Shower between northern and western scotland. Most other places dry with spells of sunshine and top temperatures between 17 and 21 degrees. Goodbye. Hello this is bbc news with shaun ley. The headlines donald trump steps into north korea to meet kim jong un in the demilitarised zone, becoming the first serving us president to enter the country. A baby delivered after its mother was stabbed to death remains in a Critical Condition in hospital a man has been arrested on suspicion of murder. Jeremy hunt signals a toughening of his position on brexit in the conservative leadership race, warning he could withold some of the uks divorce bill if he doesnt get a better deal. New rules mean electric cars must now make a noise at lower speeds. Now on bbc news, in thejune edition of talking movies the emphasis is on hollywood and the environment, including taking a look at how studios incorporate Environmental Concerns into their films. Its hello, and welcome to this special edition its of talking movies on the Film Industry and the environment. Im tom brook. In todays programme, how hollywood has dealt with Global Warming and other Environmental Issues in its films. Plus, efforts to reduce the Carbon Footprint of movies in production, we go behind the scenes. And how Climate Change is affecting the content of nature documentaries. And the film that explores peoples feelings and our Climate Change era. All that more in this special environmental edition of talking movies. Hollywood has historically been eager to reflect changes in the wider world in its films, but when it comes to Climate Change, the tendency is for it to be looked out at through the documentary lens rather than by feature film makers. Emma jones has been finding out why. The polar ice caps have melted and the earth lies beneath a watery grave. One of hollywoods first attempts at featuring Climate Change as a plot device, water world with Kevin Costner was a floating mad max. It was sunk at the box office, groaning under the weight of its then record 172 million budget. It has been raining like this for three days now. Mr Vice President if we dont act now, its going to be too late. But 200as the day after tomorrow remains hollywoods definitive Global Warming blockbuster. Directed by the master of disaster, Roland Emmerich, the film plunged the Northern Hemisphere into a new ice age, with americans forced to flee south to mexico. It made 500 million in cinemas, although at the time, the science was scoffed at. This is really not a political issue, so much as a moral issue. But it took a serious man to get a serious issue into the public eye, former Vice President , al gore. A 2006 documentary from davis guggenheim, that followed the campaign to educate people about Global Warming won an oscar, it also got audiences talking. In 2017, a sequel was made to an Inconvenient Truth. Something that even Roland Emmerich hadnt attempted. Stories are the best way to communicate in a memorable fashion. And among all of the media available to us, i personally believe that movies are the most powerful, because you have a longform opportunity to convey a message with a lot of complexity, and a powerful truth. An Inconvenient Truth established the documentary as hollywoods way of tackling Climate Change. And even more famous faces than al gore became involved. Try to have a conversation with anyone about Climate Change, people just tune out. Leonardo dicaprio has made two films on Climate Change, one of them, before the flood was released free of charge on streaming platforms and was viewed 2 million times in one day. Such figures have encouraged other filmmakers that there is an audience for serious filmmaking on Environmental Issues. Earlier this year, Chiwetel Ejiofor directed the boy who harnessed the wind. Based on the story of a schoolboy, william kamkwamba, who saved his village from Climate Change caused famine. People in our most vulnerable communities, globally, are the ones that are going to take the brunt. The first wave of the brunt. It will come and knock on all of our doors eventually but it is the first wave of the brunt, of our collective behaviour. There was something about that, about the nature of Climate Change, about its impact already, its growing impact on vulnerable communities that i thought was very, very urgent, and that williams story spoke to as well. We can live in solutions to these problems, we can choose to be, all of us, to be william kamkwambas, and to start to sort of embrace the solutions to these issues. But hollywoods big budget departments are still mainly using the environment as a plot device, one for special effects, plus someone in san andreas case, dwaynejohnson, to save the world from natural disasters. In homage to that new ice age depicted in hollywood blockbuster, the day after tomorrow, i have come to the ice bar london and ifound film critic, anna smith. Anna, has hollywood ever been quite responsible in its attitude towards the environment when making its films . I think when it comes to big blockbusters, there may be some intention on the part of directors like Roland Emmerich, who gave us 2012 and the day after tomorrow, to tell a story thats going to have some kind of impact and make people think. But ultimately, studios want to make money and want to tell a blockbuster story that is action packed, so they cut to the chase very, very quickly and we see the hero escalating through the