Hidden Hints of Climate Change In Our Movies

Jaelyn Jackson

Jenny Webster

English COM

30 October 2022

Annotated Bibliography

Renaud, Chris, and Kyle Balda. The Lorax. Universal Pictures, 2012. 

The Lorax is a movie that opened our eyes to what climate change was at a very young age for most of us. The creator behind this movie was the great Dr. Suess is known for his artistic expression and rhyme scheme in his children's books. His books inspired not only children but also those who have picked up one of his unique and intriguing books and began to read. Dr. Seuss impacted the world by encouraging others to be different, working as a military advocate, and enhancing childrens' vocabulary. Dr. Seuss was an artist, writer, and cartoonist that used his work to shape the world.

In the movie “The Lorax '', Dr. Seuss addresses one's impact on the environment, complexities surrounding success and ambition, and taking responsibility. The Lorax is a cautionary tale primarily about a person's responsibilities to the environment. This movie is about climate change and contributions big corporations make to environmental destruction. What makes this movie so intriguing is not only the storyline but also the illustrations of the animals being put in horrible conditions. Their world starts off as beautiful and harmonious but then takes a turn for the worse as soon as the cutting of trees begins, sewage being dumped in their waters covering the innocent animals, and ends with their homes being destroyed. In the movie you also see the humans converting to plastic homes, furniture, even the air they breathe starts to come from plastic bottles and cans. "As long as hope maintains a thread of green.” My interpretation of this quote is to respect the environment and all living creatures will help us preserve the planet for ourselves and future generations.

Although this movie is more of a fairytale it conveys many meanings that connect to today's society. It shows how mass industrialization leads to air pollution, land expansion which is making more space for these industries. That leads to chopping trees and running animals out their homes. Water and sewage pollution in the seas, oceans, rivers, and streams. Plastic also being overproduced and landing in our oceans killed off species of marine life. There are so many problems that make up climate change and it's not talked about enough in today's society. The only thing people think about is global warming ignoring other issues or possible situations. Dr. Suess stresses the importance of saving our planet and keeping it clean. We need to be considerate of other species on this planet. Just because we have more power over this planet does not mean we need to abuse it. 

Andrew, Stanton et al.. 2008. WALL-E. Burbank, Calif., Walt Disney Home Entertainment.

WALL-E is another movie that targets young children about the importance of climate change. This American computer-animated science fiction film was produced by Pixar Animation Studios and released by Walt Disney Pictures. The creator of this movie is Andrew Stanton who is also known for directing Finding Nemo and the sequel Finding Dory. To many people's surprise all three of these movies have an environmental message about the perseverance of saving the world from climate change.

In the movie “WALL-E”, depicts an Earth in squalor, completely covered in trash left behind by its former human inhabitants. Director Andrew Stanton may have denied the movie's environmentalist message at the time, but the film on its own arguably showcased our planet's growing problems with pollution and waste. WALL-E is short for Waste Allocation Load Lifter Earth Class. It's the year 2805 and he is the last earthling left on a polluted planet. Humans left the earth to live in spaceships 700 years ago when the planet became inhabitable due to pollution and contamination. The Earth is shown as a run-down planet, with garbage overflowing the streets. Wall-E is one of the many trash picker-uppers who surround Earth now that trash has taken over practically everything.

Environmentalism is this movie's primary focus, as the film has a very clear message: We make and use too much stuff and if we keep going down this path, eventually our planet will be overwhelmed with toxicity and threaten every life form to extinction. Pollution of the environment and consumerism will be the end of life and humans fail to protect nature. As humans we need to do everything we can to preserve our planet because it is all we have. If we can think about the many other species living on this planet with us, at least think of our future generations to come. Think about how they would have to live. Our children are living in a heated oven that continues to get worse every year. That's a horrible way to live, our planet is practically baking.

Losing Nemo: Clownfish 'cannot adapt to climate change'. (2019, November 26). Retrieved from https://phys.org/news/2019-11-nemo-clownfish-climate.html

The star of Pixar's blockbuster "Finding Nemo" may be about to vanish again—this time for good—as its peculiar mating habits put it at risk from climate change. Given that both anemone and their clownfish tenants ultimately rely for their survival on coral, which is under threat from warming seas and threats such as pollution and human intrusion, they may need to adapt quickly. However this could be extremely hard for clown fish given that these anemone fish are sensitive to changes in ocean chemistry and will wander further away from home as waters become more acidic due to the ocean’s absorption of carbon dioxide. To preserve anemone fish populations and help them endure shifts in the marine environment, it is important to protect the anemones that these fish are so closely associated with; high-quality anemones contribute nearly 50 percent to an anemone fish’s survival and ability to reproduce. However, warming oceans and microplastic pollution threaten anemones, and may in turn imperil anemone fish.

This isn't the only species having problems with adapting to the extreme warm water temperatures either. An estimated 60 percent of the world's marine ecosystems have already been degraded or are being used unsustainably. A warming of 1.5°C threatens to destroy 70 to 90 percent of coral reefs, and a 2°C increase means a nearly 100 percent loss - a point of no return. Coral reefs will be one of the most immediate victims of climate change if we do not take action very quickly. Although coral reefs make up just 1 percent of the surface of the oceans, as much as 25 percent of marine species are dependent on them. At the rate humans are going 90% of coral reefs could soon be dead, waves of mass marine extinction may be unleashed & seas may be left overheated, acidified and lacking oxygen by 2050.

Kingsman: The Secret Service [Motion picture]. (2014). United States: 20th Century Studios.

In print, climate fiction advocacy met climate fiction denialism fairly early on. In his 2004 novel, State of Fear, Michael Crichton, now deceased, presented climate change as a hoax propagated by conspiring and self-serving environmentalists. That sort of counterpunch was not delivered on screen until Kingsman: The Secret Service hit theaters in early 2014. Matthew Vaughn directs this British spy movie. A smart working class tough is recruited for an elite unit of special agents, the Kingsmen. Meanwhile, a wealthy venture capitalist prepares to cull the world’s human population to save the planet from pollution, despoliation – and climate change. Kingsman does not deny these environmental problems, but it does mock public concern for them. (One of the Kingsmens’ trainers describes a scientist who had been the object of a failed rescue mission as “some climate change doomsayer.”) Instead it challenges elitism and class snobbery – while admiring the finer things money and education can procure. The gravest threat they face is Richmond Valentine, a billionaire in the tradition of Bill Gates or Steve Jobs who has become convinced that mankind is a “virus” that is causing global warming and a host of other environmental disasters. The only way to save planet Earth, Valentine believes, is to kill off most of humanity.

Valentine has magnanimously preserved a remnant of humanity, however, and before he kills off nearly seven billion people, he invites the elite of the world — various in-cahoots politicians and super-rich families — to a mountain bunker where they will party and watch the near-apocalypse in safety. “You are the chosen ones,” Valentine informs his favorites in the upper crust. But for everyone else, saving the environment requires death from global violence.

This movie reminds me of the worst case scenario. I feel as if it relates to what the military from other countries might do. With all the missles and atomic bombs that different countires have it could lead to this conflict maybe not as fictonal but i do beileve a big war could break out over climate change because if you look around its already started to begin.