Award-winning animated film explores sustainable futures
An award-winning documentary short by David Bunting and our Faculty's James McKay, which explores whether everyone can live well without harming the environment, makes its on-campus debut this month.
No One is an Island is currently screening in film festivals worldwide. It was awarded the Gabriel Figueroa Special Award at the Wildlife Conservation Film Festival in Brazil.
James McKay, manager of Centres for Doctoral Training (Low Carbon Technologies, Bioenergy, and Water-WISER) in the Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences, contributed to the story and created the film's illustrations.
He teamed up with animator David Bunting, who produced and directed the documentary, bringing together a team of animation professionals to bring groundbreaking research to a broader audience.
Through an animated conversation, it features Sustainability Research Institute alumni Julia Steinberger, Joel Millward-Hopkins, Jefim Vogel, and Martha Baltruszewicz.
James had help and advice about some of the artwork from PhD researchers in the School of Civil Engineering, namely Hannah Robinson, Angela Bayona, and Spurthi Kolipaka. 
Positive inspiration for a sustainable future
The film is based on the Living Well Within Limits project, which Professor Julia Steinberger led while at the University of Leeds and was supported by a Leverhulme Research Leadership Grant.
This research investigated what humans need to achieve well-being and how we might do so on a planet with fewer resources, either to mitigate climate change or because of it.
It found that a human population of ten billion could live well while using much less energy and fewer resources than we currently do.
Professor Steinberger says: “We are presented with a false narrative focused on the endless pursuit of the good life; we are told the only way to stop climate change is to give up our quality of life. This is the story of our research challenges.”
The researchers of Living Well Within Limits approached animator David Bunting and artist James McKay to produce a documentary about their findings to make their research accessible to the public.
Credit: David Bunting and James McKay.
Director David Bunting says the film “reminds us what living a good life means, and the power of love, courage, and creativity to spark positive change.”
James McKay says: “We're surrounded by doom and gloom media stories about climate change, but there is still time to transition to a better future. The only problem is that we have very few 'visions' of that future to inspire people in a positive way.
“This film is vitally important because it combines science (ground-breaking Leeds research that shows that we can indeed all live well and flourish without harming the environment) with art to make an emotional connection, and move and inspire people to realise that change is achievable.”
The work builds on David and James's partnership to create independent animated shorts. James's previous projects imagined a positive vision of Yorkshire in 100 years as a zero-carbon society, called Dreams of a Low Carbon Future.
The film will be shown on campus on Wednesday, January 29th, between 13:20 and 14:00 in the School of Earth and Environment seminar room 8.119abc.
