“We turn to stories to find meaning, joy, beauty, and courage — and we desperately need to see our world reflected in the movies that we watch and love. For all of us, that world now includes the climate crisis.”
Anna Jane Joyner, CEO of Good Energy
The reality of climate change is here. Every day, people are facing the impacts in both big and small ways. So why don’t we see it reflected much in the movies and TV we watch? This week I’m taking a look at Hollywood’s portrayal of climate change.
The Climate Reality Check
How often is climate change included in movies and TV? An organization called Good Energy partnered with the Colby College Buck Lab for Climate & Environment to create the “Climate Reality Check”, a simple tool to answer that question. To pass the test, climate doesn’t need to be a major part of the plot, the story just has to check these two boxes: 1. climate change exists, and 2. a character knows it.
Using the tool, the team analyzed the top 250 movies from 2013-2022 and just released their report. While only 10% of the movies hit the mark, the percentage was much higher in the second half of the decade. In a separate analysis, 23% of the 2024 Oscar-nominated films passed the check. Clearly, things seem to be moving in the right direction.
Good Energy is a nonprofit consultancy helping creatives weave climate change into their stories. I chatted with Carmiel Banasky, the organization’s editor-in-chief, and co-author of the report. She is encouraged to see the positive trend, and pointed out that streaming films are much more likely than those from the big studios to have passed the check. Also, films mentioning climate were more profitable than those that didn’t, which she feels could be persuasive for decision-makers in the industry.
Hollywood’s portrayal of climate change
Because television and movies help us understand our world, they can teach us while they entertain us. Stories don’t need to be terrifying, apocalyptic, or full of gloom and doom to get the point across. Instead, subtle mentions of real-world impacts and solutions can be powerful. We could use some hopeful stories too.
In a Variety article on this topic, Laura Dern summed it up well: “It’s really exciting when you have a writer and collaborators who are clever enough to weave within a narrative our most vital issues so that storytelling can resonate with the greatest issue of our time”.
Let’s hope the buzz about this new tool, and what it reveals, will raise the noise level and spur more representation of climate on our screens. The Climate Reality Check can be used by anyone for any show or movie, so why not play along at home? The next time you watch something, see if it passes the Climate Reality Check.
Let’s do something about climate change. Learn about it. Think about it. Talk about it.