Essay by Eric Worrall
If your viewer interest is cratering, the solution is to double down on your mistake?
How Hollywood Is Crafting A New Climate Change Narrative
Climate change affects every aspect of our lifestyles, which means it was only a matter of time before mainstream programming began reflecting this.
BY MELISSA JUN ROWLEY
FEBRUARY 22, 2024PLENTY OF ASPECTS of the climate movement need revamping — the terminology and phrases that only scientists, governments and corporate sustainability departments understand, the faceless statistics smeared across news headlines, the incessant admonishment of consumer behavior and the doom and gloom storytelling — to name a few. Concurrently, while the way the climate narrative is relayed to the masses is part of the problem, by all counts, it can be an integral part of the solution, and Hollywood is playing its part.
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A Greener Kind of Screen
While searching for initiatives focused on bringing climate-based realities on-screen without scaring people away, along with Good Energy, I connected with the Hollywood Climate Summit. Embarking on its fourth year, the annual conference brings together entertainment and media professionals, activists and climate organizations to share knowledge and tools that can help Hollywood harness its massive platform to communicate climate stories in the most impactful way possible. Founded by Allison Begalman, Heather Fipps, Ali Weinstein and YEA! Impact, and presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, last year the event included think tanks, workshops and a star-studded roster of speakers, including Jane Fonda and Quinta Brunson.
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Climate change affects every aspect of our lifestyles. So it was only a matter of time before mainstream programming began reflecting this — beyond the apocalyptic narratives many news headlines and dystopian films perpetuate. As the climate narrative continues to evolve and becomes more integrated into our culture, values-aligned companies have an opportunity to support efforts across the entertainment industry, as well as grassroots activism, through funding, branded content partnerships and creating their own campaigns to bring awareness to environmentalist practices.
Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/culture-council/articles/how-hollywood-is-crafting-new-climate-change-narrative-1234972469/
I don’t think Hollywood has long until people just don’t bother with them anymore.
Around the world foreign movie studios are moving to fill the void left by Hollywood’s unendurable wokeness. Foreign productions like Fauda or the apocalyptic thriller To the Lake, starring the stunningly beautiful and talented Viktoriya Agalakova, with releases for English speaking audiences, are created to excite and entertain – a skill Hollywood appears to have largely forgotten.
Hollywood has gone orthodox leftist, and engaging in what a critic of H.G. Wells’ later work called “ selling his birthright for a pot of message”.
Some fanatics are entertaining writers, much as some radical preachers draw crowds. But this is more of a Baltimore Catechism orthodoxy, promising retribution forever for anyone who doubts any part of what your betters teach.
Jeez, Tom, introducing the Baltimore Catechism to a discussion suggests you are a curmudgeon as old as Methuselah.
I am 68, but a poisonously precocious brat. I knew how to read when that was still current.
Hey, I could recite it in grammar school cover to cover without knowing the meaning of about 1/3 of the words. [smile]
“Climate change affects every aspect of our lifestyles,…”
The actions to a non-problem are affecting our lives. There
is no “climate change” that amounts to more than a toddler
peeing in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.
The Hollywood Climate Summit {members of a ClimateCult™}
are, being diplomatic, foolish.
I’m pretty sure that growing food under a mile of ice isn’t possible. I’m happy for climate change.
The Vikings did it, apparently.
That made me laugh!
If you believe the hockystick temperature reconstruction!
You need to get your terminology straight: Per the UN, ‘climate change’ is a change in climate that is directly or indirectly attributable to human activity that alters the composition of the atmosphere. A ‘mile of ice’ or any other ‘variation’ in climate during the past +/- 534 million years that some climate denier might have planted in your brain is NOT climate change.
I’ve pointed that out more and more to believers. Which “climate” would they prefer, today’s or the one from 200 years ago when glaciers were expanding.
People CAN and DO choose whatever climate they prefer. All you have to do is call a moving van.
Even before internal combustion-powered moving vans were invented, you could escape East Africa by trudging to Eurasia, trudge over the Alps (north for cooler, south for warmer), trudge into the desert if you hate rain, trudge into the tropics if you hate the desert, rope the covered wagon to a team of oxen, sail from one island to another, etc.
Etc. etc.
Judging by past performance and IPCC numbers, it would take somewhere between 6,000 and 11,000 years before mankind’s CO2 emissions could raise temperatures by the dreaded 2ºC.
If we cut anthropogenic CO2 release today, by 2050 we would alleviate warming by 0.0045ºC.
About a bladder full every year.
They missed out a word. Should have read:
“Climate change policy affects every aspect of our lifestyles.”
Climate is an abstract; it is not tangible or observable. Has anyone seen climate? Are flights delayed/cancelled due to bad climate?
Climate change does not happen in life-scale, real time: it occurs incrementally, spanning many generations, each generation unaware of it. It is only observable by comparing very long-term (thousands of years) past meteorology.
