Earth Day 2024: The Local weather Disaster & Why We Combat

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Eighty years in the past, Hollywood filmmakers exercised their skilled storytelling expertise to rally American draftees to assistance from war-ravaged Europe. Extra not too long ago, filmmakers have been hammering away on the local weather disaster. A lot of that work has come and gone down the outlet of forgetfulness. Nonetheless, the enduring US leisure and academic conglomerate Disney is decided to have one other go at shaking the US public — and the remainder of the world — into motion throughout Earth Month 2024.

The Local weather Disaster & Why We Combat

Disney kindly shared a preview of its April and Earth Day 2024 lineup with CleanTechnica and we’ll get to that in a second. First let’s begin with Why We Combat.

Why We Combat is a well-known sequence of seven documentaries produced from 1942 to 1945 on the orders of US Normal George C. Marshall, after he realized that draftees have been baffled, bewildered, or simply plain bored by the lectures they obtained throughout fundamental coaching. Pulled from civilian life, they lacked a cohesive sense of goal and self-discipline, a lethal distinction when going up in opposition to the skilled, skilled fighters of Nazi Germany.

Hollywood A-lister Frank Capra was tasked to assemble a group of well-known storymakers of the time, together with the favored Ukrainian-American director Anatole Litvak together with editor William Hornbeck, writers Anthony Veiller and Eric Knight, composer Dimitri Tiomkin, and narrator Walter Huston.

As a sequence, Why We Combat is broadly acknowledged as a compilation of probably the most compelling documentary movies from World Warfare II. Now completely housed within the Library of Congress, Why We Combat is described as a “a gathering of the expertise of a business movie trade, a powerful custom of documentary movie, and the wants of struggle.”

When it comes to the local weather disaster, the true nature of the hazard is lastly breaking via the general public consciousness barrier after many years of organized denial and obfuscation promoted by fossil power stakeholders, solely to be met with the demoralizing affect of misplaced doomerism. The wants of struggle are upon the complete inhabitants of the Earth, and a way of goal is required now greater than ever.

Disney Throws Down The Local weather Disaster Gauntlet

Behavioral scientists have identified that local weather disaster messaging can lull the general public right into a state of lethargy, because the receivers of these messages succumb to doom and despair. Nonetheless, a brand new behavioral research signifies that the suitable messages about local weather change, to the suitable audiences, may also help spur significant motion.

With that in thoughts, now let’s check out Disney’s April and Earth Day lineup. Given the company’s highly effective and numerous attain into the worldwide media panorama, it’s doable that one thing, someplace, will stick.

“Starting April 19 via April 22, Earth Day-themed content material might be spotlighted throughout ABC Information, Disney+, Disney Channel, Disney Junior, Freeform, FX, FXX, Hulu, Nationwide Geographic, Nat Geo WILD and Nat Geo Mundo, with ourHOME collections on Disney+ and Hulu,” Disney defined in a previewed press launch emailed to CleanTechnica.

The total program checklist is simply too lengthy for these packages, however right here’s a small pattern to offer you an thought. You will discover extra particulars at natgeo.com/ourHOME (scroll right down to see our favourite):

Disney Channel: Earth Day marathon from 5:00-10:00 p.m. on April 22, together with Earth Month-themed episodes of fan favourite reveals.

Freeform: All-day film marathon on April 22

FX: All-day film marathon on April 22.

FXX: “The Simpsons” stunt on April 22 that includes six environmentalism-themed episodes.

 Nationwide Geographic: “Secrets and techniques of the Elephants” on April 21 from 4:00-8:00 p.m., main into the premiere of “Secrets and techniques of the Octopus” at 8:00 p.m, plus many extra documentaries.

Nat Geo Wild: “Secrets and techniques of the Elephants” on April 22 from 6:00-10:00 p.m. and “Secrets and techniques of the Octopus” on April 22 from 10:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m.

Nat Geo Mundo: All-day Earth Month-themed stunt on April 22 plus “America’s Nationwide Parks” and “Jane.”

Hulu:  ourHOME Assortment that includes “Queen” and plenty extra Nat Geo content material.

Disney+: ourHOME Assortment that includes a number of Nat Geo and Disneynature content material

Local weather Options Are Right here

As for CleanTechnica’s favourite choose of Disney’s Earth Day programming, that’s simple. ABC Information and its associates are showcasing a weeklong sequence known as “Energy of Us: Individuals, The Local weather, and Our Future,” starting this Sunday, April 21.

As a substitute of speaking concerning the local weather disaster and leaving it there, Energy of Us is all about options. “This sequence, led by ABC Information’ chief meteorologist and local weather correspondent, Ginger Zee, together with the ABC Information climate and local weather unit, won’t solely cowl local weather challenges we face but additionally share tales of empowerment about rising options — from people, communities, trade, and authorities — for our altering world,” Disney explains.

To be clear, it’s troublesome for conventional media to get something throughout in at present’s cluttered media and social media panorama. Nonetheless, ABC Information will get factors for making a decided try. Maybe this effort will encourage extra information customers to devour information concerning the local weather disaster from reliable sources as a substitute of counting on a social media algorithm.

To get an thought of the extent of professionalism concerned within the Energy of Us sequence, try at present’s article on plastic air pollution on the ABC Information web site underneath the title, “How the UN Plastics Treaty goals to sort out the air pollution disaster.”

Within the article, ABC reporter Leah Sarnoff digs behind the headline to explain the function of the petrochemical trade, indicating that the foundational explanation for the local weather disaster — human exercise — is an element and parcel of day by day life.

“The speed of plastic manufacturing has grown sooner than every other man-made materials because the Nineteen Seventies, in line with the U.N. Surroundings Programme (UNEP),” Sarnoff writes.

“Roughly 98% of single-use plastic merchandise are produced from fossil fuels, in line with the U.N., and by 2040, fossil fuel-based plastics are forecast to develop to 19% of the worldwide carbon finances by 2040,” she provides.

That’s simply the setup. The remainder of the article is dedicated to a blow-by-blow account of the coverage sausage-making over on the United Nations, and we’ll be tuning in to Energy of the Individuals this week to see how the ABC information group explores the options.

As for public coverage over right here within the US, we now have the excellence of main the world in oil manufacturing for the sixth straight yr in a row.

“The US produces extra crude oil than any nation, ever,” the Vitality Info Company reported final month.

Regardless of the looming local weather disaster, US corporations are nonetheless sucking oil out of the bottom like there’s no tomorrow whereas a seemingly oblivious public shrugs its shoulders.

We have now fairly a little bit of misplaced floor to make up, however a glance again at America’s pivotal function in turning the tide of World Warfare II signifies that nothing is inconceivable.

“You possibly can all the time rely on the Individuals to do the suitable factor, solely after they’ve tried all the pieces else,” is likely one of the most well-known quotes from British Prime Minister Winston Churchill to to return out of the final world struggle, and it nonetheless rings true at present.

Observe me @tinamcasey on Bluesky, Threads, Publish, and LinkedIn.

Picture: Plastics are half and parcel of the worldwide local weather disaster (cropped, courtesy of US Division of Vitality).