Examples Of Environmentalism In The Movie Waterworld

899 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: thesis on the environmental movement

During the 1960s through 2000s Americans started to worry about the future of humanity with the environmental changes and the movie “Waterworld” is a clear representation of their fears about the future. Starting in the mid- twenties people wanted to preserve nature because it was beautiful and some believed humans were spiritually attached to it, but the reasons change in the 1960s. The American people, in the 1960’s, started to realized that all the new technology was not eco-friendly and that the environment was seriously in danger. With this in mind, the growth of environmentalism was a result of the environmental degradation in the advanced industrial societies and the growth of the new science named ecology. Ecology provided the leaders of the movement called environmentalist with new and powerful arguments.
Also writers and environmentalist started to spread the word of the changes the environment was going through and many …show more content…

The theory is presented as hope for humanity since the protagonist referred as “The Mariner” is a symbol of it for society as it is the representation of evolution. He has adapted to this new environment by growing gills behind his ears and developing webbed feet to help him survive in the water. The theory in evolution was already known at the time and the movie promotes it as possible solution for a new form of life if dry land is never found. The evolution the protagonist had experience also shows how society had accepted or had started to believed in this controversial theory. The movie presents it as something natural and the characters in the movie are not surprised or scared making society more likely to accepted. In addition, “The Mariner” is portrait as hero with advantages over the common human and this makes seemed evolution as something positive making it more acceptable to the

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of A Fierce Green Fire

    711 Words  | 2 Pages

    The battle between humanity and nature began when the industrial civilization started threatening our environment and natural resources. Hunters, like Theodore Roosevelt and Aldo Leopold, were the first Americans to realize that nature is something that we need to preserve. Leopold’s awakening was seeing a fierce green fire in the eyes of a wolf he had shot. He was able to understand what it means to take away pieces of life and how it affected the important role of earth’s grand scheme of nature. People started to become environmentalists when they experienced the same realization as

    Read More

  • Dirty Word Clean Place Summary

    527 Words  | 2 Pages

    He delves into the history of the word “environmental” as well as the history of environmental activism. He pinpoints the beginning of the movement to Rachel Carson. According to Quammen, she began the revolution by publishing her book Silent Spring. He says the negative connotations of the word began with her book, pairing “environment” and “the survival of humankind” as if they go hand in hand. This played a major role in the distortion of the word and the intentions of environmentalists.

    Read More

  • Analysis of Challenges to Protecting the Environment

    992 Words  | 2 Pages

    It is difficult for humans to live in harmony with nature because humans’ selfishness always places profits before our earth’s needs. We live in a consumer society, which we purchase interesting products and dispose of them carelessly. Those products with non-decomposable materials, which make our life easier and more comfortable, result a massive damage to our environment. In the articles, “A Fable for Tomorrow” by Rachel Carson and “Our Animals Rite” by Anna Quindlen, both authors suggest destruction in nature world due to human’s activities. As environment issues presented by scientists, governments around the world start to give highly attention on the environmental protection, but there are many challenges in implementing environmental protection policies. Some of the top environmental concerns are air pollution, climate changing and trash waste. Although people started to aware the horrible consequences due to polluted environment, an efficient life, people apathy toward ecosystem and human's unlimited desires for a confortable life have created obstacles for the world to protect the environment.

    Read More

  • The Rise of Environmentalism in the United States

    2114 Words  | 5 Pages

    The environment in America today is far from Eden, but there is a valiant battle being fought by many to return the earth to a more "natural" state. Green and clean is the preferred vision of the future1. This trend towards environmental awareness, or environmentalism, is a prominent theme in today’s American society. Politics, industry, marketing, and media all use the environment as a means to sell themselves. With such a high profile, it seems almost unbelievable that there was a time when the word environment was little known or not used. However, the period was not so long ago. Even before World War II nature was referred to as wilderness and wilderness existed to serve humans2. The shift from nature existing to serve humans to humans protecting the environment was not a very complex project, but rather one of many small influences and their resulting effects. Hence, the rise of environmentalism in American society is the result of gradual social changes, which created a shift in social values.

