Boulder-based environmental film company Oceanic Preservation Society exposes rising mercury levels in the world's oceans, Boulder-based Bella Energy provides solar electric system to power film studio. BOULDER, Colo., Feb. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- Bella Energy, a Boulder based solar energy company that installs and maintains solar energy systems in Colorado and the Rocky Mountain Region, has installed a 22.8 kilowatt solar system on Oceanic Preservation Society's Boulder film production studio. Oceanic Preservation Society (OPS) is a non-profit organization that makes films about the declining state of the oceans, founded by Boulder residents Louie Psihoyos, a career National Geographic photographer, and his retired-ballerina wife Viki Psihoyos. Louie was the main contributor to the "Material World Project," a U.N. sponsored show of family portraits depicting 40 families from different countries with their material possessions. Louie Psihoyos knows that renewable energy production is the best way for an individual citizen to reduce the country's dependency on polluting coal plants. He has made a personal commitment to use solar electricity to lower his carbon footprint not only for his studio but also his car, a Zenn electric car. "We are doing what we can here," says Louis Psihoyos. "Our OPS film team uses a dozen monitors, editing machines and tons of RAD for data storage. The place literally throbs with electricity." Scientists are studying a connection between increasing CO2 levels and mercury content in the oceans and in our seafood, which can cause neurological and heart problems. The highest concentrations of mercury are found in larger predator fish, so high that experts warn women who are pregnant or breast-feeding and children not to eat such fish as fresh tuna, Chilean sea bass, swordfish, shark or grouper. Alarmingly, seafood provides 70 percent of the planet's protein. "Since our upcoming film points out the connection between increasing levels of CO2 in the air and mercury levels rising 2% a year in the oceans, we tried to lower our own personal carbon footprint and set an example to others," says Viki Psihoyos. "We are practicing what we preach."
