{"id":38777,"date":"2017-05-05T12:05:16","date_gmt":"2017-05-05T19:05:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/world.edu\/?p=38777"},"modified":"2017-05-05T12:05:16","modified_gmt":"2017-05-05T19:05:16","slug":"can-environmental-documentaries-make-waves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/world.edu\/can-environmental-documentaries-make-waves\/","title":{"rendered":"Can environmental documentaries make waves?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"environmental<\/a><\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s first 100 days in office were, among other things, marked by a climate march<\/a> in Washington DC that attracted tens of thousands of demonstrators. No surprises there. Since the beginning of his mandate in January, Trump has signed orders to roll back the number of federally protected waterways, restart the construction of contentious oil pipeline, and cut the budget from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Among the various orders and memoranda, the one signed to overhaul Obama\u2019s Clean Power Plan<\/a> is probably the most remarkable, along with promoting coal extractions all over the US.<\/p>\n

A good time, then, to follow up Al Gore\u2019s iconic documentary An Inconvenient Truth<\/a>, which was released 11 years ago in a similarly discouraging political climate. At that time George W Bush, who is remembered for undermining climate science and for strongly supporting oil interests, was in power. In his own first 100 days at the White House, Bush backed down from the promise of regulating carbon dioxide from coal power plants and announced that the US would not implement the Kyoto climate change treaty.<\/p>\n

This summer sees the release of An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power<\/a>. More than ten years have passed and the documentary looks likely to be released in a very similar context. With republicans in power, war in the Middle East, and regulations on the environment to be reversed, this inconvenient sequel is a reminder that the climate of the conversation about global warming has not changed much in the interim.<\/p>\n

But the strategies needed to grab the attention of the public certainly have. In the fast-paced, ever-evolving media landscape of the 21st century, knowing how to engage the public on environmental matters is no easy thing. The tendency of the environmental films that have mushroomed since 2000 has been to use a rhetoric of fear. But how effective has this been? Certainly, environmental activism has grown, particularly with the help of social media, but the role of these productions is unclear, and there is a lack of research on audience response to these films.<\/p>\n