IN 2006, former US vice president Al Gore put in sharp focus the risks Earth faces as global temperatures rise in An Inconvenient Truth. In the documentary, Gore strongly argued that global warming has become a "planetary emergency" that requires an international response.
An Inconvenient Truth grossed nearly $50 million during its run, something rare for a non-fiction film. More importantly, it became a rallying point for environmental activists.
Gore's message was compelling: We are part of the problem of global warming and if we do not become part of the solution, we are doomed. He offered scientific evidence on how human-generated greenhouse gases have raised global temperature levels, leaving long-lasting environmental damage.
The accelerated melting of the polar icecaps and the rise in ocean levels that threatens coastal communities are but two of the dramatic consequences.
Gore leaves the viewers of An Inconvenient Truth with a challenge: "Each one of us is a cause of global warming, but each one of us can make choices to change that with the things we buy, the electricity we use, the cars we drive; we can make choices to bring our individual carbon emissions to zero. The solutions are in our hands, we just have to have the determination to make it happen. We have everything that we need to reduce carbon emissions, everything but political will."
Today, climate change awareness has never been more acute, and more and more countries are taking up the call to clean up the planet. Even the Pope has weighed in. "Climate change is a global problem with grave implications: environmental, social, economic, political and for the distribution of goods. It represents one of the principal challenges facing humanity in our day," the Pope noted in an unprecedented encyclical.
Environmental advocacy is new territory for movies, but there seems to be a growing trend to adopt it as a theme. Most of them present what-if situations that could arise if we don't stop messing with Mother Nature.
Here is my own short list of notable films with an environmental slant:
SOYLENT GREEN -- The year is 2022, and the greenhouse effect has brought about pollution, widespread poverty and depleted food resources. New York City has become a dismal, overpopulated megalopolis where food is in short supply. The people are fed Soylent Green, a nutritious wafer extracted from plankton. Or at least that is how the government describes it, until a police detective (Charlton Heston) discovers the horrible truth about Soylent Green. Clue: It's the ultimate in recycling human remains.
ERIN BROKOVITCH -- Environmental activism is at the heart of this 2000 Julia Roberts starrer, which is based on actual events. Brokovitch, an unwed mother clerking for a lawyer, has found evidence that several residents in a California community became ill because the water they have been drinking was contaminated with a carcinogenic substance. The land developer denies this vehemently, and Brokovitch helps the residents file a class action suit. A court finally orders the developer to pay a settlement of $333 million. Roberts won a best actress Oscar for this film.
THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW -- Extreme climate change happening in just a matter of weeks is what this 2004 film is all about. A paleoclimatologist (Jake Gyllenhaal) finds evidence of the severe effects of global warming in the Arctic and warns world leaders. They ignore him. Soon, three super storms engulf most of the western hemisphere. Instead of torrential rain and hurricane force winds, the storms freeze everything in their path and plunges the world into a new ice age.
AVATAR -- The main attraction of James Cameron's sci-fi epic may be the Na-vi, the blue-hued humanoids that inhabit Pandora, but Avatar presents a strong case against greed and how it drives the exploitation of Nature's bounty. In the mid-2100s, Earth's energy resources are almost gone, and a mining firm looks for an alternative source, the mineral unobtanium, in Pandora, in the distant Alpha Centuari system. Problem: The mineral is in Na-vi sacred ground. Solution: Clear out the Na-vi. The same scenario is being played out right here, right now.