The Environment and Movies : Part One

There is a course offered at U of T where different understandings of the environment and nature are looked at through the lens of movies. This concept was immediately intriguing, how better to discuss the idea of a anthropocentric environment then through the Matrix? Or the effect of invasive species through Troll 2? Unfortunately, to my knowledge neither of those movies are on the syllabus, but here we shall fill that gap!

The first in this list is ‘Thank You for Smoking’. Which is a fantastic movie, which, if you have not seen, you should watch. It provides an excellent and entertaining introduction to what an old but fantastic article from the Guardian, written by George Monbiot, references as the denial industry. Or if you have 40 minutes to kill, CBC news had a great piece labelled ‘The Denial Machine’. Both pieces detail just how much money there is to join the push against scientific consensus in order to keep the ‘debate’ going, and keep public understanding at a minimum, in order to delay government action as long as possible. What can we do about it? Not much, other than spreading actual science and encouraging people to follow the paper trail of denialists. But in the end, is it a good excuse to watch a great movie? Yes.