If Everyone Believed in a Hollywood Ending
Tuvalu could be saying “too-da-loo” any day now. As ignorant as it may sound, I only heard about the Pacific Island of Tuvalu this past January during the Copenhagen climate summit talks, when representatives from the small snake-shaped country stood up to G8 countries in opposition of the poor-excuse of a resolution. Tuvalu is one of the most threatened countries in the world subject to the affects of global warming, and yet the only time I’ve heard about it was because a) I was watching European television and b) dramatic sparks flew. The threat is real, but the reality is that no one really cares. We on this blog care, we know the threat is real, we know what challenges are ahead. But how do we make others care? One answer may lie on the first chapter of Mark Lynas‘s Six Degrees.
Lynas turns to Jake Gyllenhaal as a possible solution. He’s good looking, brings in the big bucks, and most recently was able to convince the movie-going public that he and Dennis Quaid could save the world from a sudden global warming that threatens Earth in “The Day After Tomorrow”. Jake Gyllenhaal can save me any day, but how can he help save Earth? Instead of wasting millions of dollars on movies that simply entertain and not educate the public, Hollywood needs to step it up and bring countries like Tuvalu into the foreground. If Hollywood learned how to make a blockbuster that showed what the real effects of global warming had on its audiences, maybe we’d have a better chance at making sure the people of Tuvalu stay afloat. If 1 degree can drown a country, one movie should be able to change someone’s idea of what global warming really is.