Legendary Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki is an acknowledged master in the field whose beautifully designed films have often included environmental themes. In one of his best, the 2008 anime Ponyo, a five-year-old boy finds a beautiful goldfish trapped in a bottle and releases it, calling her Ponyo. In reality a magical princess, Ponyo uses sorcery to become human but in the process sets the entire world off its axis, causing the moon to generate enormous tides. The two children embark on an adventure to save the world. In Japanese with English subtitles. Writer/Director: Hayao Miyazaki. (Japan 2008) 101 min. plus discussion.

WILL TRAVIS is a consultant, writer and speaker on climate change, and particularly on adaptation to sea level rise. For 16 years, he served as executive director of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission. In 2011, under his leadership, BCDC became the nation’s first state coastal management agency to adopt regulations for addressing sea level rise. Travis is a very entertaining speaker who comments about speaking with Ponyo: “Storytelling is a far more effective way to make us aware of profound changes than are data, charts and graphs.”