The local weather disaster isn’t simply enjoying out within the environment — it’s streaming, too. From near-future dystopias to family-friendly docuseries, the small display provides a surprisingly wealthy medium for exploring the human stakes of environmental change.
We’ve rounded up an inventory of exhibits that sustainability professionals will recognize — or on the very least, recognize debating in Slack threads. Are we suggesting you flip your subsequent workforce assembly right into a watch get together? Not precisely. However when you do, we’ll deliver the popcorn.
Households Like Ours (2024)
Netflix
In a disaster underlined by info and figures, Households Like Ours takes the non-public route. Set in a not-so-distant-future Denmark, the sequence follows abnormal individuals as they face a local weather catastrophe that forces them from their properties and their routines. Faculties shut down, grocery shops exit of enterprise, and neighbors pack their luggage. Lauded as “grimly prophetic” by Stephanie Bunbury in her Deadline evaluation, Households Like Ours asks audiences to think about a world the place “local weather refugee” doesn’t simply describe “them.” however all of us.
Snowpiercer (2020-24)
Apple TV
Trellis readers might already be accustomed to this one, as its movie “mum or dad” graced our 9 Significant Film Nights for the Sustainability Minded checklist. The sequence expands on Bong Joon-Ho’s masterfully crafted world of social and financial stratification. In a dystopian (close to) future, the forged of Snowpiercer travels the world on a perpetually shifting prepare. Every automotive acts as a category divider: “trailies” relegated to the again, with scarce assets and abysmal circumstances, riders within the entrance residing in luxurious. Inevitably, in a claustrophobic setting that homes privilege and shortage, a rebel arises. If the prepare is a metaphor, the message is evident: When catastrophe strikes, inequality is magnified.
Silo (2023)
Apple TV
Primarily based on a trilogy of books by Hugh Howey, this sequence takes us deep underground, to the place a gaggle of survivors seeks shelter from a world poisoned by nanobot outfall. Although they’ve managed to create a self-sustaining group, there are, in fact, cracks beneath the floor (actually). Silo asks related questions concerning the aftermath of catastrophe: Who controls data after issues go awry? How far ought to authority go to guard us? Does the drive for self-preservation clear the way in which for fascism?
Extrapolations (2023)
Apple TV
This eight-part anthology imagines a future reshaped by rising seas, international pandemics, and accelerating tech. Every episode of Extrapolations stands alone whereas threading into a bigger story arc and timeline, reminding us that each particular person motion ripples outward. The forged is stacked — Meryl Streep, Edward Norton, Sienna Miller, Equipment Harington — however probably the most memorable presence is the climate-changed world itself: disturbingly believable and uncomfortably shut.
Our Planet II (2023)
Netflix
This follow-up to the acclaimed Our Planet, and once more narrated by Sir David Attenborough, zeroes in on animal migrations in a warming world. From African elephants to Alaskan crabs, Our Planet II captures the way in which creatures adapt — or don’t — when local weather change disrupts historic patterns. As you’d anticipate, the visuals are breathtaking, even when they’re of ecosystems falling aside, which makes watching equal elements awe-inspiring and sobering.
The Swarm (2023)
Hulu and European platforms
What occurs when Mom Nature has lastly had sufficient? The Swarm provides one reply: a world during which marine life coordinates lethal assaults on people. Whales sink boats, crustaceans overtake seashores and mysterious entities threaten to finish life as they comprehend it for metropolis residents. Tailored from Frank Schätzing’s international bestseller, the edge-of-your-seat eco-horror is a plea to rethink humanity’s conceitedness in direction of nature earlier than it’s too late.
Right down to Earth with Zac Efron (2020 – 2022)
Netflix
Sure, Zac Efron, however beneath the superstar gloss is a surprisingly earnest exploration of sustainability in motion. From permaculture farming in Costa Rica to renewable power in Iceland, Right down to Earth With Zac Efron pairs globe-trotting journey with digestible classes in environmental finest apply. Full disclosure: the critics have been combined. However, belief us, it’s breezy and watchable and far more informative than you would possibly anticipate.
Japan Sinks: 2020 (2020)
Netflix
Primarily based on Sakyo Komatsu’s novel, this animated sequence begins off with a bang — or extra particularly, an earthquake. What begins as a survival story centered on the Mutou household shortly unfolds right into a broader exploration of grief, identification and resilience. Japan Sinks: 2020 pulls audiences in as a lot with sweeping landscapes and courageous stunts as with heartwarming shows of humanity. Though met with contempt from Japanese audiences for its criticism of the nation, the sequence was nominated for 2 Crunchyroll Anime awards and gained the 2021 Annecy Jury Prize for a Tv Sequence.
The Commons (2019-20)
Apple TV and Prime Video
Set in a near-future Sydney scorched by heatwaves, The Commons is a well drawn drama that facilities on a single girl’s battle with fertility amid ecological collapse and creeping authoritarianism. As private and political crises collide, she finds herself grappling with questions of accelerating urgency: Ought to we deliver new generations into such a broken world? The place is the road between safety and overreach?
Captain Planet and the Planeteers (1990-96)
Apple TV and Prime Video
Earlier than “local weather anxiousness” was even a time period, this Saturday morning cartoon was instructing children about air pollution, deforestation and renewable power. With its gloriously ‘90s aesthetic, Captain Planet and the Planeteers follows a workforce of teenagers as they summon our green-mulleted eco-hero to battle company polluters and poisonous villains. Like its successor Wild Kratts, the sequence targets youthful viewers, however revisiting it now provides each a dose of camp and a reminder to start out environmental training early.
