Introduction: Film and Television Production in the Era of Accelerated Climate Change—A Greener Screen?

Abstract

Due to its immense sociocultural influence and economic resources, the global screen media industry is at the forefront of raising awareness for the political and social issues resulting from accelerated environmental instability. Over the past two decades, not only have environmental subjects been more prominently represented on screen, but sustainability and eco-friendly rhetoric have become central to the rebranding of studios, the activism and social capital of movie stars, and the publicity strategies designed to draw audiences to cinemas, television, and streaming services. However, Janus-like, the twenty-first century relationship between screen media and the environment has another face that demands urgent scrutiny. The advent of the digital age and the vast electrical and Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) infrastructures required to support digital production, distribution, and archiving has resulted in the rapid expansion and diversification of the industry’s resource use, infrastructure construction, energy dependency, and consequent waste and emissions production. All of this at a time when these processes—resource extraction, manufacturing, and grid deployment—continue to follow mostly environmentally destructive twentieth-century protocols.