A University of Rhode Island journalism professor released a new documentary that follows researchers studying the effects of climate change on the saltmarsh sparrow, a small bird found on the Atlantic coast of the United States.
The film by Jason Jaacks is called “Between Moon Tides.”
Jaacks spent two full summers following the saltmarsh sparrow research initiative and their interns through salt marshes through Jacobs Point Preserve in Warren, Rhode Island.
“[The saltmarsh sparrow] is a species that is in our own backyards that is facing the same kind of threat from climate change that these species that we more often think of when we think of climate change, things like polar bears, are also facing,” Jaacks said.
In the film, Jaacks follows researcher Deirdre Robinson and her team who, saddened by the rising sea-level threat to the sparrow, find nests and experiment with ways to try and save them from the rising tides. Rising tides are the cause of the birds’ predicted extinction by 2050 at the latest.
“At the heart of this story is really this group of people who are trying to save this species, and the species isn’t that remarkable, right,” Jaacks said. ”It’s a brown bird… It’s not something that we see as a harbinger of climate change. And yet, this little bird is going to go extinct by [around] 2035.”
Ultimately, the takeaway Jaacks wants from his film is that no action is too small when it comes to climate change. Jaacks hopes his film can help people realize that climate change affects everyone.
“Ultimately climate change is a local issue,” Jaacks said.“We think of global climate change, we think of the polar bears, Miami being under water, or these heat waves in the American Southwest or in the Sahara, but climate change is a story that’s happening in our own backyards, in our own communities.”
To watch Professor Jaack’s new documentary “Between Moon Tides,” find it on the Guardian website and the Guardian YouTube channel.