disaster and getting to the chase. It is not a kind of realistic experience. A realistic experience of Climate Change will probably leave people quite depressed coming out of the cinema. Nor has hollywood had a great track record in colliding with environmental reality. The hollywood version of alex garlands the beach was accused of ecological vandalism, disrupting the fragile ecosystem of the thai beach where the film was made, and planting new species to make the settings seem more perfect. Do you think hollywood is going to change its tune after there has been a growing realisation that Climate Change is now here . I would love to think that it does, but there remains the problem, its that studios have to please Middle America and climate deniers. And that not everyone, even those who are on board, want to go to spend a lot of money at the cinema for an escapist movie which deals with this subject. However, id love to think that may shift and that may change as people become more aware. Perhaps Darren Aronofskys mother, an allegory itself about the killing of the planet, which puzzled many when it was first screened, is also an highlight of hollywoods relationship with the environment. Well intentioned, but far too often, missing the point. Its just never enough. Environmental concerns are changing the content of nature or wildlife documentaries, which have been a steadily popular genre of film for more than 60 years. Increasing anxiety over the environment is prompting some film makers to adopt a more urgent, at times, disconcerting tone. Noah gittell reports. This is the story of our changing planet. Nature documentaries are having a moment in the sun. The genre as we know it was invented when the bbc found it in its Natural History unit in 1957. Now in 2019, tv networks and streaming services are overflowing with documentaries that chronicle both the splendour of nature, and its brutal underbelly. How to explain that the rising popularity of this genre . Some see it as a necessary antidote to a modern society which leaves us disconnected from the Natural World. They are in some ways, quite similar, to historically. To zoos, and Natural History museums because they give us some sense of the platitude of life. I think the thing that distinguishes them from those other institutions though, is that they can also really connect with people on an emotional level, you know . So there is something about film and film narrative that i think can elicit really strong affect from people, kind of a sense of connection, and a sense of emotional transport. Maybe that is even more true that we are now glued to our couches and phones . What i would say is that the big shift probably happens about 100 years ago, where humanity goes from being in everyday contact with animals, at least in the capitalist, industrialised world, to losing those contacts on an everyday level. And so i think that documentary films about nature give people a sense of that visceral connection again. We have some plastic that this poor chick has had to bring up. As a response to our growing environmental crises, nature documentaries have adopted a tone elegiac than celebratory. The trend began with the bbcs blue planet ii, which shocked audiences sea birds being forced to feed man made debris to their chicks. The netflix docu series, our planet, takes things a step further, demonstrating in often brutal detail the impact of human expansion on the ecosystem. In one haunting sequence, walruses who have been forced away from their natural habitat by Climate Change helplessly from a jagged cliff as they attempt to return to the ocean from an unfamiliar landscape. Its a traumatic scene, but experts say that new realities demanded this new approach. The fact is, were living during the sixth mass extinction of species, all of the animals portrayed in these documentaries, and plants and ecosystems, are in crisis. And so if you just portray them as, isnt this interesting, wonderful, and beautiful or cute, youre missing a pretty central fact. And in doing so, enabling a larger cultural phenomenon of denial of the crisis that we face. Data suggests this approach can have a real impact. 88 of viewers have pledged to reduce their consumption of plastic after watching blue planet ii. A golden mole its totally blind. But if nature documentaries are to reflect the full scope of our environmental crisis, bigger changes are needed. Some critics argue that the underlying perspective of the nature documentary, a genre invented and dominated by white europeans, is inherently limiting. They participate in what is essentially a form of colonial knowledge, in which there is a kind of omniscient narrator. Think about the way most of these films are set up, with a kind of white guy, although we never actually see him, but we hear his voice over. It is narrating the truth of these other civilisations or other wild worlds, other species worlds and so what that does is to set up a kind of opposition between the narrator and also the viewer and the Natural World. And it suggests there is a complete antithesis between them. But we know that is not true. We know that we are shaping the Natural World, we live in he anthropocene age, and we know that the Natural World is directly impinging on us in all sorts of increasingly violent ways. In a sense, this turning point for nature documentaries reflects the larger shifts that have been happening in other