Audiences want a different climate change message. Hollywood should deliver.
(The Day After Tomorrow, Twentieth Century Fox) (Snowpiercer, Moho Film) (Don't Look Up, Hyperobject Industries) Heres how Hollywood has been treating climate change: A series of disastrous storms tip the world into an apocalyptic ice age. The Day After Tomorrow (2004) Apocalypse is triggered by an attempt to stop global warming that backfires. The surviving humans must live on a train that circles the world. Snowpiercer (2013) Two scientists try, but fail, to raise the alarm about Earths impending destruction in this climate change satire. It ends in ... apocalypse . Don't Look Up (2021) For decades, Hollywood has produced climate change entertainment that depicts only one potential future: catastrophe. Instead, it should play a positive role in the fight against global warming by offering a wealth of stories that help humanity make sense of and address the present and future of life on a dangerously warming planet. This is not an idle ask. Given their ability to elicit emotion, spark conversation and circulate ideas, movies and TV programs have enormous power to shift cultural norms. The industrys social influence can be trivial: When a dog is portrayed heroically on screen, sales of the breed significantly jump. But it can also be consequential: In 2001, calls to an HIV/AIDS hotline rose to a record-high after a character in the The Bold and the Beautiful discovered he was HIV positive. Hollywood is the most powerful storyteller in the world, said Anna Jane Joyner, founder of Good Energy , an organization that helps the industry tell more useful tales about the climate emergency. (Will & Grace, NBC) (Cheers, Paramount) (Casablanca, Warner Bros.) When he was vice president, Joe Biden praised Will & Grace for playing an important role in changing the narrative on same-sex marriage and directly influencing his own views. Will & Grace (1998-2006) Harvard and the entertainment industry addressed attitudes toward drunken driving via a designated driver campaign . Top-rated shows such as Cheers and Dallas wove prevention messages into their plots. Cheers (198293) During World War II, Hollywood churned out nearly 300 propaganda movies to maintain morale. Roosevelt called it a necessary and beneficial part of the war effort. Casablanca (1942) So far, most climate-fiction movies have told bleak tales. After watching 61 of them, Michael Svoboda, an assistant professor of writing at George Washington University, found that most featured disaster. The genre includes all sorts of catastrophes, from floods and ice ages to hurricanes and sea-level rise. The fossil-fuel industry is rarely even acknowledged. The trouble is, audiences have become inured to end-of-the-world stories. And despite being highly entertaining I, myself, love them! tales of doom, told over and over, dont encourage action . Its a psychological thrill, a fun bedtime story, and then we go back to what we were doing, Svoboda told me. But with global warming, he said, we cannot let bedtime stories lull us into inactivity. Together, Svoboda and I updated his research to include 100 climate change films and television series, spanning 1966 to present day, and found that 66 percent depict disaster or a grim future. Heres how they break down. Highlighted movies and TV series feature disaster and destruction, apocalypse or dystopia. Disaster flicks Twister and The Day After Tomorrow set off a wave of extreme weather entertainment that continues today. Most climate films and TV series only nod to global warming for example, the easy-to-miss overtones in SpiderMan: Far From Home. Only a handful tackle the topic head on, such as Woman at War. Highlighted movies and TV series feature disaster and destruction, apocalypse or dystopia. Disaster flicks Twister and The Day After Tomorrow set off a wave of extreme weather entertainment that continues today. Most climate films and TV series only nod to global warming for example, the easy-to-miss overtones in SpiderMan: Far From Home. Only a handful tackle the topic head on, such as Woman at War. Highlighted movies and TV series feature disaster and destruction, apocalypse or dystopia. Disaster flicks Twister and The Day After Tomorrow set off a wave of extreme weather entertainment that continues today. Most climate films and TV series only nod to global warming for example, the easy-to-miss overtones in SpiderMan: Far From Home. Only a handful tackle the topic head on, such as Woman at War. Highlighted movies and TV series feature disaster and destruction, apocalypse or dystopia. Disaster flicks Twister and The Day After Tomorrow set off a wave of extreme weather entertainment that continues today. Most climate films and TV series only nod to global warming for example, the easy-to-miss overtones in SpiderMan: Far From Home. Only a handful tackle the topic head on, such as Woman at War. Highlighted movies and TV series feature disaster and destruction, apocalypse or dystopia. Disaster flicks Twister and The Day After Tomorrow set off a wave of extreme weather entertainment that continues today. Most climate films and TV series only nod to global warming for example, the easy-to-miss overtones in SpiderMan: Far From Home. Only a handful tackle the topic head on, such as Woman at War. Hollywood can, if it chooses, use its cultural power to influence the response to the climate crisis. As the time available to bring global emissions under control shrinks, this is an all-hands-on-deck situation. More films that consider how humanity could limit global warming, adapt to a changing world or even cope with climate anxiety could get people talking more about climate change. Conversation is a necessary prelude to greater action, and compelling entertainment kick-starts this process by validating audiences experiences and normalizing the discussion. As Joyner put it: A really important part of the role that television and film play is making us realize that were not alone, which is a step towards action. Audiences are already hungry for the topic. Of the 70 percent of Americans who are concerned about climate change, nearly half want to see more climate themes on screen, according to a survey done by University of Southern California Norman Lear Centers Media Impact Project and Good Energy. And two-thirds of Americans think large business and corporations arent doing enough to tackle the crisis, according to a recent Pew Research Center report . This is not to say that climate disaster movies are entirely worthless. Done well, they remind people whats at stake and, in some cases, depict whats already reality for many people worldwide. But other stories are needed, too. Stories about grief over environmental loss can help audiences process the complexity of coping with a radically changing climate. Challenging, angry stories are needed to highlight the injustice experienced by the communities most affected. Inspiring stories of innovative science and creative adaptation can demonstrate ways to successfully reduce emissions. And courageous stories of human vision and confusion, hope and failure can help illuminate the path toward a sustainable future. What can be described as climate fiction? The titles on Svobodas list include films and television series in which human-induced climate change plays some role as a plot point (Downsizing), a backdrop ( Weathering With You ) or an obvious subject of allegory (Mother). Not included are those with an environmental theme, but no specific recognition of climate change WALL-E, for example, and Avatar. Undoubtedly, some qualified films have been missed. Which ones would you add? Tell us in the comments. Posters sourced from IMDB.com.