Climate Reality On-Screen: The Climate Crisis in Popular Films, 2013-22

Date
2024
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Buck Lab for Climate and Environment at Colby College and Good Energy
Abstract

Most research that has examined climate change in film has focused on anomalous climate-focused films such as The Day After Tomorrow and Don’t Look Up, but fictional narratives have their greatest impact in the aggregate, through repetition of common settings, themes, and actions. Is the film industry as a whole helping us face and respond to the climate crisis—or avoid it? To answer this question, Matthew Schneider-Mayerson worked with five current and former students (Dominic Bellido, Moya Stringer, Adria Zheng Wilson, and Zoky Zhou) to apply a communication studies methodology to the 250 most popular films of the last decade (2013 to 2022), identifying the presence of climate c hange in a film’s story world; climate awareness; scenes with climate mentions; common climate impacts; and climate-positive and climate-negative behaviors in each film. The result is “Climate Change On-screen,” a groundbreaking systematic analysis of climate change in popular films, published by the Buck Lab for Climate & Energy at Colby College and Good Energy, a leading climate consultancy.

Description
Advisor
Degree
Type
Report
Keywords
Citation

Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, Jerald Lim, Dominic Bellido, Moya Stringer, Adria Wilson, and Zoky Zhou. 2024. “Climate Reality On-Screen: The Climate Crisis in Popular Films, 2013–22.” The Buck Lab for Climate and Environment at Colby College and Good Energy. https://doi.org/10.25611/4130-EK29

Has part(s)
Forms part of
Rights
This work is protected by copyright and is made available here for research and educational purposes. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.
Link to license
Citable link to this page