areas of film. Views that have been systematically marginalised for years, like those of women or people or colour are now being elevated. When the old stories no longer serve the audience, new voices are needed. It is the same thing with nature documentaries, the only difference is the stakes are much larger. The future of our species may depend on whether they evolve fast enough. The Film Community generally takes a politically correct line when it comes to Public Comments about Climate Change and environmental accountability. But theres a degree of hypocrisy in these pronouncements because when it comes to its impact on the environment, the Film Industry has been a big offender. Now theres effort under way to turn things around. Film sets are incredibly wasteful places, vast resources are routinely gathered, and to be disposed of before it is off to another location. But there is a campaign under way to make hollywood green. Producer Lydia Pilcher has been greening every film is that she has produced over the last 10 years. This one knows it is a big challenge. Absolutely. It could be an independent film, 50 100 people. A studio film could be 100 200. The miniseries im about to do, the crew size will be up to 350 people. That is a crew before you bring in all your background extras. When you think about what it takes to be people around from set to said, the transportation, the energy involved, then you get to creating the world of the movie, the sets, the scenery, all of the art department, the props, the wardrobe. So you are really running a little civilisation to make a movie set, so everywhere you go you are creating things and leaving Carbon Footprints. We, as an industry, can be progressive in our content, but when it comes to our practice, not so much typically. Emily 0brien in new york is co founder of earth angel, a company which will work with different studios to make it more green. Our model at earth angel, is about the providing the stats to help shoot sustainably. The four ss, as we refer to it. We actually recruit, train, and supervise equal Production Assistant on every show that we work on. So there is always a dedicated individual who is overseeing and maintaining a shows sustainability efforts. That level of accountability makes the entire initiative go more smoothly and is so much more effective. The level of Environmental Impact assessment that we provide is pretty tremendous, in terms of how many plastic bottles are avoided, all the way up to, heres your Carbon Footprint. Really digesting that, breaking it down into ways that is easy for cast and crews to understand. What is it that motivates a studio to get involved in sustainability and thinking about issues like the environment . Because their main aim is obviously to turn a profit, isnt it . I was very impressed when i learned that the Hollywood Studios have been calculating their Carbon Footprints for years, the footprint of theirstudio, equipment, the technology, the generators, the sound stages. They had been aware that this was an issue that was to be dealt with in our future. I think any corporation that has these Capital Investments and are unaware of what the current science is, which is pretty undeniable, the planet is heating up, things are changing, things need to change more. There is a level of social responsibility. And ultimately, it is an economic factor to really get on board with what the reality is and deal with it. So how much difference can these committed organisations and individuals make . Can they really bring down the Carbon Footprint of a film during production . Typical production, i would say their Carbon Footprint, was ten years ago, i would say we are down to about a third of that with the ones implementing these initiatives. Eventually, the goal is to get to Carbon Neutrality is our end goal, and then decarbonisation. Emily may be a small operator but she has some big endorsements. She helped make the amazing spider man 2 the most eco friendly sony blockbuster in history, showing she has support for some of the biggest players in history. It seems efforts to turn hollywood green have taken root, and are here to stay. 2019 brought a different kind of environmentalfilm, that was more concerned about peoples feelings about Climate Change, than the phenomenon itself. Filmmaker brett story has put together the committee on Climate Change, hearing peoples fears about the future. Every day for the month of august and 2017, film maker brett story roamed new york city, interviewing its residents about their thoughts in its future. This resulted in the documentary, the hottest august, a time capsule of peoples anxieties when it comes to Climate Change according to the director. She said she wanted to make a different environmental film. We see a lot of films that are about coral reefs that are being destroyed, polar bears starving, things based on information about Climate Change instead of the environment and i wanted to make a film that is about whether or not Climate Change exists, because we do, not how bad it is, but rather about how people are coping and what is at the root of our own paralysis in the face of it. A number of people that story talked to not only ruminated on the environment but also how Climate Change is having a negative impact on economic and politicalfares in the us. Do you as a film maker or your subjects make a connection between the climate and polit