Recently, I issued a call asking (and paraphrasing Bill McKibben): "Where are the movies? The TV shows? The comics? The bleeping video games?"
I believe exposure to such content will help introduce enviro concepts to consumers of pop culture, create awareness (you mean windmills aren't only a Dutch thing?), educate (hey, I didn't realize you could fit two dead bodies in the back of a Toyota Prius!), and start a conversation (do you think Julia Roberts drinks organic soy milk in real life?).
That said, I direct you to a recent piece (based on a true story) by our friend Joel Makower. Our story begins:
(Fade in: two small children running around in a playground. Pan right: A hybrid car slowly drives by while the blades of huge windmills rotate in the background. Narrator's voice begins ... )
If you could pay an extra five or ten bucks a month to help reduce global warming, childhood asthma, rolling brownouts, the national debt, and the threats of Al-Qaeda, would you bother? I'm guessing you'd think that a no-brainer.Our hero then discovers the good deeds of SmartPower, a group that's decided to work within the system by "[engaging] in a market research and advertising campaign of Madison Avenue proportions." This effort has yielded the following feedback from the global-warming-oppressed citizens of Gotham:
So, why aren't you buying clean energy?
The question has been befuddling everyone from environmental activists to utility executives. Nearly every American, it seems, understands that generating electricity from the sun, the wind, the earth's heat, or gases generated by rotting waste is good news for everyone -- the planet, people's health, national security, and the economy.
So, what's the problem? They just don't think clean energy works.
"... what kept coming through was that fossil fuel has kept this country warm and strong and that there was nothing to take it's place," says Keane. "And that solar and wind were not ready for prime time. They said that fossil fuels were a necessary evil."
It wasn't all bad news. Every single respondent knew exactly what clean energy is, and they absolutely want it to work. They could discuss it confidently, without hesitation. Many had heard of fuel cells. They believed it would be a better world if we developed more clean energy. They believed it would be better for their health and their environment.
But the misconceptions or misinformation turned out to be rampant. The researchers found that while most people understood clean energy's benefits, they thought it would require them to have windmills on their houses, or that the power would go on and off on cloudy or windless days, or that it was ultimately all about trade-offs, like using less heat or air conditioning.
"No one's talking about it on television," was another comment Keane recalls hearing. "They could actually live with the fact that no one in their neighborhood has a solar panel. But if they saw it was on TV, they could understand it's potential. TV is the great validator of the day."
The moral of the story: Put positive examples of renewable energy up on the big screen and hybrid vehicles in TV shows. The revolution must be televised.
(My apologies for the lame Hollywood approach. For those of you who made it this far without sneaking out of the theater, I encourage you to read Joel's entire post.)
Do we need nuclear and coal plants for baseload power?
Climate Citizen: Mary Stuart Masterson
Climate psychology in cartoons: clues for solving the messaging mystery
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bhurley Posted 6:04 am
05 Aug 2005
The problem with this approach is that it's too obviously preachy. When some tough cigar-smoking macho cowboy steps into a Prius instead of a Hummer onscreen, people's BS meters go off and they feel like they're being force-fed a message.
I think it would be hard to subtly work in images of wind farms or solar collectors into mainstream Hollywood movies. And besides, most people don't really care about energy or how it's produced...they're only interested in what they can do with it. If you can design energy-efficient products that are so cool that everyone wants one, and you happen to show some of those products in movies, that might help increase their use. But I think that strategy would work better for efficient cars than, say, efficient refrigerators.
The way I see it, there are three options for increase the use of renewables and energy-efficient equipment: 1) make it cool, so people want to use it (this is why more people buy Priuses than hybrid Civics); 2) make it cheaper so people buy it on the basis of price (this is why more people buy regular cars than hybrids); 3) make it the only option available (which requires standards or regulation).
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Chris Schults Posted 6:40 am
05 Aug 2005
The problem with this approach is that it's too obviously preachy. When some tough cigar-smoking macho cowboy steps into a Prius instead of a Hummer onscreen, people's BS meters go off and they feel like they're being force-fed a message.
Which is why you don't do that.
I think it would be hard to subtly work in images of wind farms or solar collectors into mainstream Hollywood movies.
I disagree. And if I were a big shot movie producer with millions to spend, I'd prove it. But seriously, I'd like to see someone try. It worked in Sky Blue (granted it wouldn't qualify as a "mainstream Hollywood movie").
And besides, most people don't really care about energy or how it's produced...they're only interested in what they can do with it.
Well, according to the research conducted by the folks over at SmartPower, it sounds like one of the issues is that people are aware of renewable energy options, but they don't they that they work. As I quoted above:
The question has been befuddling everyone from environmental activists to utility executives. Nearly every American, it seems, understands that generating electricity from the sun, the wind, the earth's heat, or gases generated by rotting waste is good news for everyone -- the planet, people's health, national security, and the economy.
So, what's the problem? They just don't think clean energy works.
...
"No one's talking about it on television," was another comment Keane recalls hearing. "They could actually live with the fact that no one in their neighborhood has a solar panel. But if they saw it was on TV, they could understand it's potential. TV is the great validator of the day."
For any script writers out there, here's a suggestion: Have your main character be a solar panel or windmill tech. No need to go on about why solar or wind power is a good thing. Just show it in action as a back story. Something like: So-and-so was a well-liked solar panel technician in a quiet, small town. Everything was great in the world, until so-and-so's best friend was murdered. Ok, I'll stop there as I've got Daily Grist to publish and send.
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Chris Schults Posted 4:48 am
08 Aug 2005
So, hey Gristmillians, you got any ideas of your own?
Also over at WC: Micki Krimmel writes about film, marketing and the environmental movement.
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Emily Gertz Posted 4:58 am
08 Aug 2005
...addressing bhurley's comment that
When some tough cigar-smoking macho cowboy steps into a Prius instead of a Hummer onscreen, people's BS meters go off and they feel like they're being force-fed a message.
Agreed. I think we all can recall some or other "very special episode" of a tv drama or comedy where we knew we were being fed a morally superior line to salve the writer's social conscience. If a plot turn isn't character-driven, it's going to seem fakey and unconvincing. Or worse, satirical and disempowering (big burley guy with a poodle, or a Prius..although Toyota will have hybrid pickups some time in the next several years, right?).
I think the key here is not to think in terms of strident activism, of "telling people what they ought to know," and allow for the eco ideas to populate the background details of a show. Maybe a character drinks organic coffee. Maybe she and her friend have a walk-and-talk on their way to the newspaper recycling bin.
There might also be green ideas that could be worked into shows in character-driven ways. Like, say one of the Desperate Housewives starts a garden, and then starts collecting fruit scraps for compost, and gets some kind of satisfaction from her gorgeous organic tomatoes that offsets her ennui. Or her child's hyperactivity disorder is addressed by getting the kid out into nature.
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bhurley Posted 6:36 am
08 Aug 2005
There's a tiny NGO in Boston called "Second Nature" which used to describe its mission as working to make environmentally sustainable behavior second nature--something that people don't even think about because it is so deeply ingrained in them. I've always liked that concept.
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ourearthmusic Posted 7:05 pm
22 Aug 2005
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