Article | Climate Change and its Impacts: Hollywood aware but We? | Dr (Ms) Sharad Singh | Central Chronicle

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Article | Climate Change and its Impacts: Hollywood aware but We?

-    Dr (Ms) Sharad Singh

Writer, Author & Social Activist

Blogger - "Climate Diary Of Dr (Ms) Sharad Singh"

While we consider cinema only as a means of entertainment, Hollywood has been making cinema on climate change for the last several decades. The sole purpose of these films is to show the impact of climate change and to warn of possible future dangers. It is not that a person entering the film industry does not want to earn money. Cinema makers on climate change also want to make money because their cinema costs not less than other commercial cinema, but sometimes more. Yet they take risks because they want to warn everyone about the dire effects of climate change. They are aware. Maybe more aware than us.

"Climate change is real. It is happening right now, it is the most urgent threat facing our entire species and we need to work collectively together and stop procrastinating." actor, environmentalist and philanthropist Leonardo Di Caprio said.

We can talk here about a few Hollywood movies based on climate change impacts.  'Racing Extinction' - It is based on evidence of flights like ocean acidification, rising temperatures, and CO2 emissions. In the 'Interstellar' movie, struggling to survive due to climatic, Dust Bowl-like conditions, the movie follows a group of astronauts in search of a new home for mankind, ultimately traveling through a wormhole to do so. FernGully: The Last Rainforest (1992)

The Day After Tomorrow (2004), An Inconvenient Truth (2006), The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008), Beasts of the Southern Wild (2012), Snowpiercer (2014), mother (2017), Chasing Coral (2017), The Hottest August (2017), Don't Look Up (2021). Few other movies are Twister, Geostorm, 2012 and Best Tsunami Movies are Deep Impact (1998), The Perfect Storm (2000), Tidal Wave (2009), Hereafter (2010), Immortals (2011). 

Several Showy Hollywood blockbusters have imagined a world devastated by climate change. In “The Day After Tomorrow” (2004), the most famous example of a “cli-fi” disaster film, the planet is beset by super storms, hurricanes and tsunamis. A paleoclimatologist must save his son as the globe is plunged into a new ice age. The basic plot of Day After Tomorrow is the beginning of an ice age over a large part of America, including New York, due to global warming. A group of students who had gone to New York to participate in a competition take shelter in a library to save their lives. Where precious books are burnt to escape from the cold. In the film 2012, the entire earth is hit by a tsunami due to global warming. Continents sink. Large ships built in secret by China give space to the world's most powerful and capitalists, while the general public is left to die. In this film, while on one hand the horrific effects of climate change have been shown, the cruel faces of administration and capitalism have also been exposed. It also draws attention to how the dangers of climate change are allowed to grow by capable countries in the pursuit of becoming superpowers.

Environmental devastation is the backdrop to dystopian stories, too—think of the desert world of “Mad Max: Fury Road”, the smog-filled city-scapes of “Blade Runner 2049” (2017) or the icy tundra of “Snowpiercer” (2013). Climate change may also be the Mac Guffin that forces characters to abandon Earth and seek a new home elsewhere, as in “Avatar” (2009) or “In Lincoln’s words still resonate to all of us here today: “We will be remembered in spite of ourselves. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the last generation… We shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last best hope of earth.” That is our charge now – you are the last best hope of Earth. We ask you to protect it. Or we – and all living things we cherish – are history." Actor and Director Leonardo Di Caprio spoke at the United Nations Summit.  

Leonardo Di Caprio, an Academy Award-winning actor, has been an outspoken advocate for environmental issues throughout much of his career. In 1998, at the age of 24, Di Caprio established his foundation with the mission of protecting the Earth’s last wild places and implementing solutions to build a more harmonious relationship between humanity and the natural world. Through grant making, public campaigns, and media projects, Di Caprio has worked to bring attention and funding to the protection of biodiversity, ocean and forest conservation, and climate change. The Leonardo Di Caprio Foundation supports over 35 innovative conservation projects around the world that protect fragile ecosystems and key species. Di Caprio also serves on the board of several environmental protection organizations including the World Wildlife Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and International Fund for Animal Welfare, Pristine Seas and Oceans 5. He is also an advisor on The Solutions Project, an organization dedicated to scaling up the adoption of clean, renewable energy. In 2014, Di Caprio was honored with the prestigious Clinton Global Citizen Award for his philanthropic work. The Secretary-General designated Di Caprio as a Messenger of Peace with a special focus on climate change ahead of the 2014 Climate Summit, aimed at catalyzing and galvanizing climate action towards a global climate agreement in 2015.

Leonardo Di Caprio said he'd been looking to do a film about the climate crisis for a while but finding the right approach had proved difficult, until now.  “You either do some existential journey through a person's lifetime, or you make it a catastrophe movie where New York freezes over,” Di Caprio said.

How many actors in our country India have serious concerns on climate change and its impact? How many movies have we made on climate change? Do we have any data competitively with Hollywood? No, we have not because our Bollywood is not interested in this topic. Unfortunately our Filmmaker and directors centralize mainly on crime and political issues. Perhaps they thought that topics of environment and climate change are risky or they do not want to work hard. I can not understand that will climate change not affect them? They also live on this earth. Like Leonardo Di Caprio, no influential actor of our Bollywood even thinks of raising a strong voice about global warming until the government makes him the brand ambassador of climate change or environmental affairs or a commercial agency has contracted him. It's shameful for us.

Today we are all familiar with changing climate change. As a responsible citizen, it is the responsibility of us and every section to think seriously on this subject and pay attention to its publicity, so that an atmosphere of discussion can be created in this direction. Media and film industry can intervene in this matter much better, because today it has reach to every section. Looking at the reach of cinema, we can say that if a film on climate change comes today, it can get a good response from the people.                                   —------------------------

 (03.04.2022)

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