Gloria Calderón Kellett on How Writers Can Tell Compelling Stories About Climate Change

variety.com:

Ashley Hume Lyn Lear, Gloria Calderón Kellett and Bill Nye were among the over 300 guests who attended the launch event for Good Energy’s playbook for screenwriters at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles on Tuesday night.The nonprofit organization’s new playbook titled “Good Energy: A Playbook for Screenwriting in the Age of Climate Change,” is a resource guide aimed at helping industry professionals integrate climate in the storylines of film and television projects.Hosted by Good Energy and Bloomberg Philanthropies, the event took place at the museum’s fifth-floor Tea Room and Wilshire Terrance, where attendees enjoyed cocktails as the sun was setting over the L.A.

skyline. The night featured speeches by Lear, Good Energy founder Anna Jane Joyner, IllumiNative Founder Crystal Echo Hawk, Bloomberg Philanthropies’ Katherine Oliver and Center for Cultural Power founder Favianna Rodriguez.As part of the research for the playbook, Good Energy had commissioned a study from the University of Southern California’s Norman Lear Center which found that less than 0.56 percent of scripted TV and film produced between 2016 and 2020 include the term “climate change.”In addition, the study revealed that only 2.8 percent of scripts mentioned any climate change keywords such as “global warming”, “sea level rise” and “solar panels.”During her speech, Lear noted, “Aside from the few well-known, breakthrough hits of climate that we all know, there has been a significant lag in climate storytelling for decades.

For whatever reason, the stories about the disastrous effects of fossil fuels and pollution are just more difficult to tell.