The film industry has a sustainability problem, and it’s massive: The average tentpole production — a film with a budget over $70 million — generates 2,840 tonnes of carbon dioxide, the British Film Institute reported. About 3,709 acres of forest absorb that amount of CO2 in a year.
In 2015, the movie “Mad Max: Fury Road” infamously damaged Namibia’s “fragile deserts,” and Leonardo DiCaprio’s 2000 film “The Beach” led tourists to spoil the movie’s namesake location in Thailand.
With plastic water bottles littering sets, flights to shoot on location, and diesel generators powering lights and cameras, researchers have dubbed the entire movie business a major contributor to the climate crisis.
But on the set of films like the Oscar winner“The Whale,” priorities are starting to shift.
Hauling in experts from Earth…
