What Is Climate Screenwriting?

My college art history professor – a short woman with tall hair who wore rectangular glasses at the end of her nose and e-nun-ci-a-ted every word – was passionate about women’s art and its place in history. One afternoon she asked the ragtag lot of us art students and history majors what we thought feminism was. After a variety of answers were considered, she presented a straight-to-the-point, remarkably Barbie-free definition.

“Feminism,” she said, “is putting women in the center of your thinking.”

For more than a decade the book world has recognized climate fiction (commonly known as “cli-fi”) as a literary genre or subgenre largely contained to science fiction. Climate screenwriting, however, has just started to become a topic of greater discussion as more people have noticed the lack of its mention in the Hollywood zeitgeist – disaster films, MacGuffins, and clichéd environmentalist characters aside. Of late, climate screenwriting has been bubbling up across genres, and often in ways that aren’t overtly “environmental.”

How frequently or infrequently climate shows up in scripts occurs across a spectrum. On one end, immersive sci-fi drama series Extrapolations weaves it into every aspect of the narrative, from dialogue to theme. On the other end, allegorical satire Don’t Look Up never even mentions it. Exactly which movies and TV shows exist in within this spectrum is open to interpretation. Thankfully, that gray area isn’t stopping screenwriters from depicting climate concerns in a variety of ways.

Climate-related ideas and issues can be most relatable through a character’s passions, occupation, emotions, interpersonal dynamics, or goals. Use of backstory, while potentially less effective in terms of audience impact, can also provide fuel to climate story fodder. (See: Jackson, hunky climate refugee in The Sex Lives of College Girls.)

In the satirical, black comedy TV series The Politician, Infinity’s zero-waste, vegan lifestyle doesn’t just add dimension to her character, it also serves as a challenge to Payton’s supposed commitment to fighting the climate crisis.

In the sci-fi adventure film Okja, each character’s motivations inform how they confront the inherent cruelty of factory farming, an industry that accounts for nearly 15% of human-caused, global greenhouse gas emissions.

When Sam Obisanya of TV comedy Ted Lasso learns a team sponsor is connected to an oil company imperiling his homeland of Nigeria – a country that’s truly grappling with harms from the petroleum industry – he takes a stand that inspires deeper discussion and solidarity with his teammates.

Because the climate crisis affects all areas of our lives, possibilities abound when it comes to advancing the plot through climate-related action.

The team of tiny explorers in the children’s TV series Octonauts: Above and Beyond are always working on solutions for climate impacts, whether it’s relocating beneficial ice worms to a melting glacier, digging a fire break to prevent the spread of a wildfire, or getting to the bottom of unhealthy soil samples.

In the thriller film How to Blow Up a Pipeline, fossil fuel-driven trauma and despair cause young adults to uproot their lives in a quest to sabotage an oil pipeline. Their varying levels of commitment and focus affect the action as it unfolds.

Horror film Unearth pits neighbors against one another when one wants to sell his land’s drilling rights to a natural gas company. After a difficult decision is made, fracking becomes the real antagonist.

Ideally, mentions of climate issues happen in conversations between characters, but passing mentions, when done right, can also expediently parse out scientific facts, reflect a shared concern, present a climate solution, or highlight a climate crisis impact.

In the TV teen comedy Never Have I Ever (S1 E5), Devi’s country declares war on Ben’s country at the model U.N. during a funny, fiery convo about climate. This exchange enables Devi to express hurt feelings she can’t say out loud.

Spike Lee was prescient about climate heat effects in his 1989 comedy-drama Do the Right Thing. When ML says the polar ice caps are melting and “parts that ain’t water already will surely be flattened,” his buddies don’t miss the opportunity to rib him about it.

TV mystery series Nancy Drew (S3 E6) also referenced ice melt. It’s only one line, but the insight Nancy has about global warming furthers her quest in tracing the life of a killer.

Tried and true themes of justice, revenge, coming of age, familial conflict, and pretty much any other theme under the blazing hot sun can be illuminated in climate shows and films.

Climate grief is exemplified in the film drama First Reformed, which depicts a priest grappling with the severity of the climate crisis. His increasing sense of hopelessness drives the plot to unexpected places.

In the superhero Black Panther films, the theme of sovereignty is emphasized by Afrofuturist Wakanda. The abundance of a valuable power source puts the Kingdom at risk of exploitation or attack from more powerful entities, something that reflects the reality of many African communities.

Themes of oppression and war are front and center in political thriller TV series Occupied (Okkupert in Norwegian), which warns what could happen to a society that tries to end its reliance on oil.

Creating a plausible world for characters to exist within can be made even more interesting when writers integrate climate ideas and issues. Technology, landscape, geopolitics, and culture already naturally intersect with climate.

Avalonia, the strange world of the animated sci-fi adventure film Strange World, is suitably perilous for the main characters whose quest unfolds as a fitting parable to our modern-day reliance on fossil fuels.

The world of Snowpiercer (both film and series) is a high-speed train that protects humans from an unlivable environment caused by a failed solution to global warming. Compartments of the train are worlds within a world, each a commentary on class and labor divides.

In the film Glass Onion, tech bro Miles Bron hosts a murder mystery game at his Greek compound that’s powered by a new fuel source he believes will be the Next Big Thing. The unfolding drama in Bron’s home is directly tied to ideas around renewable energy and technology.

Though climate screenwriting is still finding its bearings, the above examples convey a wide range of genre, tone, and concept. Of course, there are many other examples – not just by writers from the U.S. or Europe, and not just in the English language. Global storytellers, especially those from communities that are among the “first and worst” impacted, have voices we all need to hear. Currently, I’ve got Frontera Verde, Japan Sinks, and The Jengaburu Curse on my “To Watch” list.

What’s on yours? Let me know by tagging #ClimateScreenwriting and #ScriptMag on socials.

Read all The Climate Screenwriter columns here. And don’t forget to share them with your writer friends!