Football and Poetry

We’re playing football on the meadows, the sky is blue and it smells of autumn. An almost perfect evening until…

FOOT CRAMP.

I retired to the nearest bench. The game went on.

I took off my boot and tried to rub my foot back into normality.

It was frustrating, I wanted to play but my foot hurt.

Eventually, I stopped focusing on my foot. I looked around.

Arthurs Seat was reassuringly stunning in the setting sun. Yesterday I’d seen David Mach’s version of the same scene with Noah’s Ark and the animals. I’d felt quite uncomfortable. I used to run a climate change workshop at Dynamic Earth which showed Edinburgh disappear under a flood (including comedy sharks) with only Arthur’s Seat and the Crags sticking out. This was a worst case climate change scenario, but an ark might be needed, in the future. Tonight though, it was dry. All was well.

And then I looked at the bench I was sitting on. There was something wonderful there, a wee poem about looking out over a football game and about life.

And I realised, sometimes, when things don’t go as we had planned or hoped and it’s painful we need to stop focusing on the pain and look around, there’s probably something beautiful, right there if we just look.

 

Climate Change Stories: Scotland

Earlier this month I was comissioned by SNIFFER to make a short film for the SCCIP Apaptation Scotland landmark conference that took place in Edinburgh on 23rd June 2011. Read more about the conference here.

I spent two days filming around Scotland interviewing representatives from Transport Scotland, Scottish Natural Heritage, North Lanarkshire Council, Central Scotland Fire and Rescue Services and the Carse of Gowrie Community. I found out how landslides affect the whisky industry, how flooding is endangering historic orchards and how the Fire and Rescue Service have increased their provision of high volume pumps to cope with our changing climate.

I spent another two days editing and producing the film titled ‘Climate Change Stories’. It’s a snapshot of how Scotland is adapting to climate change and planning for the future with help from SCCIP. It finishes with the question ‘What’s your story?’. The conference was a great opportunity for stories to be shared as Scotland plans for the future.

Climate Change Stories from Chris Berry on Vimeo.

I enjoyed working with SCCIP and hope to work with them again in the future.