Fictional films and TV have immense power to shift attitudes on political issues, yet they remain little-used in debates over climate change.
Analyzing a database of 37,453 film and TV scripts from 2016 to 2020, researchers at the University of Southern California (USC) found that just 1,046 — 2.8 percent — included any keywords related to climate, and only 0.6 percent mentioned “climate change” specifically. A similar British study by Albert, a sustainability NGO, found that “cake” was mentioned 10 times more than “climate change” in TV subtitles in 2020.
“The vast majority of films and shows we watch exist in a different reality, where climate change does not exist. This allows viewers to live in a fantasy,” said Anna Jane Joyner, founder of Good Energy, a consultancy that helps scriptwriters address the issue.
Photo: AFP
Scriptwriters have been keen to address climate change, Joyner said, but felt others would not be interested, or that they would be branded as hypocrites.
“Many writers feel guilty about their own lifestyle — that unless you’re a perfect climate citizen, you can’t authentically write about it,” said Joyner. “But we need less shaming.”
It helps that public concern is rising.
The number of Americans viewing climate change as a major threat jumped from 37 to 55 percent between 2017 and last year, despite right-wing denials. In Britain, it jumped from 37 to 65 percent.
‘PARA-SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS’
TV has helped shift political attitudes over the years, especially around race and sexuality, from the first inter-racial kiss on Star Trek in the 1960s to the gay stars of 1990s sitcoms Ellen and Will and Grace.
The latter was even cited by then vice-president Joe Biden in his decision to support marriage equality in the US in 2012.
“People tend to view entertainment as frivolous... and writers who care about climate change might think that audiences will not be receptive,” said Erica Rosenthal of USC. “But that is false.”
Her work has shown how viewers form “para-social relationships” with characters on-screen, exposing them to new ideas and people.
“Even if climate change only comes up in passing in a show that we love, it subconsciously validates that this concern is normal,” said Joyner.
“You need that sense of connection before you get to a place of agency.”
However, some mentions are more useful than others, she added.
Two common tropes are the apocalypse — which is demoralizing — and characters that badger others about their SUV or plastic straws.
“Nobody likes a scold,” said Joyner.
Simple gestures can help — characters expressing concern about the climate, using public transport or minimizing food waste.
“We see plenty of stories on extreme weather but they are rarely, if ever, linked to climate change... That would be easy,” added Rosenthal.
CONQUERING NATURE
Hollywood has long explored humanity’s relationship with nature, dating back to the grand vistas of early Westerns.
“Initially, Westerns were about conquering the land, but very quickly we see that domesticating nature should not mean destroying it,” said Veronique Le Bris, who compiled 100 Great Films for the Planet in France.
Horror over nuclear weapons spurred change after World War II, she added.
As early as 1958, celebrated director Nicholas Ray made Wind Across the Everglades about animal conservation.
There have been many examples since, from Erin Brokovich to Wall-E to Don’t Look Up.
But the current focus on global climate change is tricky for filmmakers, Le Bris said, perhaps because we are all complicit at some level.
“The LGBT debate was fairly neat. Either you’re tolerant or not,” she said. “But nobody is perfect when it comes to climate.”
Sept.16 to Sept. 22 The “anti-communist train” with then-president Chiang Kai-shek’s (蔣介石) face plastered on the engine puffed along the “sugar railway” (糖業鐵路) in May 1955, drawing enthusiastic crowds at 103 stops covering nearly 1,200km. An estimated 1.58 million spectators were treated to propaganda films, plays and received free sugar products. By this time, the state-run Taiwan Sugar Corporation (台糖, Taisugar) had managed to connect the previously separate east-west lines established by Japanese-era sugar factories, allowing the anti-communist train to travel easily from Taichung to Pingtung’s Donggang Township (東港). Last Sunday’s feature (Taiwan in Time: The sugar express) covered the inauguration of the
The corruption cases surrounding former Taipei Mayor and Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) head Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) are just one item in the endless cycle of noise and fuss obscuring Taiwan’s deep and urgent structural and social problems. Even the case itself, as James Baron observed in an excellent piece at the Diplomat last week, is only one manifestation of the greater problem of deep-rooted corruption in land development. Last week the government announced a program to permit 25,000 foreign university students, primarily from the Philippines, Indonesia and Malaysia, to work in Taiwan after graduation for 2-4 years. That number is a
This year’s Michelin Gourmand Bib sported 16 new entries in the 126-strong Taiwan directory. The fight for the best braised pork rice and the crispiest scallion pancake painstakingly continued, but what stood out in the lineup this year? Pang Taqueria (胖塔可利亞); Taiwan’s first Michelin-recommended Mexican restaurant. Chef Charles Chen (陳治宇) is a self-confessed Americophile, earning his chef whites at a fine-dining Latin-American fusion restaurant. But what makes this Xinyi (信義) spot stand head and shoulders above Taipei’s existing Mexican offerings? The authenticity. The produce. The care. AUTHENTIC EATS In my time on the island, I have caved too many times to
In the aftermath of the 2020 general elections the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) was demoralized. The Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) had crushed them in a second landslide in a row, with their presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) winning more votes than any in Taiwan’s history. The KMT did pick up three legislative seats, but the DPP retained an outright majority. To take responsibility for that catastrophic loss, as is customary, party chairman Wu Den-yih (吳敦義) resigned. This would mark the end of an era of how the party operated and the beginning of a new effort at reform, first under