Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
The Day After Tomorrow
had a significant impact on the climate change risk
perceptions, conceptual models, behavioural intentions, policy priorities and even
voting intentions of moviegoers. The film led moviegoers to have higher levels
of concern and worry about global warming, to estimate various impacts on the
US as more likely, and to shift their conceptual understanding of the climate
system towards a threshold model. Further, the movie encouraged watchers to
engage in personal, political and social action to address climate change and
to elevate global warming as a national priority. Finally, the movie even appears
to have influenced voter preferences. These results demonstrate that the repre-
sentation of environmental risks in popular culture can influence public attitudes
and behaviours.
(2004: 33)
Another impact study, in Germany, had slightly different results, but the authors
concluded that the film:
raised awareness of the problem and stimulated the willingness to act, or at least
to support government action. At the same time, the film has had a remarkable
effect, having stimulated a more complex and enriched view of the Earth system
in general and the climate system in particular.
(Reusswig
et al
., 2004: 40)
Similarly, Morgan Spurlock's
Supersize Me
, released in 2004, addressed the problem
of the fast-food industry's contribution to obesity and ill health, focusing specifically
on the huge portions and poor nutritional value of McDonald's burgers. For thirty
days, Spurlock, the Director, subjected himself to a diet of nothing but McDonald's,
resulting in significant weight gain, increased cholesterol levels and other health
ailments, including mood swings, liver damage and sexual dysfunction. The surround-
ing publicity, particularly after its screening at the Sundance Film Festival, combined
with the long-running 'McLibel trial' in London, seriously tarnished McDonald's'
reputation. Although denying that the decision had anything to do with the publicity
the film generated, McDonald's soon started to phase out its supersize option,
introducing healthier menu options while maintaining that health problems were
largely the result of consumers overeating. In Australia, the company even offered
to pay cinemas if their staff were allowed to distribute apples to audiences watching
the film. In 2005, the medical journal
The Lancet
published a study (Pereira
et al
.,
2005), arguing that fast food could increase risk of obesity and diabetes through
excessive portion size, emphasis on primordial taste preferences for sugar, salt and
fat, and high glycemic load and trans-fatty acid content. More generally, it can be
argued that in recent years a clear trend has developed which has seen the production,
distribution and exhibition at festivals and increasingly on the Internet of films that
have a clear consciousness raising and activist intention. Some of these tentatively
suggest a trend towards eco-centrism and a critical public pedagogy (Willoquet-
Maricondi, 2010; Blewitt, 2011). As Willoquet-Maricondi writes: 'Ecocinema overtly
strives to inspire personal and political action on the part of viewers, stimulating
our thinking so as to bring about concrete changes in the choices we make, daily
and in the long run, as individuals and as societies, locally and globally' (2010: 45).
