A new Bechdel-Wallace-inspired tool has rated all 2024 Oscar-nominated films on their on-screen conversations about the climate crisis and aims to support climate conversations in film and television.
Good Energy, a pioneering climate story consultancy, in collaboration with Colby College’s Buck Lab for Climate and Environment, has launched the “Climate Reality Check,” a groundbreaking tool designed to assess the portrayal of climate change in media. This innovative instrument, inspired by the Bechdel-Wallace Test’s approach to evaluating women’s representation in film and TV, aims to spotlight the presence of climate change themes in cinematic narratives. The Climate Reality Check’s debut reveals that only three out of thirteen qualifying Oscar-nominated films in 2024 passed its criteria, showcasing a modest but notable acknowledgment of climate issues in contemporary cinema.
The Climate Reality Check applies a straightforward two-step analysis to determine if a film acknowledges the existence of climate change and if its characters are aware of this reality. By setting these parameters, the tool underscores the omnipresence of climate change in our lives and stresses the importance of its representation on screen. The assessment of the 2024 Oscar nominees by researchers from Colby College found that “Barbie,” “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One,” and “Nyad” successfully integrated climate awareness into their narratives. These films stood out for their creative incorporation of climate-related dialogue, with characters acknowledging the impact of rampant consumerism, the fight for dwindling natural resources, and the effects of global warming on marine life. Films must be set on earth and take place in the present or near future to qualify.
“The Bechdel-Wallace Test debuted in a 1985 comic strip. Four decades later, it still resonates as one of the most effective tools for measuring female representation in film and television,” Anna Jane Joyner, Founder and CEO of Good Energy, said in a statement. She highlighted the significance of representing the climate crisis in entertainment. “Good Energy set out to capture that same light-hearted yet incisive quality in measuring climate visibility. I’m thrilled to see that several of my favorite Oscar-nominated films from the last year passed the Climate Reality Check. It’s a clear demonstration that acknowledging the climate crisis on-screen can be done in entertaining and artful ways that are authentic to the story. More proof that audiences crave seeing their own world and experience, which now universally includes the climate crisis, reflected on screen.”
Joyner, a long-time strategist at the intersection of climate, communications, and storytelling, has consulted on more than 100 TV, film, and podcast projects. She developed the test alongside Carmiel Banasky, Editor-in-Chief at Good Energy, and a critically acclaimed novelist, WGA TV and feature writer, and audio-drama creator, specializing in climate fiction; Bruno Olmedo Quiroga, Director of Strategy at Good Energy, and design researcher, strategist, storyteller, IDEO alum, and cofounder of Maybe Ventures; and Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, PhD, Associate Professor of English at Colby College.
Schneider-Mayerson emphasized the role of storytelling in addressing climate change. He says humans are storytelling animals and climate change is “the biggest story of our time.” According to Schneider-Mayerson, climate change affects every part of our lives and “threatens everything we depend on and hold dear. Yet it has been absent from the stories we consume,” he says. “The Climate Reality Check is a simple, illuminating, and powerful tool that can be used to evaluate any group of narratives — from films and TV shows to video games and novels — for their reflection of our climate reality. In this way, the Climate Reality Check provides a new and necessary perspective on storytelling in and for a world on fire.”
Good Energy’s mission is to facilitate the integration of climate themes into TV and film narratives, bridging the gap between climate experts, those on the front lines of the crisis, and industry creatives. The consultancy works to inspire, support, and accelerate the production of stories that reflect the ongoing climate emergency in an engaging and artistic manner.
In 2022, actor and longtime climate activist Ed Begley Jr., partnered with Dianna Cohen, the co-founder and CEO of the Plastic Pollution Coalition, on a similar Bechdel-Wallace-inspired test for plastic on the big screen. The effort is working to put reusable water bottles and mugs in scripts in place of single-use plastic. It’s also working behind the scenes to keep single-use plastic off of sets. “What we see is what we do, and the entertainment industry can help audiences shift away from our toxic throwaway culture,” Begley said at the time.
The Environmental Media Association has also played a critical role in reshaping film production with its Green Seal of approval for productions that work to reduce their carbon footprints.
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