we had been discussing our possible presence during the RIO+20 summit this coming June.  We kept receiving mixed signals: encouraging, hopeful news together with […]

To Save Corals

By Daniel de la Calle   Right where you read these words now many others have stood, layer upon layer, in a frustrated attempt to write about corals and my dives at the Tayrona National Park back in June.  They were not the problem, the source of trouble was the confusing mixture of sensations and […]

On Drowning

By Daniel de la Calle I was 9 years old in 1981 when a local diver submerged a marble image of the Virgin of Carmen on the beach in front of my house as a sign of gratitude for a personal favor or miracle granted.  At the time the event barely made the news, but […]

Live from the Protests

Helicopters are making a deafening noise today, as they follow the protesters who have taken to the streets. We can barely hear ourselves think as we wait it out, this time in our warm apartment. Today is Oceans Day at COP-15, and there is a surge of interest in ocean acidification. We attended a conference […]

SCRIPPS and A Sea Change: Science and Cinema on a Mission

On Friday night we had a reunion in La Jolla with our colleagues from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.  It was the first time we had gotten together since we stormed COP15.  After much strategizing, we have decided to have a repeat performance at COP16 in November.  We concluded that we had, in fact, made […]

South of Africa

A couple weeks ago we had several screenings at the Labia Theatre in Cape Town, South Africa. Thanks to the efforts from the Sustainable Seas Trust, Andreas Spath with his While You Were Sleeping team, and Tessa Hempson from the University of Cape Town it was a great success that even took them by surprise. […]

An Understanding Review from Orion

From the January, 2010 issue of Orion Magazine A Sea Change A Film By Barbara Ettinger Niijii Films, 2009. $24.95, 81 minutes. In his autobiography, Charles Darwin wrote, “I was born a naturalist.” From a young age he was fascinated by every aspect of nature. In the opening scene of A Sea Change, a film […]

Heinz Awards 2010

By Daniel de la Calle In a case of unprecedented coincidence, two of this year’s Heinz Awards winners are very closely related to A Sea Change and Ocean Acidification. Richard Feely,  one of our favorite NOAA scientists, and Elizabeth Kolbert, the New Yorker journalist that wrote the article “The Darkening Sea” that inspired the film […]

Ocean Acidification Breaks the Surface

Today is Ocean Day at COP-15.  The day began with a bang with a major piece from the BBC quoting the UK’s Environmental Minister, Hilary Benn, regarding the importance of ocean acidification.   Barbara and I attended panel presentations at the European Environmental Agency (EEA) here in Copenhagen.  Speaker after speaker spoke about the changes […]

Back to Brazil, back to FICA

By Daniel de la Calle I really wanted to visit some of the cerrado National Parks during the screening tour in Brazil in March and April, but it was not possible.  The dates did not leave a window of time big enough to “escape” to the countryside between each city.   I thought it would be […]

One Victory for our Oceans: The EPA will Focus on Ocean Acidification

Check out this new article from the Christian Science Monitor about the EPA’s decision to help states study and address the increasing acidity of their waters.  This will be another use of the powerful Clean Water Act, and possibly a landmark event in bringing attention to ocean acidification.  This important step has been brought to […]

Teaching Moments

By Ben Kalina It’s been two years now since we filmed A Sea Change along the northern California coast and the  journey continues with screenings scheduled globally as we plan another celebration of World Ocean Day in early June.  As if ocean acidification wasn’t enough and we needed another reason to wean ourselves quickly from […]

Our COP-15 Action Plan – Upcoming Weekend Events

Here is our schedule of events for the next few days, from today Friday December 11 through to Monday December 14, designated as Ocean Day at the COP-15. Today we have plenty to do–organize an upcoming press conference for Barbara and Sven at the Klimaforum, hand out our postcards with the events on the back, […]

Niijii Films in Copenhagen

Barbara, Sven, Angela and Gwen have landed in Copenhagen.  We have at least 4 screenings of A Sea Change planned during the COP-15 conference, and we plan to do everything we can to put the oceans on the agenda of discussion for our nations’ leaders.  While there is little likelihood of a significant treaty being […]

Special mention on a fledgling portal

Thanks to Steven’s Portal for his vote of confidence: we’re a featured link for May. His portal is focused on the efforts of people who are helping and healing the world.

In Copenhagen

We made it!  Bleary eyed and a bit soggy from the constant drizzle, we in arrived in Copenhagen yesterday.  Christmas and Climate Change are in evidence everywhere!  I’ll email photographic evidence later today (see below), but meanwhile, my first favorite factoid from Denmark courtesy of the Danish National Museum: Did you know… Some 14,000 years […]

Interview on Martha Stewart

A big thanks to Martha Stewart for providing her support in helping us to get the word out on ocean acidification. Here’s a lovely photo of Martha with Barbara Ettinger and Sven Huseby, on the show: And below you can see the interview:

A refreshing take

I stumbled across this on YouTube today. I was definitely ready for something slightly cheerful on this topic, with all this dark news. Ok, the first act, the seafood parade, could be slightly shorter. Granted. But stay with it, cause the animation that follows is not only cute, it’s on the money with the facts. […]

Sustainable filmmaking–discussion begins

Before production, Barbara Ettinger,Sven Husby, and Ben Kalina talk about how to go about green filmmaking.From the paper in the printer to lights on the set: we can’t takeanything for granted any more. Especially not if we’re going to make afilm about the consequences of excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. As we got started […]

Prince Charles fuels his Aston Martin with wine

"It is certainly a vintage vehicle. And now Prince Charles’s beloved Aston Martin DB6 is running on vintage too. A nice little white from a vineyard in Wiltshire, to be precise. Aspart of cutting his carbon footprint, the prince has converted the38-year-old classic car – a 21st birthday present from the Queen – torun on […]