The Romantic View of Nature and the Conspiracy Theory in Environmental Documentaries
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University of Calgary PRISM: University of Calgary's Digital Repository Graduate Studies The Vault: Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2012-07-11 The Romantic View of Nature and the Conspiracy Theory in Environmental Documentaries Orda, Olga Orda, O. (2012). The Romantic View of Nature and the Conspiracy Theory in Environmental Documentaries (Unpublished master's thesis). University of Calgary, Calgary, AB. doi:10.11575/PRISM/28372 http://hdl.handle.net/11023/108 master thesis University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission. Downloaded from PRISM: https://prism.ucalgary.ca UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY The Romantic View of Nature and the Conspiracy Theory in Environmental Documentaries by Olga Orda A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS COMMUNICATION & CULTURE CALGARY, ALBERTA JULY 2012 © Olga Orda 2012 UNIVERSITY OF CALGARY FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES The undersigned certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate Studies for acceptance, a thesis entitled “The Romantic View of Nature and the Conspiracy Theory in Environmental Documentaries” submitted by Olga Orda in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Masters of Arts. ________________________________________________ Supervisor, Dr. Douglas Allan Brent, Communications Studies ________________________________________________ Mr. George R. Melnyk, Communications Studies ________________________________________________ Dr. Paul James Stortz, History _______________________________________________ Dr. Lorry William Felske, Communications Studies ______________________ Date 2 Abstract This project argues that environmental documentaries of the 2000s promote harmful Romantic views of nature and produce overly simplistic knowledge about the causes of global environmental degradation through the use of the conspiracy theory. By analyzing the rhetorical and ideological features of environmental documentaries through the tradition of scholars who write on the Romantic views of nature and the conspiracy theories, this project’s methodology will allow us to see how environmental documentaries frame nature and environmental problems in ways that are overly simplistic and even harmful to the advancement of the environmental movement itself. Ultimately, this project contributes a unique analysis not only of environmental films, but more importantly, the types of definitions of nature and environmental problems that circulate and that are perpetuated in popular culture and environmental movement circles. 3 Acknowledgements This thesis could not have been completed without the thoughtful guidance of my supervisor Dr. Doug Brent, my extremely patient and absolutely delightful parents and my mentor, Dr. Roman Onufrijchuk. I also want to thank my friends Alison Dow, Nina Halliday-Thompson and Rob Nelles, who always believed in me. I dedicate this thesis to all of you. 4 Table of Contents Approval Page ..................................................................................................................... 2 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................. 4 Chapter 1: Introduction ....................................................................................................... 6 Chapter 2: Literature Review ............................................................................................ 18 Romantic View of Nature: The Sublime ................................................................. 113 Romantic View of Nature: The Pastoral .................................................................... 21 The Post Modern Sublime ......................................................................................... 25 The Conspiracy Theory ............................................................................................ 27 Post-Industrial Society ............................................................................................... 31 Neoliberalism ............................................................................................................. 35 Consumer Culture. ..................................................................................................... 37 Modernity ................................................................................................................... 40 Chapter 3: Case Study of Reform Documentaries ............................................................ 45 An Inconvenient Truth ............................................................................................... 48 The 11th Hour ............................................................................................................. 61 Chapter 4: Case Study of Radical Documentaries ............................................................ 75 The End of Suburbia .................................................................................................. 81 The Long Shadow .................................................................................................... 115 Conclusion ...................................................................................................................... 104 References ....................................................................................................................... 112 5 Chapter 1: Introduction Environmental documentaries of the 2000s have reinvigorated the environmental movement and thus represent an important cultural and historical moment. These films have been important insofar as they have engaged audiences beyond the environmental movement, stimulated an appreciation of nature and brought to light the scale of environmental problems that we face today. Yet, at the same time, they appear to only repeat facile conceptions of the environment and may, in spite of their critical nature, be doing more damage to nature at worst or absolving individuals from taking environmental action at best. This project seeks to address the more problematic aspects of environmental documentaries in an attempt to argue that Western culture could benefit from viewing nature and environmental problems from a more nuanced and critical perspective. Critical environmental scholar Dryzek (1997) defines the environment as the intersection of ecosystems and human social systems (p. 8). This concept, in turn, articulates nature as an ecosystem that is relatively unchanged or undisturbed by human culture (Johnson, Ambrose, Bassett, Bowen, Crummey, Isaacson, Lamb, Saul, and Winter-Nelson, 1997, p. 581). Environmental documentaries propagate notions of nature as something that makes us feel good as well as something that can enhance our lifestyles. Thus, they do not really contribute to the political, economic, cultural and social change we need to develop a deeper understanding with nature. In this thesis, I will argue that environmental documentaries are influential but influential in the wrong ways and their solutions to address environmental degradation are not radical enough. 6 An Inconvenient Truth (2006) is an often-cited example of an influential environmental documentary. On October 12, 2007, Steve Inseep, a host at National Public Radio, reported on Gore winning the Nobel Peace Prize along with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Inseep (2007) said that, “An Inconvenient Truth (2006) put global warming on the national agenda in a way that he was never able to do as a public official.” New Mexico Democratic Senator Jeff Bingaman even argued that, “it seems to me we were having great difficulty recruiting Republican members of Congress to support a bill before Al Gore came up with this movie” (Brosnan, 2006. p. 1). Irena Salina, director of the environmental documentary, Flow: For Love of Water (2008) about the global water crisis, said that, "there's no doubt that Al Gore's movie changed everything…I think a lot of people were very surprised at how effective the film really was in educating people” (Monk, 2008, para. 11). Environmental studies scholars have compared the impact of Gore’s documentary on reinvigorating the modern environmental movement to that of Rachel Carson’s now-classic text, The Silent Spring (Johnson, 2008, p. 29), about the dangers of chemical pesticides to nature and people. An Inconvenient Truth (2006) is not an isolated film or an anomaly but rather points to the broader phenomenon of the rise of the environmental documentary. In fact, the number of environmental documentaries surged from a total of 17 from the 1970s to the late 1990s to over 115 by 2010 (Grinning Planet. (n.d.); Spword. (n.d.). As of September 2010, three of sixty of the highest grossing documentaries of all time according to lifetime box office sales are environmental documentaries. This list includes the films Who Killed the Electric Car? (2006), An Inconvenient Truth (2006) and Food Inc. (2008) (Box Office Mojo, n.d.). 7 This project argues that, despite their success in getting the environment on the agenda, environmental documentaries of the 2000s promote harmful Romantic views of nature and produce overly simplistic knowledge about the causes of global environmental