She who sees the seas
Whatever screen you’re currently staring at, whatever chair you’re sitting on, whatever clothes you’re wearing, it almost certainly came to you from far, far away. And all that stuff doesn’t magically drop on our doorsteps. 90% of what we eat, touch, drive… almost all our traded goods arrive to us by ship. 100.000 ships ply our seas and oceans every day to supply us with everything we think we need.
Yet all this shipped stuff comes with a dark price. 17 of the largest ships emit more black carbon than all the cars in the world. So how in the world can shipping remain so out of sight, unaffected by all climate action and treaties? “Because shipping is one of the most polluting, unregulated and secretive industries in the world. We seem sea blind," says documentary maker Bernice Notenboom. "The bigger the container ship, the less we know about it."
Bernice is one of our personal heroes. Not only because she became the first woman to reach the North, South, and Cold Pole and traversed Greenland's icecap on skis, but especially because she does these extreme expeditions to show us how climate change is affecting us all. Her new film Sea Blind shows us again: what is at stake? And even more importantly: how can we change?
Dr. Monk loves learning about the how and what of environmental issues. But what really make us happy are the solutions! So if you happen to be in Amsterdam, join us to the screening of Bernice’s new film Sea Blind, Friday the 22nd of April in Undercurrent. If you fill in the code "drmonk" with your Eventbrite order, you'll get 60% off your ticket.
P.S. That image? It's the shipping routes of those 100.000 ships a day.