Earth Day is not the most glamorous holiday celebrated. The day is centered around going outside and doing good things for the environment, such as recycling and planting trees. If you feel like celebrating on April 22nd but don’t want to go outside, here are some movies you can watch that cover different issues that the earth could face, or currently faces.
The Day After Tomorrow (2004) – Global Warming
The Day After Tomorrow is like every other disaster movie except the Earth is going through another Ice Age. Dennis Quad stars as Jack Hall, who is a paleoclimatologist (a person that studies changes in climate taken on the scale of the entire history of Earth). Jack has to rescue his son who is stuck in New York City when the Ice Age takes place. On top of seeing Jack fighting the storm to save his son and Jack’s son struggling to survive, viewers get to see how the government and other environmentalists are reacting to the Ice Age and trying to come up with a solution. It has been scientifically proven that the science behind the second Ice Age can possibly happen. Global Warming is real and The Day After Tomorrow shows you one of the (extreme) consequences if we do not tackle this issue.
Wall-E (2008) – Pollution
Wall-E is one of Pixar’s most socially woke movies as it covers many topics such as consumerism, waste management, and human environmental impacts. Wall-E takes place in the year 2805 and there are no more humans on the Earth due to the Earth being unfit for human life. This is due to all the waste that has been piling up on the Earth. Wall-E’s job is to clean up the trash to help make it livable again for humans. One day on the job, he meets Eva, whose job is to determine if the Earth is livable again and she realizes that the earth can sustain itself due to the finding of a healthy seedling. Wall-E shows truly what damage human waste can do to our environment.
The Lorax (2012) – Clean Air
This classic Dr. Seuss tale was turned into a movie back in 2012 and made its stance about the problems of our environment loud and clear. We need to take care of our trees. The Lorax focuses on what happens when we take away all of our trees and how the environment can deteriorate based on that action. The hero, Ted, learns the importance of trees in our environment from The Once-ler, the man that ruined the Thneedville environment. Now it is up to Ted to restore the environment in his town before it’s too late.
Happy Feet (2009) – Commercial Fishing and Pollution
Who doesn’t love the movie about dancing penguins? Happy Feet tells the story of Mumble, a penguin who doesn’t have a singing voice but can dance his heart out. Behind the story of Mumble fighting for acceptance from his peers, Happy Feet highlights many problems facing our environment and what impact it has on the animals that live there. Who can forget the part when Lovelace started choking on the plastic ring around his neck? Or how the entire penguin clan got the government to stop commercial fishing? Re-watch this beloved classic and notice all the different environmental issues that they decided to focus on.
What other movies tackle serious environmental concerns?