Film: Belmont Primary School

Transcript

[INTRO MUSIC]

 >> KAY BURLEY: Hello there. I’m Kay Burley, reporting for Sky News. We have an important Sky News exclusive. We head now to Studio 1 at Sky Academy Skills Studio.

>> MAX: Good afternoon. Welcome to the Sky Studios. We hope you are enjoying your lunch without plastic straws, of course. My name is Max.

>> ALEX: My name is Alex, and we are going to be talking about the plastic pollution which is destroying our oceans.

>> MAX: We are talking all about the effects of plastic on marine life.

>> ALEX: Right now, plastic in the ocean kills more than a million sea birds every year, and more than 100,000 marine mammals.

>> MAX: That’s terrible.

>> ALEX: Yes.

>> MAX: More than 1,200 animal species are in danger from eating plastic or becoming tangled in it.

>> ALEX: Recent studies have suggested that there might be 80% more plastics on beaches than scientists previously thought.

>> MAX: I feel upset about what is happening to the oceans. I feel that way because these sea creatures have not done anything to us, and we are harming them with our plastic.

>> ALEX: I think that’s important that we do all that we can to reduce the amount of plastic we are using, maybe using paper straws instead of plastic straws.

>> MAX: Yes, and others at Belmont School, they have made their pledge as a class to stop using plastic straws. Plastic straws are a major problem for our oceans.

>> ALEX: So, we stand together with them to say, ‘No more plastic straws.’

>> MAX: Right now, that’s all we have time for.

>> ALEX: We are now going over to Joseph and Ella.

[TRANSITION MUSIC]

>> JOSEPH: Max, good morning. My name is Joseph.

>> ELLA: My name is Ella, reporting live from Bromley Beach today, continuing on the discussion on the Sky Ocean Rescue, and the flight to save our seas.

>> JOSEPH: Did you know that if we do not put a stop to the plastics now, by 2050, there will be more plastic in our oceans than fish?

>> ELLA: That’s shocking, so what’s going to be done about this?

>> JOSEPH: Sky Ocean Rescue encourages people to be an ocean hero, and to cut down on the amount of plastic they use.

>> ELLA: Plastic bottles are the third worst plastic polluter of the ocean, and more than 13 billion single-use plastic bottles are sold in Britain each year.

>> JOSEPH: Scientists believe that because plastics are being eaten by other marine life that we eat, Europeans can only consume up to 11,000 pieces of plastic in their food each year.

>> ELLA: There is an estimated of 5 trillion pieces of plastic in the oceans, with 8 million tonnes of plastic ending in the ocean every year.

>> JOSEPH: Belmont Academy in Bexley have done an amazing job at doing their bit to pass on plastic.

>> ELLA: As a school, they have made a pledge not to use plastic straws anymore.

>> JOSEPH: When asked why they decided to do this, they said that they felt bad for all the plastic being used, and did not realise where it was ending up.

>> ELLA: Maybe if more people knew the damage plastic was causing to our environment, less plastic would be used.

>> JOSEPH: That’s all from us here. Keep watching our space. We’ll be speaking to experts for more on this story.

>> ELLA: However, we will now hand over to Isabella, reporting live from Belmont Academy.

>> JOSEPH: Bye.

>> ELLA: Bye.

[TRANSITION MUSIC]

>> ISABELLA: Thank you, Joseph and Ella. Hi, I’m Isabella, reporting for your Sky News here, live, here at Belmont Academy. This school has recently received a lot of praise from parents and members of the public for their pledge to reduce plastic by eliminating plastic straws from this school. Famous naturalist, Sir David Attenborough, has said, ‘Plastic is now found everywhere in the ocean.’ Almost surfaced to its greatest depth, never before have we been so aware of what we are doing to our planet, and never before have we had such power to do something about it. To talk about this further, I am joined with Millie, a teacher, and Lenny, a student at this school. Thanks for joining me.

>> MILLIE: Thank you for having us

>> LENNY: I can't believe I’m on TV. Hi, Mum.

>> MILLIE: Behave yourself, Lenny.

>> ISABELLA: Right, so can you please tell us why you chose to not use plastic straws in your school?

>> MILLIE: Because they are the most dangerous to the ocean.

>> LENNY: Yes, and it’s very harmful to all the sea creatures.

>>ISABELLA: What else did the school do to tackle this issue?

>> LENNY: We did drumming and made a song.

>> MILLIE: It went like this.

[CHILDREN SING]

>> ISABELLA: That sounds brilliant.

Any last thoughts?

>> LENNY: We plan to reduce the use of plastic across the entire school.

>> MILLIE: That’s right, and we will spread the word.

>> ISABELLA: Well, thank you for your time. Now, over to Paige back in the studios.

[TRANSITION MUSIC]

>> PAIGE: Thank you, Isabella. Hello, my name is Paige, reporting from our studio in London, to continue talking about ocean rescue and how we can work together to reduce this issue, to save our marine creatures. Before we introduce our guests, let’s head over to Amelia for more on this.

>> AMELIA: Once thrown away, plastics break down into tiny fragments called micro-plastics.

They’re already found in most of the world’s beaches, and scientists think there are 500 times more micro-plastics in our seas than stars in our galaxy.

If nothing changes by 2050, the plastic in the world’s oceans will weigh more than all fish.

>> PAIGE: Right now, we are here joined by Ron, a manager of Asda superstore, and Malakai, an underwater camera operator. So, Ron, how much plastic do you use at your store, and what would you use instead of plastic?

>> RON: So, we use a lot of plastic, but we cannot escape it because it’s everywhere.  There are other options out there to use, so we are currently looking into that, but all superstores have charged 5p for plastic bags and this has made a huge difference. Our next step is tattooing information such as expiry date rather than using plastic labels.

>> PAIGE: Malakai, you have an exciting job to tell us. What have you seen?

>> MALAKAI: It saddened me that plastic has destroyed our oceans. I've seen plastic floating in the oceans along the fish, even eating them. The plastics are so small that they are mistaken for food that kills them. Coral reefs are not the same, because plastic has affected the life balance under the water, but we need to understand that plastic also affects stuff, because we eat seafood.

>> PAIGE: Well then, more needs to be done. Thank you both for joining me here today. We are very lucky to have Emily, a Sky Ocean Rescue ambassador. Can you tell the viewers at home what you do?

>> EMILY: So, my job is to sail around the world to study plastic pollution, so I get to go to these accumulation zones where all this plastic that goes into our ocean eventually ends up. We do scientific research to understand the impact that it’s having on the sea creatures that live out there, and also some ways that we can try and solve it.

>> PAIGE: What one advice would you give the viewers at home?

>> EMILY: I would say, whenever you see any plastic in your life, if it’s in your lunchbox, if it’s when you go to the supermarket, think to yourself, ‘Can I do this without plastic?’ and try and eliminate that single-use plastic from your life. The sea creatures that we see out there, they’ll be thankful for that action.

>> PAIGE: Thank you again, Emily, for joining me today. That’s all from us here at Sky News. Join us again tomorrow. Goodbye.

[TRANSITION MUSIC]

>> KAY BURLEY: Thanks to the team at Sky Academy Skills Studio. That’s the end of our special report. I’m Kay Burley. Thank you for watching.

[CLOSING MUSIC]