Sven Huseby interview
HUCK talks to the star of ocean environmental documentary A Sea Change.
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Our oceans are 30 percent more acidic than they were 200 years ago and we are now looking at a world without fish because of it. This issue is tackled head on in new film A Sea Change which follows environmentalist Sven Huseby on his quest to discover what’s happening to the world’s oceans, tracking him through California, Alaska and his ancestral homeland of Norway.
HUCK caught up with Sven between screenings to find out more about this acidic issue, what compelled him to make the film and what, if anything, can be done to change it.
HUCK: How did the film come about?
Sven Huseby: This film is something that really sprang out of the imagination of my wife, Barbara Ettinger. She had read an article in the New Yorker magazine by Elizabeth Kolbert called The Darkening Sea. It was a grim, dark tale, of what was happening in the oceans and we were both a little stunned because we saw ourselves as somewhat sophisticated environmentalists. Barbara googled 'ocean acidification', and there were only six entries, less than one full page. She said she couldn’t believe this. [...] [The film] isn't so much about science, but a film about a moral imperative. Then she asked if I would be willing to be on the other side of the camera along with my grandson Elias.
So what is ocean acidification?
Ocean acidification is a term coined seven or eight years ago as a way of describing a phenomena occurring in our oceans. In modern times, we have increased the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere, in turn increasing the amount of CO2 absorbed by the ocean, which creates carbonic acid - the fizz that we have in sparkling water and soda pop. This produces a raised level of corrosiveness for all calcifying organisms in the sea - those that need calcium carbonate [chalk] such as lobsters, clams and coral reefs. But more importantly, the calcifying organisms at the base of the food web, namely zooplankton and plankton such as foraminifera, are critical players in feeding higher species that in turn feed higher species. So we may not know these creatures, but we know the results of the role that they play extremely well and intimately. [...] I think the important thing for people to realise is not just that oceans have become more acidic but that since the beginning of the industrial revolution, about 200 years ago, the acidity of the oceans has increased by 30 percent. We haven’t seen that rate of acid increase in our oceans since dinosaurs went extinct 64 million years ago. And with that kind of rate of change these creatures that we have just spoken about don’t have time for evolutionary adaptation. That’s the problem.
What does all this mean for use here on land?
Working on this film, I’ve confronted that phrase a lot 'us here on land'. And you know the fact is there is no dividing line between us on land and them in the sea. We’re all part of one ecosystem and one continuum. So the health of the ocean is really an extension of the condition of our health and vice versa. How it plays out is in terms of global food supply, there’s a great deal at risk here because we are looking at the potential of species collapse. We now take approximately 30% of the worlds protein supply from the sea, so think what that means in terms of food security for countries around the world, for jobs, economies and beyond that, cultural identities related to the sea along coastlines.
There is no dividing line between us on land and them in the sea
What do you find most worrying about this situation of ocean acidification?
I think the lack of political will to look straight in the face of what we’re doing environmentally to our planet, through the lifestyles, particularly the developed world continue to pursue. Barbara an I were delegates with the University of California to COP15 and it was an extraordinary thing to be there. I feel so saddened by the press that COP15 has received. To be there among so many people who understood the CO2 question and brought their energy and their intelligence and fire to try to bolster the political will of member nations that participated, that was extraordinary. But while we were there, so much money was pouring into advertisements and press coverage and certain media that was really undermining the credibility of science. I’m not an apocalyptic person, it’s not my style, but to fail in this is to really fail Elias and his children and grandchildren, because the world they’re going to inherit from us is going to be a much more dangerous world due to decreased diversity on a global scale.
What do you think the solutions are?
I follow very closely what’s happening in the world of geo-engineering and I haven’t seen anything yet that looks as if it’s going to help. I’m interested in CCS [carbon capture and sequestration] and I have also come to believe that taking the best of nuclear power as an interim solution may be necessary. That’s a 180 degree turn from how I used to feel about nuclear power. I’m extremely inspired by the speed with which China is committing itself to improved battery technology, improved wind generation and solar cells. It’s extraordinary some of the things they are working on right now. So the productivity and sophistication of these alternative energy systems is going up, and if governments can pour money into supporting these activities prices will come down. But what we have to remind people is the way to start is to go after the low hanging fruit like turning off your lights, and Europe knows this so much better than the U.S. As I understand the average European has a carbon footprint a quarter of the size of the average American, and that’s huge because the quality of life is as high or higher in parts of Europe than it is here in the U.S now. Over half the working population of Copenhagen uses bicycles!
If you are interested in holding a screening of A Sea Change, check out the website.
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Sven Huseby interview (text) by Ruth Carruthers is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
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