Now that we have looked over the history of environmental in popular fiction, a suitable conclusion to this series is to look forward and ask ourselves, what next? How do the writers of today reach out to their prospective audiences, and how do they do so without coming off as heavy-handed and superficial?
To know where to go in the future, it helps to know where you have been. Both of the major environmental movements of the past--the ones in the 1970s and the 1990s--were triggered by clear, obvious threats to nature and civilization. And therein lies the difference between environmentalism in the past and today. The burning of the Cuyahoga River in 1969 and the Exxon Valdez oil spill in 1989 really scared people; incremental increases in global temperature and gradually melting ice caps don't have the same effect.
So what's an aspiring writer of environmental stories to do? If we look at the stories that have been reviewed so far, the ones that have held up best are those that do not actively demonize the people responsible for destroying the environment. Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, WALL-E, and The Lorax are all good examples of this.
People don't respond well in general to being told that they are "part of the problem", and react better to being told how they can help. This is something the best environmental stories all understand, which is why they have aged so well. Many environmental stories make the mistake of simply lecturing their audience on the error of their (perceived) ways, rather then offering constructive criticism to their consumers. This is especially problematic since the people who consume these stories in the first place tend to already care about the environment, and don't need to be reminded to.
At the same time, equating a real-world problem to a fictional villain has the effect of causing the problem to seem less "real". The best environmental stories are ones that show the issues in various shades of grey. I don't mean that they should try to justify the destruction of nature, but they should make it clear that environmentalism, like everything else in the world, is not black and white.
The next generation of environmental fiction will be fundamentally different from the way it was in the past. It will need to connect with the more complex mentality people have regarding the environment today. But it will still need to convey the same basic message as it always has, ever since its beginning.
Thursday, February 23, 2017
Friday, February 17, 2017
End of an Era
Established in 1970, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was, for 47 years, the chief agency of conserving and preserving nature within the United States. Today, however, that has come to an end. Steve Pruitt, a member of the Republican Party who has a long history of opposing government environmental regulations, is now the leader of the EPA.
Pruitt's appointment to this position represents a turn for the worse for American environmental policy. Currently the main function of the EPA is to enforce environmental law and to ensure that agricultural and industrial activities meet ecological standards. Under the new administration, this could cease to be the case. But because of Pruitt's known connections with big oil companies, it seems unlikely that he will honor the traditional role of the EPA. Instead, it is possible that he will use his authority to roll back the regulations that the EPA has spent most of its existence building up in order to benefit the big companies he has a vested interest in.
The list of species threatened by curbing and dismantling the EPA is essentially too long to list, but it includes many that have only recently recovered from endangered or threatened status. Ironically, this includes the national animal of the United States, the bald eagle. In the process of "making America great again", the nation may yet kill off its own symbol.
What can be done about this? Already, many people are showing resistance to this change. A "rogue EPA" Twitter account has cropped up, and likewise many environmentalists are staging protests--either physically or on the internet--in order to make their voices heard. However, protests can only accomplish so much. To affect real change, the most important thing for environmentalists--or anyone-- to do is to organize as a group and develop a coherent platform of their own with broad base appeal. Needless to say, this takes time--such things always do. But then again, the EPA wasn't created overnight.
Pruitt's appointment to this position represents a turn for the worse for American environmental policy. Currently the main function of the EPA is to enforce environmental law and to ensure that agricultural and industrial activities meet ecological standards. Under the new administration, this could cease to be the case. But because of Pruitt's known connections with big oil companies, it seems unlikely that he will honor the traditional role of the EPA. Instead, it is possible that he will use his authority to roll back the regulations that the EPA has spent most of its existence building up in order to benefit the big companies he has a vested interest in.
The list of species threatened by curbing and dismantling the EPA is essentially too long to list, but it includes many that have only recently recovered from endangered or threatened status. Ironically, this includes the national animal of the United States, the bald eagle. In the process of "making America great again", the nation may yet kill off its own symbol.
What can be done about this? Already, many people are showing resistance to this change. A "rogue EPA" Twitter account has cropped up, and likewise many environmentalists are staging protests--either physically or on the internet--in order to make their voices heard. However, protests can only accomplish so much. To affect real change, the most important thing for environmentalists--or anyone-- to do is to organize as a group and develop a coherent platform of their own with broad base appeal. Needless to say, this takes time--such things always do. But then again, the EPA wasn't created overnight.
Wednesday, February 8, 2017
A History of Environmental Entertainment: Part 1
From the 15 works that have been selected, it should be possible to grasp what some of the overarching trends have been in environmental-themed works of fiction. However, it would help even more to put those trends in a historical perspective, and that is what I will be doing now.
Although some earlier works, such as Green Mansions, had aspects of environmental themes, the genre truly came into its own in the early 1970s. This was a time of civil unrest in the United States, dissatisfaction with the government, and protests against segregation, the Vietnam War, and traditional sex roles. The newly emerged environmental movement, with its rejection of traditional values of industry and economy, fit in nicely in this era. In addition to the passing of the Environmental Protection Act, Clean Air Act, and Clean Water Act, a number of classics of environmental fiction were published during this time, such as The Lorax. Many of these works still hold up surprisingly well even today.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and so it was with the environmentalism fad of the 1970s. As the 1970s gave way to the 1980s, and Ronald Reagan's "Morning in America" took hold, environmentalism began to slip away from the public consciousness. Throughout the 1980s, very few works of fiction dealing with environmental themes were published, because as far as the general public was concerned it was no longer relevant. A notable exception was Hayao Miyazaki's splendid animated film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, but that, of course, did not come from the United States.
