Not Only Ocean Acidification

By Daniel de la Calle ≈≈≈Marine researchers from around the world are in Cairns, Australia, this week for the 12th International Coral Reef Symposium (July 9-13): “From Cairns, 2,600 scientists have signed a Consensus Statement on Climate Change and Coral Reefs.
The consensus statement calls for a worldwide effort to overcome growing threats to coral ecosystems […]

After the Storm

By Daniel de la Calle The storm passed and so did the election, strangely intertwining both in a way that made hard to distinguish one from the other.  In a world steamrolling to global weirding certain people call a late October hurricane in Manhattan “the new normal”.  For some absurd reason such a catchphrase has […]

Overflow

By Daniel de la Calle How much is too much?  When does a stream of information flow over and one more entry, article, news piece or documentary simply becomes redundant, numbing white noise, counterproductive annoyance? Searching online today, the 12th of April of 2013, for the term Ocean Acidification brings up 1.900.000 pages.  Little compared […]

Free Popcorn and Lemonade Screening

By Daniel de la Calle ≈≈≈The Duke Chapel Congregation has scheduled a free outdoor screening of A Sea Change this Friday, July 20th (at dusk, around 8:30PM). Moviegoers “are encouraged to bring their own lawn chairs and blankets. Free popcorn and lemonade will be provided. A discussion will follow the film. In case of rain, […]

The Crossing Of The Andes

By Daniel de la Calle You can fool and distract yourself in the days leading to a trip, go through the motions of packing, closing doors and taking cabs in hypnotic discipline, behave in such a drowsy way during the flight that the experience nears teletransportation, but when the captain’s voice comes in the speaker […]

All Sorts Of News

By Daniel de la Calle »When the media loves something it just takes over the internet.  News came out yesterday about the new study by the Stockholm Environment Institute titled “Valuing the Ocean” where marine experts analyzed the most severe threats facing the world’s marine environment and estimated the cost of damage a year coming […]

President Obama And The Giant Pteropods

By Daniel de la Calle   A couple news for the first half of the week: »US President Barak Obama’s weekly address this past Saturday was a remarkable attempt at pushing for a more environmental and alternative energy agenda while making it sound like the opposite.  Speaking from a jet-engine factory Mr. Obama seemed to […]

Chile, From Santiago to Valparaíso

By Daniel de la Calle After Puerto Montt, the second half of the series of screenings in Chile unfolded at universities in Santiago and Valparaíso.  Although they shared the name, “Universidad Católica”, there was no connection between the two.  We were in Santiago thanks to an invitation by Professor José M. Farina, showing the film […]

Symposia, Volunteer Work, A Job Offer And A Video

By Daniel de la Calle »The Georges River Tidewater Association seeks volunteers to monitor acidification in St. George Estuary (Maine). “GRTA has been developing a monitoring program with assistance from Friends of Casco Bay, the Gulf of Maine Council on the Marine Environment, and the Maine Department of Environmental Protection. GRTA is investing in sampling […]

That Elusive Golden Past

By Daniel de la Calle The screening at Maloka and the countless interviews in Bogotá couldn’t have gone any better.  Some sort of miracle, some magic must have turned my pumpkin backpack into the Ocean Acidification ambassador’s golden chariot (caught up in the worst traffic jams ever, though!) and I was welcomed like royalty, asked […]

Ocean Acidification News on the Web

By Daniel de la Calle Some Ocean Acidification news for this beginning of May:     ¤Symposium on Ocean Acidification to be held in Canberra, Australia from the 15th to the 17th of June 2011. The event is titled Ocean Acidification and Implications for Living Marine Resources in the Southern Hemisphere and aims to: “enhance the […]

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 […]

Reconsider Your Shrimp

By Daniel de la Calle » Williams College, in Williamstown, Mass. is hosting an Oceans Symposium and next Monday, Feb. 27, at 7 p.m., Elizabeth Kolbert, staff writer at The New Yorker, will lead a discussion following a showing of A Sea Change, Imagine a World Without Fish. » Beautiful new documentary on the oceans […]

Sanctuary

By Daniel de la Calle       Islands make for miniature universes, like snow globes: they transform a few miles distance into the crossing of a continent, produce insular dwarfism (where even the animals try to scale down and look only into the restricted cosmos) and remarkable adaptation from its species.  I know what it […]

That Cranky Old Man

By Daniel de la Calle     A few years from now I will inevitably become an insufferable cranky old man.  I am actually almost there now:  On World Water Day last week I turned my forgotten TV set on, the one that comes back to life during cycling season, and watched the 3 p.m. news.  […]

The Highest High, The Lowest Low

By Daniel de la Calle Today is World Water Day.  All kinds of events must be taking place around the planet with the spotlight on water, on its current state and its importance to us living creatures.  Some of them will surely point out our dependency on good water and the paradoxical way we treat […]

When You Reach Maturity

By Daniel de la Calle A couple blog entries ago I mentioned A Sea Change has been present so far at more than fifty film festivals worldwide.  We have a saying in Spanish that goes: “life is but a sigh”, partly to show our tragic sense of life, but mainly to stress its brevity.  The […]

Books, Projects and PhDs

By Daniel de la Calle “All truth passes through three stages: First, it is ridiculed; Second, it is violently opposed; and Third, it is accepted as self-evident.” – Arthur Schopenhauer     ¤The European Union is launching this April a new three-year project called Mediterranean Sea Acidification in a changing climate (MedSeA).  Its goal is to […]

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 […]

Monday’s Smorgasbord

By Daniel de la Calle Every few weeks there is a new one, March was not going to be an exception. Here you go, the list of A Sea Change news, Ocean Acidification videos and assorted internet links.     ¤¤  Barbara and Sven spent this past month on the West Coast attending screenings, meeting people, […]

More November News on Ocean Acidification and the Environment

By Daniel de la Calle This November I’m looking for traces of “Ocean Acidification”, not in water, but on the internet.  I found the following news and links I thought could/would/should interest you. ¤ Britain sets up the world’s largest marine reserve. Since November 1st, the world’s largest fully protected marine reserve is located in […]

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, […]

Understanding Hens

By Daniel de la Calle Brazilians do not like Brasilia, Brasilienses do. I guess it must be the LA of the Southern Hemisphere. Brasilia was conceived after a dream, but some think of it as a vision, even see it as a prophecy.  In the mid 18th century some Salesian priest in Italy (!) prophesied […]

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 […]

Sao Paulo de Janeiro

By Daniel de la Calle It is 60 degrees, cloudy and windy at times and I am listening to the National’s new record surrounded by maple, oak and pine tress in my office.  No more Tim Maia, Marisa Monte, funky carioca or forró.  No more Os Mutantes.  I will need to close my eyes really […]