Hollywood movies rarely reflect climate change crisis. These researchers want to change thatBy PATRICK WHITTLEAssociated PressThe Associated PressPORTLAND, MaineThat’s one of the takeaways from a new study conducted by researchers who set out to determine if today’s Hollywood blockbusters are. The vast majority of movies failed the “climate reality check” proposed by the authors, who surveyed 250 movies from 2013 to 2022.
“The top line is just that the vast majority of films, popular films produced over the last 10 years in the United States, are not portraying the world as it is,” Schneider-Mayerson said. “They are portraying a world that is now history or fantasy — a world in which climate change is not happening.”along with Good Energy, a Los Angeles-based environmental consultancy. The results were peer reviewed, and the authors are seeking publication in scientific journals.
The authors narrowed the selection of movies by excluding films not set on Earth or set before 2006 or after 2100. They found streaming services had a higher percentage of movies that included climate change than the major studios did.