The genre would see a revival in the 1990s, thanks in part to a series of highly publicized industrial disasters in the late 1980s, such as the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown and the sinking of the Exxon Valdez. However, the works of environmental fiction published in the 1990s were in many ways less well-informed and more superficial than their 1970s counterparts. Often, as was the case with FernGully and Captain Planet, the issues of environmentalism were reduced to two-dimensional battles between good and evil. Gone were the days of more nuanced works like The Lorax.
In the end, the second golden age of environmental fiction ended, just as the first had, and today it remains a niche genre. But this brings us to the question for part two: how can aspiring writers make their environmental works both enticing and accurate?
Although some earlier works, such as Green Mansions, had aspects of environmental themes, the genre truly came into its own in the early 1970s. This was a time of civil unrest in the United States, dissatisfaction with the government, and protests against segregation, the Vietnam War, and traditional sex roles. The newly emerged environmental movement, with its rejection of traditional values of industry and economy, fit in nicely in this era. In addition to the passing of the Environmental Protection Act, Clean Air Act, and Clean Water Act, a number of classics of environmental fiction were published during this time, such as The Lorax. Many of these works still hold up surprisingly well even today.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and so it was with the environmentalism fad of the 1970s. As the 1970s gave way to the 1980s, and Ronald Reagan's "Morning in America" took hold, environmentalism began to slip away from the public consciousness. Throughout the 1980s, very few works of fiction dealing with environmental themes were published, because as far as the general public was concerned it was no longer relevant. A notable exception was Hayao Miyazaki's splendid animated film Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind, but that, of course, did not come from the United States.
The genre would see a revival in the 1990s, thanks in part to a series of highly publicized industrial disasters in the late 1980s, such as the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown and the sinking of the Exxon Valdez. However, the works of environmental fiction published in the 1990s were in many ways less well-informed and more superficial than their 1970s counterparts. Often, as was the case with FernGully and Captain Planet, the issues of environmentalism were reduced to two-dimensional battles between good and evil. Gone were the days of more nuanced works like The Lorax.
In the end, the second golden age of environmental fiction ended, just as the first had, and today it remains a niche genre. But this brings us to the question for part two: how can aspiring writers make their environmental works both enticing and accurate?
Saturday, February 4, 2017
Eco-Tainment #15: The Lorax
This is it. This is the last Eco-Tainment entry. After this, I'm going to wrap the series up by writing a two-part blog essay about general trends in environmental fiction, and what we can expect in the future. So what will we be looking at today? Quite possibly one of the most famous environmental works of all time--Dr. Seuss's The Lorax. First published in 1971, The Lorax is told mainly in flashback. The narrator is the Once-ler, who is never seen except for his hands.
The Once-ler tells how, long ago, he arrived in the land where the story takes place and began cutting down the forests of truffula trees to make "thneeds"--essentially a stand-in for just about any superfluous consumer product imaginable. He is repeatedly warned about the consequences of what he does by the Lorax, a short, hairy creature who "speaks for the trees" and is displeased at the Once-ler's wasteful abuse of the forest and its resources. Yet the Once-ler continues to ignore the Lorax, until finally the truffle trees are all cut down, the animals are gone, and the sky is dark with smog.
Finally he realizes the error of his ways, but it is too late.
The beauty of The Lorax is that unlike so many other works of environmental fiction, it does not resort to demonizing those who pollute and destroy nature. Even though he makes one disastrous decision after another, the Once-ler never truly comes off as a villain. He is simply doing his job, and several times brings up important questions that even environmentalists must consider. Even the fact that his face is hidden factors into this; this drives home the point that pollution is not caused by specific people, but can be caused by anyone.
I chose to end my Eco-Tainment series with The Lorax for the same reason I began it with Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Both of these works portray their environmental messages in a sophisticated, nuanced way, and should be regarded as classics of the genre.
The author (left) and the Lorax (right) at Universal Studios Florida.
The Once-ler tells how, long ago, he arrived in the land where the story takes place and began cutting down the forests of truffula trees to make "thneeds"--essentially a stand-in for just about any superfluous consumer product imaginable. He is repeatedly warned about the consequences of what he does by the Lorax, a short, hairy creature who "speaks for the trees" and is displeased at the Once-ler's wasteful abuse of the forest and its resources. Yet the Once-ler continues to ignore the Lorax, until finally the truffle trees are all cut down, the animals are gone, and the sky is dark with smog.
Finally he realizes the error of his ways, but it is too late.
The beauty of The Lorax is that unlike so many other works of environmental fiction, it does not resort to demonizing those who pollute and destroy nature. Even though he makes one disastrous decision after another, the Once-ler never truly comes off as a villain. He is simply doing his job, and several times brings up important questions that even environmentalists must consider. Even the fact that his face is hidden factors into this; this drives home the point that pollution is not caused by specific people, but can be caused by anyone.
I chose to end my Eco-Tainment series with The Lorax for the same reason I began it with Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind. Both of these works portray their environmental messages in a sophisticated, nuanced way, and should be regarded as classics of the genre.
The author (left) and the Lorax (right) at Universal Studios Florida.
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