Shifting Baselines

For five years I've been trying to tell everyone that someday Dr. Jeremy Jackson needs to give a talk about the oceans in which he is dressed up as the grim reaper, complete with black hood and scythe. Well, my dream almost came true last night at the premiere of Leonardo DiCaprio's new movie The 11th Hour as the good Doctor Jackson pretty much stole the show (in my biased opinion) with the grimmest pronouncement of the entire movie.

The Grim Reaper, Dr. Jeremy Jackson, brings the voice of doom to the green carpet at The 11th Hour premiere

It's actually an excellent sequence. The film has comments from 54 experts ranging from science popularizer David Suzuki to climate scientist Steven Schneider to bioneer Kenny Ausubel. But right in the middle of it, Jeremy comes on with a snippet about how global warming could slow the conveyer belt of thermohaline circulation in the oceans, which he concludes by saying, "the last time that happened in the oceans, 95 percent of all species went extinct," which kicks off the best montage of the film in which IMAX-style aerial footage takes us over mountain peaks and swooping down through valleys as the music score (which is extremely good) hits its most somber notes. It is a powerful and profoundly disturbing sequence (even without black robe and scythe).

The other highlight of the night was sitting two rows behind Adrian Grenier (a.k.a. Vinny Chase, brother of Jonny "Drama" Chase, if you don't know who he is don't worry, neither did Jeremy, or Jennifer when I sent her an excited text message -- and we wonder why there's a communication gap).

It's a movie with great passion and the night was filled with heartfelt speeches, beginning with Leo himself who very humbly introduced the film and the two filmmakers, the sisters Nadia Conners and Leila Petersen (whom we've known for five years since their company Tree Media first built our Shifting Baselines web site). And of course the other highlight was watching the feeding frenzy of paparazzi swirling around Jessica Simpson as she tried to make her way through the lobby on her way home (presumably to further contemplate the importance of thermohaline circulation).