Of course the ‘it’ we’re talking about here is climate change. Did you know that “[L]ess than 3% of scripted TV and film acknowledges climate change”? As the Good Energy website goes on to say “As the crisis escalates, stories that erase the climate emergency are increasingly out of touch with reality. This is a missed opportunity for storytellers.”
Why does showing climate change in TV and film matter? Anna Jane Joyner, founder and CEO of Good Energy, found through her work consulting with “scripted film and TV with screenwriters and producers who wanted to integrate climate into their stories” that there was a great interest and appetite for this material and service. She also knew that “Hollywood has previously driven change—from normalizing LGBTQ+ characters, to popularizing the term “designated driver,” to powerful movements for BIPOC representation”.
Good Energy was founded in 2019 and “brings together professional screenwriters, climate communications experts who understand storytelling, climate scientists, everyday people from the hardest-hit communities around the globe, and an extensive network of industry, nonprofit, and philanthropic partners.”
If you’re interested in learning more check out the report on the absence of climate change in most of today’s scripted film and TV offerings. Then perhaps look at Good Energy’s Playbook, an open source digital guide, that describes what a ‘climate lens’ is and how to weave climate change into your media production.