    Read More

  • David Suzuki's 'Rediscovering Our Place In Nature'

    705 Words  | 2 Pages

    What would take its place were a global economy and a fragmented understanding. This new era was characterized by big cities, fruits being readily available during obscure times of the year, and, consumer goods being flown into any part of the world. Now the days of small villages and locality were growing scarce. As humans continually lose track of the story behind the beginning and the consequences of the lack thereof; the population remains in a state of conflict with the life that supports them. In 1962, “Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson’s acted as the catalyst to Suzuki and many others understanding of what the environmental movement would come to be. The definition would take on several different faces throughout the world, ranging from logging to, chemical pesticides, and CFCs. The pesticide DDT and the effect it had within the food chain resulted in the increasing number of deaths of birds. The chemicals that make up CFCs, found in deodorant, ended in the ongoing depletion of the ozone layer. From these cases, a new realization of what consequences ignorance brings and raises the new question of how to predict and stop

    Read More

  • Earth First!

    1976 Words  | 4 Pages

    The early 1980s in America saw a stark transition of political power – the end term of humanitarian Jimmy Carter, transitioning to eight years of Ronald Reagan. 2 As the global population hit 4.5 billion and CO2 concentration in the atmosphere passed 335 ppm, Reagan responded with cuts left and right to the budget and staff of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).2 Yet in a bumpy, swaying Volkswagen van traveling across the American Southwest desert, three frustrated conservationists discussed their inner drive for change in the environmental movement- a new direction soon to be known as Earth First!.3

    Read More

  • Confucian Ecological Horizons

    918 Words  | 2 Pages

    The present comes from the past and the two must always be in step. Our activities shape the future of our planet. The earth as we know it today is facing an unprecedented ecological crisis. Its cause is the relentlessly increasing exploitation of the planet’s available resources to make up for the demands of the economy. It has become apparent that these environmental problems are predominantly the repercussions of human activities vis-à-vis nonhuman and nonliving things that co-inhabitate the earth. As pointed out by Lynn White in his article, “The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis”, the fate of the ecology depends on what humans think about themselves in relation to things in the environment (White Jr 1973). Lynn White brings an important point to our attention. If human beings consider the environment as an important entity of their life, then they will strive to protect and sustain it; in contrast, if they cannot conceive of a connection for the things in environment, the world will continue to degrade. The problem at hand is that, since the beginning of the economic era, people seem to have lost themselves, even more so than before, to wealth and social standing. The economy market triggered people to nurture their selfish desires and alienate from the rest of the world. As a result of that, human nature is often described as self-centered. However, according Mencius – the one who instigated the writings of the Confucian traditions –

    Read More

  • Earth Day Essay

    753 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the 1970’s the single event of Earth Day can be represented as the emergence of modern environmentalism that generated the relationship between the population and their environment. Finis Dunaway, and associate professor in the department of history at Trent University, clearly emphasizes in his article Gas Masks, Pogo, and the Ecological Indian: Earth Day and the Visual Politics of American Environmentalism, the multiple events that involved the effect of mass media and environmentalists that led to the awareness of the environmental crisis occurring throughout the nation.

    Read More

  • Rachel Carson's Silent Spring

    1604 Words  | 4 Pages

    ...and ignited a social movement to save the environment, along with the living creatures that inhabit it.

    Read More

  • Environmental Issues In Silent Spring

    2441 Words  | 5 Pages

    In 1989, seventy five percent of Americans identified themselves as environmentalists, and the number has continued to grow since then (Walls 1). Environmentalism is now the most popular social movement in the United States, with over five million American families donating regularly to environmental organizations (Walls 1). Environmentalists today focus on what kind of world they hope to see in the future, and largely deal with limiting pollution and changing consumption rates (Kent 1 and 9). Modern environmentalists also have much different issues than those Carson’s America faced. With climate change becoming more threatening each year, protection of the natural world is needed more than ever. Pollution has caused the warmest decade in history, the deterioration of the ozone layer, and species extinction in extreme numbers (Hunter 2). It not only threatens nature, but also human populations, who already suffer from lack of clean water and poisoning from toxic chemicals (Hunter 16). Unlike environmental actions in the 1960’s, which were mostly focused on protection, a massive increase in pollution has caused efforts to be focused on environmental restoration (Hunter 16). Like in the time of Silent Spring, environmentalists are not only concerned with one country. Protecting the environment remains a global issue, and every nation is threatened by the

