Chasing Coral

I think for most of us when we think of climate change the things that come to mind are collapsing glaciers, raging forest fires, typhoons and freak weather events. The largest loser at present, however, is the oceans where whole ecosystems are collapsing.

This film is by Jeff Orlowski, who made the award winning Chasing Ice, and follows the progress of numerous scientists and ecologists who try to catalogue the destruction to the coral reefs during their worst ever years 2015-2016, when some 30% of coral was lost worldwide.

The challenges of trying to get good footage of this catastrophe lie at the heart of this film, as those concerned try to make the largely invisible underwater world visible for people, so they can see and act on what is happening.

The coral reefs are tremendously important as a base ground for all life in the ocean, and their destruction will affect everything that lives up the food chain above them, and will also negatively affect people who live on the produce of the oceans.

It is little understood that the oceans absorb over 90% of the heat that is caused by CO₂ emissions and are therefore keeping the planet inhabitable for humans. If we destroy their ecosystems we will also destroy our chances of survival.