Climate change film goes global

A global agreement for the educational market has been secured for Thin Ice – the Inside Story of Climate Science, a film that features a number of Victoria University of Wellington climate change scientists.

Green Planet Films, a California-based non-profit distributor which specialises in nature and environmental productions, will be distributing the film to educational institutions, government agencies, organisations and businesses world-wide, on behalf of collaborators the University of Oxford, Victoria University of Wellington and DOX Productions (London).

The film shows the range of human activity and scientific endeavour that continues to be applied to the effort to understand the world’s changing climate. The narration and most of the cinematography was by Dr Simon Lamb, Associate Professor of Geophysics at Victoria.

Peter Barrett, an emeritus professor at Victoria, an executive producer of the film and himself a palaeoclimate scientist, says: “As the effects of a warming climate continue to strengthen, Thin Ice can play an important role in giving young people confidence that the scientists really do have it right, and that they themselves can make a difference in dealing with the cause through their own lives.

Dr Simon Lamb says: “We are especially pleased to be working with Green Planet Films, with its strong partnerships for streaming, downloads and DVD sales to schools and universities throughout North America, Western Europe, Asia and Australasia. They offer good learning packages for teachers and students, and the school options especially are affordable”

Suzanne Harle, CEO and Founder Green Planet Films, says “I love this film. It’s like a one-to-one chat with the scientists. You find out what they do, how they do it and even what makes them interested. They do come to an ‘alarming' conclusion: that the rise in CO2 is the main cause of modern climate change, but at least you can see why, and what has to be done to deal with it.”

Besides streaming and download options, the 73-minute David Sington-Simon Lamb film is also available as a DVD with subtitles in English and five other languages, and 11 video shorts with experts expanding both on the science and the issues.

Wellington’s Onslow College is piloting an initiative to use the film as a cross-curriculum learning tool with Year 10 students. The school’s Learning Area Leader – Science, Terry Burrell, says Thin Ice is great for tying together perspectives on both science and social studies.

“Many of the students involved had heard about climate change but saw it as simply something people held opinions on before watching the film. Thin Ice not only explains the science clearly, it examines the point at which you can say there is a causal link so it’s an effective way of showing critical evaluation of evidence. It also has an excellent supporting website they can explore”.

Ms Burrell will be discussing Onslow’s pilot programme at the National Science Teachers Conference in Dunedin in July.

About the Thin Ice Project

The Thin Ice project began in 2006, with a goal of producing a film that would give people world-wide an insider’s view of the astonishing range of human activity and scientific effort being made to understand the world’s changing climate. While the project was largely funded by Victoria and Oxford universities, the talented film makers at DOX Productions, London, helped ensure an easy-to-follow research-based view of the issue. Visit www.thiniceclimate.org to find out more about the scientists who appear in the film and for up-to-date material on climate change.

About Green Planet Films

Founded in 2003, Green Planet Films is a California-based non-profit distributor created to promote environmental education through the artistic power of film. Its mission is to connect environmental filmmakers dedicated to documenting the relationship of nature and humanity with an evolving global movement seeking greater knowledge about the natural world we inhabit. In 2011, Green Planet Films launched a companion site called Green Planet Stream to attract international viewership, and also to expand their reach to public libraries. www.greenplanetfilms.org  www.greenplanetstream.org