By Dan Bloom
CHIAYI CITY, Taiwan — With Pope Francis delivering his well-received global appeal for fighting climate change before it is too late, titled Laudato Si (Praise Be), the usually-conservative newspaper The Washington Times recently published a very positive story about the rise of ”cli-fi” wake-up call movies in Hollywood.
It was a fair and balanced piece of reporting that used quotes from a wide variety of experts concerned with the issues: climate pundit Joe Romm, climate skeptic Marc Morano, ”Mad Max” director George Miller, conservative radio host Derek Alan Hunter and Yale climate communicator Alan Leiserowitz, among others.
As my friend Joe Huemann in Illinois, a film studies professor, said after reading the Times article: ”When the Washington Times does a positive story on cli-fi movies, you know that the Earth is in serious, serious trouble.”
The reporter’s first sentence, called a lede in the news business, was perfect: ”Disney’s “Tomorrowland” may be bombing at the box office, but on the plus side, it could win a Cliffie.”
The actual headline read: ”George Clooney’s ‘Tomorrowland’ bombs at box office as Hollywood pushes climate fiction.”
What’s a Cliffie? The Times did not explain the annual Cli Fi Movie Awards in detail, but they’ve been dubbed “The Cliffies” as a nickname.
Why are there many cli fi movies now in Hollywood, the newspaper asked?
“Climate change issues are just in the air,” one source was quoted as saying. “I think the newspapers every day are filled with climate issues, pro and con. It’s just in the culture, and of course directors and producers are just picking up on this in some way.”
The Cliffie awards, the Times Denver-based national reporter Valerie Richardson explained, go to films that exemplify “cli-fi,”or climate fiction, an emerging genre heating up in 2015 ”as climate change themes seep from documentaries into big-budget Hollywood features.”
The Times also noted that means cli-fi films such as “Tomorrowland,” which has not done well at the box office ”despite an A-list director in Brad Bird and huge star in George Clooney, could be just the tip of the iceberg.”
Climate skeptic Marc Morano, who runs a climate denialist website called Climate Depot, normally funded by the rightwing, gave a very qood quote. too, noting: “The narrative for Hollywood is that global warming is a growing crisis, and it’s now set to permeate more and more of the pop culture. I’ve noticed that even in TV shows, there have been mentions of global warming.”
What does all this mean, coming as the article does on the heels of the Pope’s shout-out? Fictional stories, be they novels or movies, hit people in an emotional way. Maybe climate documentaries paved the way, but documentaries can’t change the conversation very much because people take sides. Maybe Hollywood directors and screenwriters are thinking, ‘Maybe we can reach people with emotions,’ and maybe that’s what we’re seeing now.”
I think we’re going to see a lot more in the next 10 years.
Scheduled for release later this summer is a cli fi movie titled Chloe and Theo, starring Dakota Johnson as a young, homeless girl from New York who befriends an Inuit man, Theo Ikummaq.
“Ikummaq has been sent to New York by his elders on a quest to convince leaders at the United Nations that climate change is real before his home literally melts away,” according to an April 16 article by Brittany Patterson at the ClimateWire on E&E Publishing.
There is evidence that climate-change movies can sway public opinion, Richardson reported. In a 2009 study by Anthony A. Leiserowitz at Yale, about 49 percent of those surveyed said they were somewhat or much more worried about global warming after seeing The Day After Tomorrow,’ even though the film is incorrectly set in a Hollywood-style ice age
The Day After Tomorrow might have been a silly movie, but it had a significant impact on the climate change risk perceptions, conceptual models, behavioral intentions, policy priorities, and even voting intentions of moviegoers,” the Yale study said.
Morano told the Times that he expects to see more movies stoking alarm over climate change in the next 18 months as the next presidential election nears.
So there you have it: When the Washington Times speaks, the world listens. The the same, red state blue state fights over climate issues? Or will the Pope’s appeal help to turn things around, before it’s too late? I’m hoping.
*
Bloom is a freelance writer and climate activist based in Chiayi City, Taiwan. You may comment to him at dan.bloom@sdjewishworld.com, or post your comment on this website provided that the rules below are observed.
__________________________________________________________________
Your comment should be followed with this information: Your full name, your city and state (or country) of residence. Letters lacking such information will be automatically deleted. San Diego Jewish World is intended as a forum for the entire Jewish community, whatever your political leanings. Letters may be posted below provided they are responsive to the article to which they are affixed, and civil in their tone. Ad hominem attacks against any religion, country, gender, race, sexual orientation, or physical disability will not be considered for publication. There is a limit of one letter per writer on any given day.
__________________________________________________________________