Mumbai's 'global warming' pool to raise awareness about climate change

Washington, November 27 : Indian financial capital Mumbai now boasts an eye-catching swimming pool, which has been built to raise awareness about the threat of sea level rises due to global warming.

Advertising agency Ogilvy and Mather, who were commissioned by banking giant HSBC to promote its 50million-pound project tackling climate change, conceived the idea of making the pool at sports centre in Bhaktipark, Wadala.

It was constructed by attaching a giant aerial photograph of the New York City skyline to the floor of the pool.

"The challenge was to reach out to people who are otherwise indifferent to the cause in a non-theoretical manner. HSBC wanted to convey the message in a unique visual way that would grab people's attention and couldn't be ignored," the Telegraph quoted Ogilvy spokesman Nabendu Bhattacharyya as saying.

"The Ogilvy team came up with an innovative way to show the adverse impact of global climate change. They glued an aerial view of a city to the base of a swimming pool. When the pool was filled with water, it gave a shocking effect akin to a city submerged in water. The visual of a sunken city shocked swimmers and onlookers, driving home the impact of global warming, and how it could destroy our world someday," Bhattacharyya added.

The pool has been so successful that HSBC, the world's first bank to turn carbon neutral, is considering building more of them in cities worldwide.

ANI