Fifty years ago, on this day, April 19, 1973, the first Hollywood film to mention global warming was released…
1973 Soylent Green released http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soylent_Green
The amount of carbon dioxide in the air was roughly 331.5ppm. As of 2023 it is 420ppm, but check here for daily measures.
The context was
Harry “Stainless Steel Rat” Harrison had written a novel called “Make Room, Make Room”, published in 1968. This became Soylent Green.
The timing wasn’t as good as it could have been – the “Malthusian Moment” was passing/had passed, but such is the danger with films, which inevitably have a long lead-time.
See also other films of the time that have interesting things to say about “ecology”-
Silent Running (1972)
Rollerball (1975)
The Omega Man (1971) (starring C. Heston)
Planet of the Apes (1968) (starring C. Heston)
What I think we can learn from this
Global warming was considered by the script-writers and director to be well-enough known as not to mystify the audience…
It’s hard to talk about societal conspiracies/conspiracies of silence. This film was a decent effort, imo.
And the stuff with Edward G. Robinson is great…
What happened next
Heston, who had been a liberal darling, went further and further “right” – a common but not universal or inevitable path.
What do you think? Does this pass the ‘so what?’ threshold? Have I got facts wrong? Interpretation wrong? Please do comment on this post, unless you are a denialist, obvs.
See also
https://www.c-span.org/video/?425972-1/1973-film-soylent-green-environmental-movement