The Environment at the movies
The Environment is one of those topics that goes in and out of popularity. In the 1990s, we used a worksheet that showed what the world would be like by the year 2000. There was a documentary called '5 minutes to midnight', and it explained how, in just one generation. we were using up all of the Earth's limited resources, and we would soon run out. It seems that each generation receives this message with shock, and sometimes there is a genuine attempt to change the selfish, short-sighted way we consume these limited resources. Then, when we get used to the idea that we're destroying the world, the horror abates, and we just carry on regardless. So, every generation has it's 'shockumentary'. Which is ours?
| Film | Rating/5 | Cover |
| Inconvenient Truth (E) 2006- This really is a must-see film. A documentary that made it to the cinemas - essentially Al Gore giving a lecture on global warming, but much more entertaining than it sounds. Show sections of this to students to inform, amaze and enthuse them! I recommend the bit with the graph. Levitt and Dubner have called some of this into question (Superfreakonomics - hence only 4 stars out of 5 here), but it still raises important issues. |  |
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| The Day After Tomorrow - This big-budget movie is entertaining if implausible. Teachers - you can use this to get your students interested, but this is not the best source of information about environmental ethics! |  |