It took the best part of 12 000 years of climate change to make Great Britain an island not under an ice sheet, with a temperate climate. People living on the land bridge (now a submarine feature known as the Dogger Bank) connecting it to the Continent didn’t go to bed one night and wake up next morning hip-deep in the North Sea.
OK Using my daughters Netflix, I won’t pay for a company that gave Obama 8 million for nothing, I will try To the Lake.
Thanks for the suggestion.
It’s very watchable looking forward to series 2. Bit R rated in places.
Hollywood like the leftist democrats, RHINO’s and part of the republican party are all the problem now which is why culture is in decline and people are far less educated than 30 years ago thus they vote low IQ people into office by rote.
Hollywood, like much of the woke West, has become a corrupt and irrelevant shadow of its former self. That it continues along this path just goes to show how delusional these people are – money and the cult of celebrity are all they are interested in.
It isn’t at all surprising that Hollywood is losing viewers big time. Being preached at (and that’s exactly what is going on) gets old real quick, especially if you are not a believer in the religion that’s being pushed.
This is part of the reason that I (and lots of other people, apparently) rarely watch any new shows or movies. The last time I was in a theater was to see one of the Jurassic Park movies, which IMO was a waste of my money. What TV I do watch is mostly limited to documentary and non-fiction shows. But even those can end up poisoned by woke garbage and climate change idiocy.
I was watching this new episode of Nova on PBS tonight about a scientist who discovered a way to extract animal and plant DNA from permafrost going back to about 2.5 million years ago. They were able to determine many of the kinds of animals that would have lived in Greenland back then, and the sort of climate that was present there at the time.
For some reason it seems I am limited to the length of my reply….anyway, towards the end of the show some so-called scientist was rambling on about how the earth hasn’t been that hot since the Pliocene and how we are headed to those temps today. All because the CO2 levels are about the same as they were 2.5 million years ago. And how we might be able to “survive” by learning about how animals in the past “survived” such “extreme” heat. OK, so there were trees and forests in parts of Greenland…..guess this “scientist” never heard of the Vikings growing grapes in Iceland or that there were also forests in the southern parts of Greenland in historical times!
It stinks that I cannot even watch a show about ancient DNA without it being polluted by the climate cult. When that crap appeared, I just turned it off….I enjoy nature documentaries and science related subjects but I end up having to avoid many of them because of this kind of nonsense.
Story Tip=====>
https://twitter.com/JohnStossel/status/1760765654884581597?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1760765654884581597%7Ctwgr%5E999683a145ebb4a01132fe206d0c33ff5d50b44e%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.thegatewaypundit.com%2F2024%2F02%2Fclimate-scientist-says-climate-change-alarmism-is-rewarded%2F
An interview with Judith Curry about “Climate Change Alarmism” A longer version will be
out later.
Hollywood is one thing. Joe is another.
BBC News Feb 22, 2024
In a brief speech in San Francisco, Mr Biden said: “We have a crazy SOB like that guy Putin, and others, and we always have to worry about nuclear conflict, but the existential threat to humanity is climate.”
When he was asked about it Putin gave a wry smile and said he still supports Biden’s candidacy but that such rudeness from a President was unattractive. Haven’t seen much about it in the western media though.
Putin also said that between Biden and Trump he would rather deal with Biden because he’s “predictable”.
I bet that stung.
I think Zelensky opened the door this week to a negotiated ceasefire, or more, in Ukraine, while being interviewed by Fox News Channel’s Bret Baier.
Zelensky said it would depend on Ukraine receiving sufficient defense assurances from the Western nations.
So apparently Zelensky is ready to stop the fighting under certain circumstances that don’t require Ukraine taking back all its territory from Putin. I think even Putin is making noises about negotiating.
It looks like the situation is ripe for Trump, or someone to come in and stop the killing in Ukraine.
I wonder if Joe Biden or anyone in his administration has the sense to follow this up? Or will we have to go through the rest of this year with more killing of innocent people?
Now, what does Ukraine consider to be sufficient defense assurances from the West? It probably will not include membership in NATO, would be my guess. I think that would be a non-starter for Putin.
And a push-over.
Hollywood have missed the plot with several things.
Women are not that interested in female superheroes.
Men think women superheroes are lame. A sexy outfit is ok but otherwise…
Women like soapies, Hallmark stuff. Men don’t.
End-of-the-world scenarios are also lame unless there are zombies.
Prima Facie evidence that both men and women can agree on that Hollywood is a waste of time and effort:
Jeff Goldblum.
Hollywood is responsible for a lot of the current mess.
Many visits to a cinema are brain-washing sessions, viz:
i.e. About 90 minutes, rarely more than 100 and never more than 2 hours
Because after that time the depressant effect of the drug has become so intense that all its consumers want to do is fall asleep – and in the darkened, soft warm and fuzzy space of your average cinema seat, that is exactly what everyone will do.
Before that happens, all your senses tell you is that *you* are the romantic all-action, dare-devil superhero who always triumphs, ‘gets the girl’ and ‘saves the world’
After repeated exposure, folks come to really believe all that, they lose track of reality
I stopped going to movie theaters because the smell of popcorn makes me gag.
