News, Links and Videos
By Daniel de la Calle Some news on Ocean Acidification from the past few weeks: ¤ NOAA has released a new page on Ocean Acidification that delivers general information on the topic and describes the work that the National Oceanic And Atmospheric Administration is carrying out. A couple links to the content and nice […]
Screening at the Oil Company
By Daniel de la Calle from Ipanema Beach, Brazil This past Friday the 28th A Sea Change screened at the CENPES center in Rio de Janeiro. It is a massive 25 acre complex that employs over 1,500 biologists, chemists, marine ecologists and engineers working in interdisciplinary groups at the Petrobras headquarters, one of the leading […]
An Alternative Soundtrack
By Daniel de la Calle On last Wednesday’s post I forgot to mention the following astounding coincidence on the BBC’s “The End of the Oceans?” documentary: just as David Attenborough talks about Ocean Acidification Philip Glass’ Closing is played, a theme that is part of the A Sea Change soundtrack. Isn’t that something? This led […]
Some News, Some Information
By Daniel de la Calle Our poor blog has remained silent for over two weeks. I do not know how to make excuses sound like explanations, so my excuses are that I was busy showing Barbara Ettinger (our director) and Sven Huseby (our protagonist) my side of the world and after their departure I suffered […]
Angry Denials
By Daniel de la Calle The internet, that jungle out there. If you have looked for articles about ocean acidification or any of the uncountable environmental problems we are facing I am certain you have already stumbled upon a website or personal blog where it is all refuted and mocked, most times with a shockingly […]
I Am Costly
By Daniel de la Calle I confess I get irritated by the carbon footprint/credit scheme. Some months ago I did some research to try to understand just how carbon credits work, where you can buy them, how individual and national emissions are measured and I found the system to be complicated, bias, Kafkaesque. Here we […]
10 Good News, 10
By Daniel de la Calle It might be the cosmetic work of politicians, it may be hard to see the good side of it, could even leave you a bit confused, but here are 10 pieces of news that could ignite (emissions free, of course) true, authentic change: 1 Britain decides to stop airport growth around […]
The Price of Flying High
By Daniel de la Calle In his book How to Live a Low-Carbon Life, Chris Goodall breaks down the average 12.5 tonnes of CO2 per person yearly emissions in the UK into around 6 directly generated by the individual and another 6.5 generated by such things as “running offices, making fertilizer, smelting iron ore and […]
Anthropocentric Geoengineering!
By Daniel de la Calle If there is one possible scenario that frightens me more than our current lack of action to stop the countless maladies we are inflicting upon the planet it is this very tempting flight forward casino gamble of geoengineering. Just two unoriginal thoughts I want to throw out there: No scientist […]
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 […]
Day 2
Barbara and I are here in Copenhagen at COP-15 to continue our efforts to get oceans and ocean acidification onto the global climate agenda. We are part of the team from Scripps and the University of California. Towards that end, I was asked to give a talk yesterday on Ocean Acidification and its Human Impacts. […]
Will Bush turn blue? Possible blue legacy in the works
National Public Radio has just reported that President Bush is considering the creation of a number of marine reserves. If created, they would represent a huge conservation program, one of the largest ever. This would be cool, if it happens. Evidently it’s all still in the planning stages, and the Bush administration has not commented […]
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. […]
Will Florida lead the way?
A coalition of major conservation groups published a report outlining key steps the state of Florida can take to respond to pressing environmental concerns, including the big OA. The full report can be downloaded from docuticker. The summary alludes vaguely to "restoring coastal and marine ecosystems so they can better cope with the stress of […]
Devil (fish) in the details
This week the European Union’s initiative for studying ocean acidification kicks off in Nice, France. The name’s a bit unwieldy—the European Project of Ocean Acidification (EPOCA)—but we’re just glad a governmental entity’s paying serious attention and putting some resources and publicity behind the effort. It’s truly an international effort focused on filling in "the numerous […]
A Sea Change–Alaska vignette
Click to Play In which we start to get a sense of the deep economic and social implications of ocean acidification. The Exxon Valdez catatrosphe gives us a hint of what could happen. Includes comments from Verner Wilson, III, Alaska native and youth activist. Formats available: Quicktime (.mov), Flash Video (.flv)
Republicans block U.S. Senate’s global warming bill
Last night Democrats failed to break the Republican filibuster of major global warming legislation. The bill would have capped carbon dioxide coming from power plants,refineries and factories, with a target of cutting greenhouse gasemissions by 71 percent by the middle of this century. Notably crossing the aisle was John Warner (R-VA), arguing that the bill […]
Twenty years later
An eloquent statement from the man who first announced global warming in the U.S. Congress, James Hansen, director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, published in The Guardian. An excerpt: ". . . we have used up all slack in the schedule for actions needed todefuse the global warming time bomb. The next […]
Subcommittee Reviews Legislation to Research and Monitor Ocean Acidification
(Washington, DC) th Today, the House Committee on Science andTechnology’s Subcommittee on Energy and Environment held a hearing toreview H.R. 4174, the Federal Ocean Acidification Research andMonitoring Act. Committee Members examined the current status ofscience on ocean acidification and research and monitoring activitiesfocused on ocean acidification and its potential impacts on marineorganisms and marine ecosystems. […]
Another sea change
This courtesy of economist Mark Thomas’ blog Economist’s View: "Americans consider global warming an urgent threat, according to poll,EurekAlert: A growing number of Americans consider global warming animportant threat that calls for drastic action, and 40% say that a presidentialcandidate’s position on the issue will strongly influence how they vote,according to a national survey conducted […]
Green screen in NYC
We’re glad to see the New York City Mayor’s Office giving support to lightening the production footprint. The website offers tips and resources for saving energy while making movies in the Big A. Many of the tips apply more to big-budget features; however, those are the folks making the most waste, so it makes sense. […]
Portland becomes a perennial food forest
We’re hearing a lot about eating local as one of the best ways to reduce your carbon footprint. So increasing the amount of food grown in urban areas seems to make sense. In this video, depave.org instigates the conversion of a disused parking lot in Portland, OR, into a community garden and gathering place. The […]
What we know is a drop in the ocean
It’s darn expensive studying the ocean, as two Australian scientists pointed out recently. That’s the reasonwe know a lot more about what’s going on above sea level. ‘"Marine ecosystems are undoubtedly under-resourced,overlooked and under threat and our collective knowledge of impacts onmarine life is a mere drop in the ocean,’ wrote Dr Anthony Richardson,from The […]
The Gore 10-Year Challenge
Al Gore threw down the gauntlet yesterday, challenging the U.S. to go completely carbon-free in its energy sources within ten years. We have the technology to do it, he claimed, speaking in DC to an enthusiastic crowd. The 50-year goals politicians have been setting, eg, at the recent G8 meetings, just don’t cut it: they’re […]
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 […]