The much anticipated screening of Chasing Ice at the Star & Shadow cinema was worth every bit of the wait, and the jam packed cinema proved just how interested people are in our city about the issues that climate change is presenting us with.
I was mesmerised by this film especially the drive and enthusiasm of James Balog, the well renowned photographer. He is brainchild of the film which is a piece of a bigger picture called the Extreme Ice Survey, which aims to provide understanding of the effects of climate change to everyone through time lapse photography. In the Arctic these pictures are showing in rich detail the vast quantity of ice that is disappearing into the ocean in relatively short periods of time.
After the screening of this amazing film, there was a discussion that was chaired by members of the Institute of Hazard, Risk and Resilience, a research faculty at Durham University. They answered questions from the audience about the threats of climate change and different perspectives of some problems that we are faced with, their overall message was that climate change is indeed real and it is up to each of us to make the necessary changes in our lives and seek the changes from governments and organisations.
We the Greenpeace Newcastle group were pleased to have a stall at this amazing event and I got the opportunity to be the Polar Bear, as part of our I ❤ Arctic campaign. In which we have been taking pictures of people holding "I ❤ Arctic" speech bubbles to declare their love for this pristine environment which is under threat from multinational oil companies like shell who want to drill for deep sea oil. All the pictures taken by activists around the globe will be presented to the next meeting of the Arctic Council to show them the strength of support for a protected Arctic home of my favourite animal the Polar Bear :)
Rakesh
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