Climate change science: The Movie

12 June 2007

A new documentary film will enable scientists to give their perspectives on climate change – how and why it is happening, and what we can do about it. The £600,000 movie is a unique collaboration between Oxford University and Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand, and will be produced by London-based award-winning company DOX Productions.

Production on the film, with the working title ‘The Tipping Point’, has just begun. The film will be produced and directed by David Sington (DOX Productions) and Dr Simon Lamb (Oxford University), both experienced documentary film-makers, who collaborated several years ago to produce the acclaimed 8-hour BBC television series ‘Earth Story’.

The stars of the new film will be the scientists working around the world to record and understand changes in past and present climate on land, at sea and in the Polar Regions. Much of this research focuses on the Antarctic because of the uncertainties about how this huge and relatively unknown region will respond to climate change.

‘Al Gore’s ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ has helped increase many people’s awareness of climate change,’ said Dr Simon Lamb of Oxford University’s Department of Earth Sciences. ‘In our film we want the audience to learn about the science of climate change from the scientists themselves and find out how they are tackling the problem.’

Professor Philip England, Head of Oxford’s Department of Earth Sciences, said: ‘The goal of this film is to distil the key issues surrounding climate science into a human story that is accessible to the general public. We hope that, when people appreciate our scientific understanding of what controls the climate – and the practical solutions being developed by scientists, engineers and economists to deal with climate change – they will want to play their part in helping to solve this most challenging problem.’

Filming will take place in 2007 and 2008, with release for both cinema and DVD in 2009.