‘Corals on the EDGE’ is the first component of the new EDGE Coral Reefs programme, which will be launched early next year.
Earth-Touch, the EDGE team, and indeed much of the marine team at ZSL, have worked hard over the last few months to have the ‘Corals on the EDGE’ film finished in time for the UN Nations Copenhagen Conference or COP15. The film is currently being played on a 58” screen at ZSL’s Copenhagen exhibit, officially the biggest screen in the building we’re told!
The fifteenth ‘Conference of the Parties’ (thus, COP) under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), as I’m sure most of you will have heard of, started on Monday 7th Dec. The COP is the highest body of the UNFCCC and consists of environment ministers from about 190 countries who meet once a year in December to discuss the convention’s developments. All eyes are now focused on the northern European city of Copenhagen Denmark to commit to reducing the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere to a level that prevents dangerous man-made climate changes. This level must be significantly below 350ppm.
We hope the film will go some way towards making the assembly leaders aware of what is at stake. The film portrays a sad time in the future when coral reefs are no more. In 2065 a grandfather explains what coral reefs once were and why the most diverse marine ecosystem on the planet went functionally extinct. The moving story told through the eyes of a young girl will we hope, help raise awareness of the huge threat of climate change to our world, and implore the policy makers at Copenhagen to commit to reducing carbon emissions to below 350ppm to save our coral reefs!
We’d like to thank Earth-Touch for the wonderful job they’ve done in producing the film. Earth-Touch have also expertly produced a 2 minute taster film for us. Both this and the whole 12 minute version can be viewed and downloaded from the website and make for an excellent education tool.
Please watch the film and spread the word!
Catherine
EDGE Coral Reefs