NYT asks: ''Can Hollywood 'Cli-Fi' Movies About Climate Change Make a Difference?'' THE ANSWER IS YES!

NYT asks: ''Can Hollywood 'Cli-Fi' Movies About Climate Change Make a Difference?''

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/02/movies/mother-darren-aronofsky-climate-change.html

By MELENA RYZIK NYT reporter, culture, films, novels, climate

OCT. 2, 2017

EXCERPT:

One bright spot in showing environmental alarm onscreen is children’s programs, Ms. Levin said, which “work beautifully for everyday practices and overall awareness. Parents often watch with them, and they learn together.”

 

And climate change is a frequent topic of visual artists and writers, where the genre known as cli-fi  [see hot link here cli-fi] is growing.

 

 

One thing too few people do, according to Mr. Boykoff, the University of Colorado researcher, is laugh about climate change. Alexander Payne’s forthcoming “Downsizing,” in which people are shrunk to tiny versions of themselves — thereby using less resources — takes a swing at that approach.

 

Mr. Boykoff has had his students perform a comedy show about environmental destruction; a research paper on the outcome is being readied for publication. “If just scientists talking about their research and findings were successful” in motivating the public, “we’d be sorted by now,” Mr. Boykoff said. “But that’s not true. A lot of people don’t engage with these things through scientific ways of knowing. So the arts, the cultural sphere, is a really important part of this that’s underexplored so far.”

 

 

Mr. Maibach, the George Mason professor and an expert in polling on climate understanding, said the greatest problem facing climate communicators is that Americans are not talking about climate change enough — in any shape. “We call it the climate silence,” he said, “and it’s pretty profound.”

 

 

So, said Mr. Hoffman, the University of Michigan professor, we need “more movies, more TV, more music.”

 

 

“We have to touch people’s hearts on this,” he said. “It’s critical.”

 

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A version of this article appeared in the print editioj of the NYT on October 3, 2017, on Page C1 of the New York City edition with the headline: ''Can Hollywood 'Cli-Fi' Movies About Climate Change Make a Difference?''

 

REFERENCES:

 

***  Per Espen Stoknes, the author of “What We Think About When We Try Not to Think About Global Warming.”

 

**** “[Making cli-fi movies and getting funding] is really tough,” said Fisher Stevens, the filmmaker and actor. “[Global warming] is not a very sexy subject, and people just don’t want to deal with it and think about it.”

 

*** Andrew Hoffman, a professor at the University of Michigan who is the author of “How Culture Shapes the Climate Change Debate.”

 

***** “Geostorm,” is due Oct. 20, in which the climate goes apocalyptically haywire, thanks to satellites that malfunction.

 

**** “You have to frame these things so people feel like they have an entry point,” said Max Boykoff, a professor and director of the Center for Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Colorado-Boulder.

 

***** “The movie was 100 percent about fear,” said Ed Maibach, a professor and director of the Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University. “And during the credits, literally the credits, they made some recommendations about what we could do. That should’ve been a prominent part of the narrative, in telling people the highest value actions they could take.”

 

***** “The term ‘climate change’ isn’t as sexy and ‘script friendly’ as most plotlines,” said Debbie Levin, president of the Environmental Media Association. The solution, some researchers said, was to employ a bit of misdirection. “Agriculture, water issues, environmental justice,” Ms. Levin said. “Those all are big issues that work really well dramatically without saying the words ‘climate change.’”