Yes, because instead of putting *butter* on it they use some kind of rancid vegetable oil. And its oder betrays just how rancid it is.
All due to (a) it being cheaper; and (b) fealty to more junk science about the non-issue that is ‘cholesterol.’
Another junk science based non-solution to another imaginary ‘problem.’
One of the most noticeable changes in film making and entertainment in the last decade is the promotion of woke in all its forms.
We have now found only films or productions made prior to 2010 are worth bothering watching.
The end of Hollywood and its woke influences is upon us, they just don’t yet realise they are speaking to empty rooms or should that be cinemas?
it’s worse with ads on the telly
every ad now has to have a gay couple, ideally different colours and/or geographical mix (Asian, Muslim etc), with the token straight, white male or female married to a transgender person
I don’t have an issue with people who are different, whatever floats your boat, but I don’t see why it has to be all pervasive
jmho
You are seeing a murmuration of advertising executives in flight. It isn’t planned. Everyone just wanted to stand out at the same time. I am optimistic this will burn out pretty quickly.
It will of course be replaced by some new tiresomeness.
A few decades ago I remember hearing from some TV spokesperson responding to complaints about what they were airing. (Maybe about “Bosom Buddies”? “All in the Family?)
His defense was along the lines of, “We’re not trying to shape society. We’re merely reflecting society.”
I didn’t believe him.
every ad now has to have a gay couple
As a side note on that – remember the mantra that “AIDS is not a gay disease”? Then why is it that practically all the characters on the AIDS medicine commercials are LGBwhatever?
I have the perfect script right here. It is entitled ‘The Day Mankind Lied To The World’ and starts with the villain of the piece receiving a very dirty look from our hero in a supermarket somewhere. .
Horror genre then?
It’s a non-stop laugh-a-minute slap-stick comedy right the way through until, just at the very end, you realise it was meant to be serious!
They already made that movie. It’s called “The Big Lebowski”.
So it’s (sort of) a remake entitled “The Big Defrauder?”
It is, or was, a well understood business principle, that any enterprise which becomes product led, inward-looking rather than outward-looking and consumer led, is dooming itself to failure.
The disaster movie theme has been exhausted: earthquakes, volcanoes, viruses, airliners, ships, killer animals, monsters, asteroid strikes, environmental catastrophes, nuclear wars, evil Man responsible for destroying the planet.
There is simply no new story to tell, whatever the doom-du-jour – it’s boring. It may be what Hollywood wants to make with a finger wagging, manipulative, plot line and diverse, inclusive cast led by a kick-ass badgirl as saviour of the species, but it’s not what consumers want.
I ended my career facilitating Lean Thinking, the foundation of which is to understand who is the customer. Anything that does not benefit the customer is then defined as waste and should be targeted for elimination.
(Some waste may currently be deemed “necessary” waste, such as “setup time” or a huge clerical staff in a physicians practice, but it should still be the target of reduction or elimination.)
Clearly proselytizing about “Climate Alarmism” does fulfill customer (audience) needs.
i hope they didn’t mess up part 2 of Dune.
Haven’t seen part 1. I thought the 2 mini-series’ were absolutely superb, getting the look and the atmosphere right and having the time to develop the books (yep -the first 3) in a lot of detail. Didn’t really want to see the films after that.
Going woke hasn’t gone well for the once mighty Disney:
Disney: a billion-dollar casualty of woke
Yeah, the first person I’d turn to for advice on international relations and of course “Climate Science” is Jane Fonda.
All very appropriate as Hollywood specializes in totally unrealistic fiction acted out by totally uneducated and over pampered entertainers.
I can’t wait for the new titles!
With Hollywood’s tendency to recycle old scripts with a twist …
“The Day After The Day After Tomorrow”
“20
1232″“Whalenado!”
“The Day Earth Stood Still (Again)”
“An Existential Truth”
“Gone with the Windmill”
I guess the words ‘entertainment’ and ‘industry’ don’t register with Hollywood these days.
Chances are good that Hollywood has run out of ideas for horror movies, so it’s decided to try to get more mileage out of climate apocalypse stories. Except just as people aren’t falling for such exaggerations in the news, they won’t on the screen either. As well, what’s particularly ironic about this sort of film genre is the fact that people pushing it are among the least likely to abandon their profligate lifestyles to combat the “problem” they’re supposedly warning us against.
Hollywood studios, that fly large numbers of people around the world to make movies in exotic locations, race/crash/burn a variety of vehicles, create copious amounts of ever-larger explosions, are preaching to us to curtail our emissions.
While I enjoy their outputs, I will not take instruction from them until they change first – and probably not even then
Why would Hollywood want to excite, let alone entertain, their audience. They’re much too busy indoctrinating them.
You have a great point here. A lot of what I watch on Netflix anymore are Japanese anime and Korean shows. I saw an article recently saying that most shows people stream are older content. You know, back when they were primarily entertainment instead of left-wing morality plays.