Director of the Institute of Environment, Health and Societies, Professor Susan Jobling, is set for big-screen stardom as she appears alongside Sir David Attenborough and Ben Fogle in - A Plastic Ocean.
Aiming to gain the same worldwide attention for the perils of plastics pollution in seas and oceans as Al Gore’s documentary An Inconvenient Truth did for global warming, the film is set for a cinema release later this year with a trailer now available on YouTube.
The “adventure documentary” has the personal support of naturalist and broadcaster Sir David, who said: “We have to act now to try and clear up and repair some of the appalling damage we have made to the ocean ….and that is going to require positive action.”
As well as investigating how plastic enters the environment, the production chronicles seabirds dying from eating bottle tops, dolphins with chemicals from plastics in their bodies, and sea life entangled in discarded containers and fishing nets. It also examines the health risks for the human population from chemicals leaching from plastic and the toxic chemicals in the ocean that stick to plastic fragments. The film provides solutions to the problems via technologies and behavioural change.
As well as appearing on camera, Professor Jobling was also one of the project’s science advisors and is actively pursuing the creation of the world’s first inter-disciplinary ocean plastic oceans research hub at Brunel as a legacy to the film and as a vehicle for increasing research, education and public outreach activity on the topic.
Said Prof Jobling: “The film is just the start. Across Brunel we have current research which is directly relevant to the risks of and potential ways of mitigating ocean pollution from plastics and other human activities.”