Guest blog: "A Sea Change" explores ocean acidification and global warming

By Angela Alston, Outreach Coordinator for A Sea Change, a film about the effects of climate change on the world’s oceans. You can watch A Sea Change on the Planet Green Network, Sept. 26 at 8 pm EST. -- Luis

Imagine a world without fish. Barbara Ettinger was really not in the mood to do that. She and her husband Sven Huseby had just spent three years making a film. They were ready to take a six-month break, after going full out day, and sometimes night to shoot Two Square Miles, their documentary about a proposed coal-fired cement plant in Hudson, NY.

But Sven and Barbara read an alarming article in the New Yorker magazine about a little-known byproduct of human-made carbon emissions: ocean acidification. Pondering the facts raised in Elizabeth Kolbert's “The Darkening Sea” caused Sven to begin research on the issue online. But alarming as ocean acidification sounded--it's been called the “wet underbelly” or “evil twin” of climate change--very little information was available.

Barbara and Sven determined ocean acidification was a threat they couldn't ignore. They began research, then production on A Sea Change, which debuts on national TV Sept. 26. The film was completed after two years, thousands of miles of travel (all offset through Carbon Planet), and hundreds of hours of editing. You can watch A Sea Change on the Planet Green Network, Sept. 26 at 8 pm EST. And because many people don't have cable or satellite (or even a TV!), if you do, will you host a house party? We'll give you a free DVD to say thanks. Here's a trailer of the film:

The effects of climate change aren't limited to global warming. The sea is being affected, too. Seawater chemistry is being changed by human-caused carbon dioxide. Excess carbon dioxide is dissolving in our oceans. That makes the seawater more acidic, which in turn makes it difficult for tiny creatures at the bottom of the food web to form their shells. The effects could work their way up to the fish 1 billion people depend upon for their source of protein.

Sven had grown up in several of the places where groundbreaking research is taking place on ocean acidification. So Barbara decided to shape the film through personal history. Sven is the means by which the audience encounters the problem of ocean acidification and begins to understand the issue and its possible solutions. He meets some of the scientists whose research is in the forefront of the race to understand ocean acidification. And he talks with entrepreneurs exploring clean technology which may help turn the tide on ocean acidification.

Sven's family has always been linked to the sea and to fish. His five-year-old grandson Elias is part of the story. So it's not all doom and gloom: we get to laugh sometimes.

A Sea Change's festival premiere at the DC Environmental Film Festival had a record, standing-room-only audience. It has won multiple awards, including the Grand Prize at the FICA Film Festival in Brazil and Best Green Film at the Kosovo Documentary Festival. This is the first chance to watch A Sea Change on national TV. I hope you'll tune in!