Tonight a crowd of about 100 attended the Port Townsend screening of “A Sea Change – Imagine A World Without Fish”. Producer Barbara Ettinger and film narrator, Sven Huseby were on hand to take questions afterwards. Here’s the film’s syopsis:
Imagine a world without fish: It seems inconceivable. But top scientists warn that such a catastrophe may in fact play out in coming generations unless widespread awareness is raised to stop ocean acidification.
A SEA CHANGE draws attention on this urgent but little-known crisis. It follows retired educator and concerned grandfather Sven Huseby back to stunning ancestral sites (Norway, Alaska, the Pacific Northwest) where he finds cutting-edge ocean research underway. His journey of self-discovery brings adventure, surprise and revelation to the hard science of acidification.
While the use of Sven as grandfather, and his charming grandson is a great storytelling technique, the most dramatic scene to me in the movie is showing the damage done to a tooth by simply exposing it to carbonated water, which is only slightly more acidic than seawater, and much less than Coke Cola. The tooth, rather rapidly, develops a massive split down the middle. Could the acidity change be part of the problem we are starting to see in clamshells and clam spawn survival rates in Hood Canal?
The question was raised, “What can one do locally?” Here’s some answers:
- First, try and see the movie, to understand the scope of the problem. If you can’t, then search for information on the Internet. This web site will list sites that you can start with.
- Write our state representatives, both locally (Lynn Kessler, Kevin Van de Wege, and James Hargrove), our governor, and David Dicks, of the Puget Sound Partnership, and demand action within the State to drive issues of CO2 pollution down. Let them know you care about this.
- Write our federal representatives to let them know we care about this issue.
- Support strong laws, such as the Shoreline Master Program locally to reduce runoff of pollutants into our Sound and Straits.
- Drive less in gas powered cars!
- Support a shift to solar, wind and tidal energy. This alone is a huge committment that can help immensely.
- Take a look at http://www.aseachange.net/take-action-today.html to see what other things you can do.
Thanks again to the Marine Science Center for putting this movie on.
If you want the whole scientific version of this, you should check out the hour long video on YouTube from UCTV by Scripps Institute Marine Chemist as he rolls out the actual charts of hot spots, and deep issues.
