The Eco-Thriller

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            With movies like The Day After Tomorrow, The Happening, and 2012, it is no wonder that the public does not take environmentalists seriously.  No one is going to believe that climate change is an imminent problem that will slowly, (but yes, indeed surely,) dramatically affect our planet when Hollywood produces movies where the sky is literally falling.

            So why does it do it? If Hollywood makes these movies filled with eco-warnings, clearly it advocates for environmental issues enough to want to spread the word and change people’s behaviors. But why does it create such exaggerated accounts about the abrupt end of the world that seem highly irrational and, quite frankly, ridiculous?

            Because no one listens to the truth.

            Americans operate on a to-do list because they like to see results, and fast. Since climate change generates gradual, long-term effects that are not immediate, many people postpone acting upon possible solutions or mitigations. That’s why Hollywood has begun to trend “eco-thrillers” that present exaggerated, immediate disasters with large-scale outcomes that human activities have caused[1].

            Feeling powerless against an unwilling society, environmentalists use the apocalypse to startle viewers from their state of ignorance or denial. It presents viewers with an ultimatum: change your ways now or reap the consequences. 

            Although eco-thrillers have good intentions, they may hurt their own cause rather than help it. With such dramatic flair, the sudden apocalypses can appear imaginary, and overall, illogical. Eco-thrillers may confuse viewers about the truth of the real eco-crisis, reinforcing any internal refusals to believe in climate change.

            So if you want to convince your friends to start recycling and composting, walking to work, or shopping local, don’t try to scare them into it with a movie about abrupt ice ages, plants that make you commit suicide, or Mayan prophecies that come true with a second Noah’s Ark as our only form of salvation.

            Stick to Avatar or maybe even Wall-E.

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[1] Richard Kerridge, “Ecothrillers: Environmental Cliffhangers,” in Rethinking Popular Culture: Contemporary Perspectives in Cultural Studies, ed. Chandra Mukerji and Michael Schudson (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1991), 242-249.