How the Collective Psyche Surrounding Climate Change Has Evolved on Film

By A.J. Weiler  |  April 22, 2025 | 3:01pm
Movies Features climate change
How the Collective Psyche Surrounding Climate Change Has Evolved on Film
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We once again stumble into Earth Day after a year of underwhelming progress addressing a rapidly worsening climate crisis. With the recent defunding of national parks and the unrelenting grip of big oil, many of us are feeling not only deep frustration and anger, but also despair. Art has long served as a powerful outlet for these emotions, and climate-driven films are no exception. Media has evolved quickly as public interest and understanding surrounding the climate crisis has heightened, providing a mirror to our shifting relationship with an increasingly fragile home planet. Film provides not only a form of escapism, but also a way to process and reimagine our collective response to a changing world.

Looking back at the origins of our cinematic relationship with climate change reveals how our early understandings of the climate crisis have shaped the stories we tell. Film audiences’ fascination with climate change can be traced back to the mid-1900’s. In The Day the Earth Caught Fire (1961), scientists discover that nuclear testing has knocked the earth from its axis, sending it hurtling toward total destruction. The Day the Earth Caught Fire was one of the first films to introduce a narrative surrounding the climate crisis, but what is most notable is its method of doing so. The film introduces the possibility of a distant and subtle catastrophe. Many climate-focused films instead dramatize climate change and present hyperbolized natural disasters that claim thousands of victims and are simply unignorable. The reality of climate change has been slightly more subtle. Although natural disasters have certainly claimed lives and destroyed livelihoods and infrastructure, society has maintained the ability to live in a degree of denial. The supposed “ultimate climate disaster” has not yet struck, and thus, the idea of climate change for many, especially those in positions of power and privilege, remains a distant concept, far away to still be avoided. The Day the Earth Caught Fire grapples with the idea of this distance and reminds us that distance does not diminish severity.

As public awareness of the climate crisis grew, Hollywood responded by introducing the theme to mainstream entertainment, marking a significant change in how we perceive these threats. Audiences became captivated by dramatized, catastrophic versions of the climate crisis. The Day After Tomorrow (2004) was one of the first high profile box office films that addressed the potential severity of climate change and what a climate disaster of massive magnitude might look like in the United States. In the film, massive storms ravage the modern world, ultimately bringing about the next ice age. Although this film is intense and arguably unrealistic, it effectively examines the political complexities of addressing climate change. The protagonists beg politicians for help, often in vain. This film marked the beginning of an era of blockbuster films based around climate-ruined worlds.

Much of public interest has recently shifted toward confronting the institutional barriers to change, reflecting widespread frustration with inaction. The most recent climate change inspired films, such as Don’t Look Up (2021), often comment on the absurdity of the climate crisis and institutional unwillingness to address impending disaster even in the face of global scientific consensus. When scientists discover a comet that will bring about human extinction, their warnings are met not with urgency, but with apathy and ridicule. This film is not an action movie about traversing a climate-ravaged world, nor is it a thriller where the protagonists race against time and ultimately save the world. Rather, it is an agonizing exhibition of stupidity. Its comedy mainly targets media and political responses to incoming climate disasters. As the protagonists continuously make exhausted attempts to warn the public of impending doom, their efforts are undermined by an indifferent government, profit-hungry media, and billionaires who are excited by the opportunity to exploit the crisis. Don’t Look Up delivers dark satire that captures the absurdity, incompetence, and terror that constantly prevents human society from addressing climate change even in the face of damning evidence.

While fictional narratives have evolved, documentary filmmaking has also undergone a parallel transformation after initially focusing on proving the reality of climate change. Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth (2006) is among the most famous climate documentaries, and for years stood in as a symbol of the environmentalist movement. I know few people who did not sit through this film in a middle school science class. It is ultimately an attempt to make the climate crisis believable and tangible. Gore presents extensive evidence of human-made climate outcomes. He succeeds in making an abstract crisis palpable while the film provides a vignette of 2006 climate politics. This film is a testament to public perception and lingering skepticism surrounding climate change.

Documentaries addressing climate change have evolved from evidence-based warnings to intimate explorations of lived experience. Recent films, like Alex Pritz’s The Territory (2022), have begun to showcase the contributions and lived reality of those on the frontlines of climate change, particularly Indigenous communities. These films deepen our understanding of climate change as a current reality that harshly affects the daily lives of those experiencing it. The Territory follows the Uru-eu-wau-wau Indigenous people of Brazil as they defend their land from encroaching deforestation. The community establishes its own news media outlet to document and broadcast climate crimes and engages with the Brazilian government in attempts to protect the land. The film highlights grassroots resistance against institutional forces that fuel climate change. Audiences cannot be disillusioned about how self-reliant those actively fighting climate change have been forced to become in the wake of governments that refuse to protect or even actively harm the environment.

Despite the realities of the climate crisis, we are captivated by visions of a post-climate crisis world and frequently consume films that romanticize environmental degradation and dystopia. Films like Children of Men (2006) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) are set against backdrops of climate-ruined worlds, and their narratives are driven by the despair and chaos that emerge from these desolate landscapes. These films investigate potential consequences of the climate crisis, exploring issues like infertility and the commodification of basic resources such as water. Our intrigue may be a testament to our need to process the threat of climate change and a subconscious urge to prepare ourselves for the inevitability of an environmentally unstable future.

This Earth Day, we should let the art we produce remind us of our constantly evolving relationship with climate change and its effect on our collective psyche. Films about the climate crisis are important cultural artifacts that document growing awareness, understanding, and concern for our planet. These films document our fears, but also celebrate what we hope to save.

A.J. Weiler writes about culture and entertainment. You can find her on Medium and Muck Rack.

 
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