Top Ten Green Movies: No. 1

In 1998, environmental discussion in popular culture was almost non-existent. Earlier attempts, like 1992’s Fern Gully, were successful at the box office, but only addressed a part of the environmental problem, largely neglecting its systemic motivations. Apart from the handful of cable channels like Discovery and others and a handful of series and programs aired on PBS, environmentalism was a discourse spoken in the University or at least seemingly far away from lives and concerns of workaday Americans.



5 years later, in 2003, little had changed. The animated TV show Futurama had arguably pushed the envelope the furthest, “discussing” environmental topics through poignant satirical jabs at our present-day habits and attitudes. Unfortunately, Futurama was cancelled the following year. Nevertheless, TV audiences had been tested and seemed open to ideas that challenged their attitudes (and lifestyles) and, in the years that followed, popular programming was open to addressing environmental topics.



Nevertheless, in the 5 years leading up to the 2008 release of Wall-E, during a period of rapid growth and de-regulated economic and environmental practices, much of the progress and, moreover, its incentive for achieving environmental ends was undone. Perhaps that is why Wall-E was and remains so relevant.

Wall-E depicts a world of self-indulgent comfort and leisure that has come at the cost of the world itself. The entire Earth has been depleted of its natural resources in order to sustain a culture that by their very needs and nature are unsustainable. After fleeing the Earth, the descendants of the human race remain idle-yet-busy, hungry-yet-full and comfortable-yet-discontent in a world-ship that sends envoys again and again to Earth only to destroy its findings, which would require changes to almost every aspect of their society but ultimately offer hope for a return to Earth.

Wall-E has many things to say about society, the individual and, more to the point, the individualist society but it seems to offer an alternative to the self-centered, excessively-materialistic society depicted: the societal individual. The film quickly demonstrates the disparities between the two types. Where one wants instant gratification for self, the other wants a sustainable quality of life for all. Where one wants distraction and entertainment, the other wants discussion and societal engagement. Where one wants freedom from thought, the other wants freedom from lies.

In the end, it is through the efforts of the latter group that the human descendants are able to win self-control back from the machinery they had originally built to make their lives easier and return to Earth. As the end-credits montage shows: just as where we are and who we are today is the product of all the generations before it, so too is the future ahead and after us a product of who we are and what we do. Wall-E ultimately demonstrates that, despite having no control over the state of the world as we’ve inherited it, we do have control over how future generations will come to inherit it.

If you're looking for eco-friendly products, see the Green Electronics review.

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