Has audiovisual fiction taken climate change seriously?

But what seemed like an irrational delusion in 2004 The best filmmaker who destroyed the worldFrom ‘Independence Day’ (1995) to ‘Moonfall’ (2021), today it is almost documentary cinema: there is nothing to see on the news or social networks. Horrifying images of air disasters is devastating the planet with increasingly alarming frequency.

Maybe ‘The Day After Tomorrow’ is the movie. Addressed climate change in a more nonjudgmental wayCourtesy of perhaps his most well-known ‘exploit’, crazy ‘Geostorm’ (2018), the debut film from Emmerich’s leading screenwriter Dean Devlin, features waves, hurricanes, and hail of biblical proportions completely obliterating cities from the face of the earth. In every situation and always, Genre cinema has managed to reflect social crises like no other. The way humanity has to face and accept the Apocalypse throughout its history: the fear of nuclear disaster, the lethal effect of epidemics and of course irreversible environmental disaster where the planet is facing, this is because climate change or overexploitation of its resourceswhich would be the same in a way.

Beyond Emmerich’s film, there are not many audiovisual fictions whose thematic axis and main reason for existence is climate change. Another rare exception is stinging satire. ‘Don’t look up’, the meteor everyone ignores is a metaphor for climate change (Adam McKay, 2021) and its derived effects. Yes, but there are plenty of titles where the environmental crisis is the primary context of the story. almost always from a catastrophic, dystopian, hopeless perspectivenever from the normality of everyday life, probably from the pending issue of current cinema rather than TV series: to tell the subject in a naturalistic way, to talk about it as something that we have to live and suffer today: thirst, extreme heat, lack of resources and also possible solutions to the crisis. Not everything has to be tragedy and darkness.

Plant life and demography

At the dawn of the 70s, in the midst of the explosion of the first environmental movements, fascinating ‘Mysterious ships’ (Douglas Trumbull, 1972) took place on a ship. custom ship greenhouse the place that preserved the only remnants of plant life after all vegetation on the planet had vanished. It was much more mortician and prescient ‘Until fate catches up with us’ (Richard Fleischer, 1973) took place in New York City, 2022, a place plagued by pollution and extreme heat. The film reveals the sinister truth about the origin of processed food, which ultimately feeds the population. uncontrolled population growth On a planet with limited resources.

Already in the 80s, classic ‘Blade Runner’ (Ridley Scott, 1982) It was set in 2019 in Los Angeles, struggling under constant, dark, almost amniotic rain with almost no sunlight. Although it has a great sequel, ‘Blade runner 2049’ (Denis Villeneuve, 2017) this would offer a dramatic glossary of what will happen in the future: the same rainy and overpopulated Los Angeles protected by massive levees due to rising sea levels; and converted to San Diego huge landfill for uncontrolled industrial waste It was created by a humanity without direction.

First of all, the film is a beautiful love story beyond time between a little robot and its human mother. “AI: Artificial intelligence‘ (Steven Spielberg, 2001), is also a dire warning about the consequences of melting the polar caps due to the greenhouse effect, and is filled with scenes that are no less shocking. Manhattan under water The Twin Towers are still standing. Despite worlds devastated by rising seas, the definitive example ‘Water World’ (Kevin Reynolds, 1995), a blockbuster that was cursed for its disastrous failure at the box office, but predicted what a huge success it would be in the form of a (rather vengeful) dystopian western. new definitely water civilization.

dying agriculture

Climate change is also filtering through quantum rifts. ‘Interstellar’ (Christopher Nolan, 2014). Set in 2067, the Earth is a barren land. the drought and dust stormsAgriculture is dying, forcing humanity to seek an alternative planet to live on. Same ‘Wall E’ (Andrew Stanton, 2008), wonderful animated tale of the planet turning into a uunhealthy and uninhabitable garbage dumpIt is full of toxic waste and has no animal or plant life.

List of interesting titles deep pessimism about environmental fate The state of the planet is perhaps as far-reaching as the discomfort of assuming there will be no return. Even though there is poetry in solitude, just like ‘IO’ (Jonathan Helpert, 2018), after humans migrate to a moon of Jupiter due to an unexpected change, where two disinherited humans share their closeness on an Earth no longer inhabited. composition of our atmosphere; and even disheartening laughter in the face of a crazy end to the world, ‘Sharknado 5: Global Fin’ (Anthony C. Ferrante, 2017), where deadly shark-generated hurricanes are caused by climate change.

An environmentally friendly television

attitude fiction television For a while, the approach to climate change was similar to the approach taken to coronavirus: What if we pretend it doesn’t exist? Does anyone want to sit in front of the TV and continue watching the suffering of daily life? TV series under his influence were in the minority and they often transformed the threat into a fantastical context that could relativize the seriousness of the problem.

Luckily, over the last few years, more and more series across all genres have started to really take the challenges we face seriously. Fantasy scenarios taken to the extreme still win, but even those a true foundation that serves to strengthen one’s morality. The proximity of the point of no return has led to increased awareness recently. Television scriptwriters express need to include climate change in plots. We’re not necessarily talking about fantasy TV series anymore. ‘Danger zone’, a sort of viral ‘X-Files’ whose biggest threat, whatever the case, is human creation. We can talk about the most realistic TV series (despite their craziness) ‘Grey’s Anatomy’Its previous season included an episode called ‘Hotter Than Hell’, which was inspired by the heat dome affecting the Pacific Northwest in the summer of 2021.

disaster ideas‘Fifth day’) and doomsday (‘What’s left of us’) still remains, but this more or less pessimistic view should not be the only one. From its first chapters, ‘Abbott College’ dared to tackle climate change with humor and make it a natural topic of conversation among its characters. Apple TV+ was launched the same year ‘A challenging future’Although it revolves around our mistreatment of the planet, it allows us to imagine solutions as well as showing nightmares.

NGO Good Energy has proposed this by 2027 Half of television and film scripts reference it climate crisis. Otherwise, these projects (unintentional) science fiction: In stories that tell of a world where everything is fine, there is no drought or flood, the weather is not hot when it should rain, and the seasons follow each other in the same time periods, just like our entire lives.