Global Warming in the Movies

Why is it that we are surprised when world leaders discuss climate change, reducing polluting greenhouse gasses and the taboo phrase global warming, especially since we have been seeing the signs of policy in our favorite places, the Movies!

Most recently (2009) the world was captivated by colors and 3 dimensional images in James Cameron’s AVATAR. Out on BlueRay on Earthday 2010 the movie builds an emotional love story around the human race invading and destroying a foreign planet Pandora and it’s people in search for the energy generating super coal Unobtainium. In our world Billions of tons of coal are mined from the Earth’s mountains in a very similar fashion to provide electricity to all of us each day.

In “The American President” Michael Douglas plays Andrew Sheppard a widowed President of the United States of America who falls in love with an environmental lobbyist. The movie is mostly about the romantic comedy of the President and his girlfriend however the climate message that underlies is that President Sheppard has promised his girlfriend he will introduce a climate bill to reduce carbon emissions in the United States by 20% by 2012 if she can generate the support of the house. What makes this even more interesting is this movie was released in 1995, years before Al Gore “made up” global warming.

When two soul mates are separated by two years in time and all that can bring them together is letters in a mail box that they can magically write to each other a global warming reference appears in the end when Sandra Bullock realizes how she can finally meet her true love Keanu Reeves in “The Lake House”. Released in 2006.

Keanu Reeves is no stranger to movies that remind us that this planet is not ours and we should take care of it, especially when he plays the messenger of bad news in “The Day the Earth Stood Still.” (2004) Believe it or not this move was actually a remake of the 1951 classic sci-fi film about an alien visitor and his giant robot counterpart who visit Earth. Keanu is also pretty good in the critically acclaimed hit, “Pointe Break”.

Al Gore’s warning is played out in more than charts in the action packed move “The Day After Tomorrow” (2004) when climatologist Dr. Jack Hall (Dennis Quaid) is drilling ice cores in Antarctica when a piece of the Antarctic Ice Shelf the size of Rhode Island breaks off which triggers a global climate change storm resulting in most of North America covered in ice.

Putting politics aside if you have never seen and Inconvenient Truth it is time to sit down and watch it with your family. I will be picking up a fresh copy of Avatar, on BluRay!