BU students, staff and invited guests broadcasted reaction and debate to Al Gore's climate change event 24 Hours of Reality from the foyer studio of the Faculty of Media and Communication.
24 Hours of Reality is an annual day of stories and conversations about the climate crisis and how to solve it, broadcast live to millions around the world. It is hosted from Los Angeles by Al Gore, the former Vice President of the USA.
Amongst the contributing guests to the BU broadcast was Mark Chivers, a volunteer with the Climate Reality Project, founded by Al Gore, where he has been a trained Climate Leader for a number of years.
Mark has also been involved in several local campaigns and initiatives and has recently been lobbying the insurance industry (where he currently works) to divest from fossil fuels. Mark has previously given presentations at BU on the growing threat of climate change and is planning on returning to share the launch of Zero Carbon Dynamics; an initiative for businesses and organisations who want to play their part in addressing the climate crisis.
BU’s hour-long live broadcast began with a studio debate in which Mark Chivers was interviewed by presenters Petur Magnusson and Emma Stileman, who are studying on the BA (Hons) Politics programme.
Other guests included Politics lecturers Ian Gwinn and Daniel Weissmann, as well as students from Environmental Science and Politics programmes who covered themes such as green protest groups, the reliance on brown coal in Germany, climate change policy in the UK and other EU countries, and how individuals can help make the enormous changes required to halt the threat of runaway climate change.
The event was broadcast with the assistance of BA (Hons) Television Production staff and students, and the production involved twelve current students working cameras and the gallery to ensure a quality presentation was achieved.
Politics lecturer David McQueen, who helped organise the event with Adrian Butterworth, praised the professionalism of all the students involved and noted that the experience of hosting a live show and interviewing experts was a fantastic opportunity for the Politics students who had risen to the occasion as interviewers and pundits.
He was thankful to all the TV students involved under the calm leadership of Studio Producer Yasmin Barnes who had organised and recorded the event as a fully-trained and wholly independent production team.
Encouraged by the success of the collaboration, David McQueen is looking forward to organising a longer, all-day Climate Reality event next year drawing on the expertise of staff and students both in and beyond the Faculty of Media and Communication.