    Read More

  • Essay About Environmental Issues

    1162 Words  | 3 Pages

    Today talking about environmental issues lately to be like a common topic discussion until people take it for granted. However, the world facing a complex environmental problems related to each trouble that connected to one another and come out with greater impacts to the environment and humans. This is because the effects of environmental only can be seen in long term period rather than immediately result show up. Environmental issues must become one of the controversial matters in the society in order to make people know the truth what the world currently facing. There were a lot of environmental disaster happened such as climate change, global warming, various of pollutions, earthquake and etc. the rise of environmental issues begin with this urban development occur through several countries following with the technologies equip along. For sure, development will cause a huge negative impact to the environment if it deals without a care. Besides, the environment is the place in the ecosystem to hold and use in finding resources to continuously survive in this world. Thus, the finding and digging for the resources which happening extensively without preservation will not restore the surrounding similar with before. But then, the change cannot be refuse and people need to take an action to save the threaten the world and the ecosystem from being extinct. If each country has own output in causing an environmental problem, then consider the world to hold all the damage occurred. Exposing the effects of environmental issues throughout the world, make people realize the important to take care the environment.

    Read More

  • The Protection of the Environment Through Law

    1443 Words  | 3 Pages

    The protection of the environment however has just recently become the major issue that it is in today’s society. People worldwide have slowly begun to realize and become aware of the blatant destruction and deterioration of the environment and ozone. As well as the consequences and side affects, that we, as a society have created. The majority of people are just becoming aware of the frightening reality of the situation. As society becomes more informed on the issue of the environment, they too become more impatient, and feel that in the snap of fingers, the damage can be reversed and future damage can be stopped instantaneously.

    Read More

  • Environmental Protection Must Be Our Top Priority

    2874 Words  | 6 Pages

    As an environmentalist (or a "radical" environmentalist, as I am often labeled by members of the mainstream environmental movement), I feel it is my duty as a protector of the Earth's well-being to write this editorial as a means of bringing into the American consciousness a variety of frightening environmental issues. Though some of you may be aware of these problems, I know many are not, and thus may be shocked to learn about the degradation of our Earth and the people living in it. Indeed, I truly believe that "since the dawn of the industrial age, America has behaved like an alcoholic with a good job—prospering despite a lifestyle that jeopardizes the future and ruins much of what is good with irresponsible behavior.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Environmental Philosophy

    1229 Words  | 3 Pages

    Environmental philosophers are able to open up a range of different ideas behind our environmental crisis. They do this by not only looking at physical marks left by humans on the earth but also at the very humans themselves. Theories don’t only explain complex dynamics and structures but give us an opportunity to reflect upon our own behaviors and decisions in relation to the environment.

    Read More

  • Social Ecology

    1533 Words  | 4 Pages

    Social ecology is the conceptual principles for knowing the outcomes and relations of the many diverse individual and environmental factors. Social ecology is defined as the study of people within an environment, which have influence on one another. It’s believed to be the earth’s societies reflection upon itself, exploring, discovering, and considering its future (Gutkind, 1974). Factors of social ecology may include the infirmities of age, an increase of population, natural disasters, technology and the growth of society. Within social ecology it is important to notice which people are unable to see the environmental crisis. This movement is placing all the responsibility for destroying the earth on humans as they are overpopulating the planet. There is no possible way of convincing all humans to change their way of life (Bookchin, 1995). However, rather have humans distinguish and eliminate previous forms of control and destruction (Bookchin, 1995). The main standard of social ecology is the fact that problems occur from inherent social issues (Dogan, Rokkan, 1974). These problems cannot be understood without acknowledging the social issues. The development, of certain technologies, social characteristics, cities and science all has caused a vast majority of problems to the earth, which leads back to humans.

    Read More

More about Examples Of Environmentalism In The Movie Waterworld

Open Document