The climate crisis is making headlines worldwide, yet research reveals that popular films largely overlook it. A new study co-authored by Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, associate professor of English at Rice University, examines the portrayal — or lack thereof — of climate change and other environmental challenges in popular films.
Soon to be published in Environmental Communication, “The Presence and Portrayal of Climate Change and Other Environmental Problems in Popular Films” sheds light on the narratives audiences encounter daily and their potential to shape perceptions of climate change and other environmental issues. Schneider-Mayerson and his co-authors analyzed 250 of the most-rated fictional films released between 2013 and 2022. They found that only 12.8% of these films depicted climate change while environmental problems such as air pollution, deforestation and species extinction appeared in just 26%.
“In 87% of these films climate change does not exist,” Schneider-Mayerson said. “That absence cultivates a distorted picture of reality, which is likely to lead viewers to minimize the severity and urgency of these challenges.”
The study also revealed that when environmental issues did appear, they were often mentioned briefly and presented as minor concerns. Schneider-Mayerson explained that this narrative gap may contribute to public apathy toward climate action.
“Films influence how we understand the world, whether consciously or subconsciously,” he said. “If we don’t see climate change in the stories we consume, we may not grasp its relevance to our daily lives.”
Media coverage of climate change has increased in recent years, but this research found that popular narratives still struggle to connect extreme weather events to the underlying climate crisis. For example, the study reported that 14% of the films analyzed depicted severe storms, flooding, extreme heat or drought, yet only half linked those events to climate change.
“The research that we’re doing is filling a major gap in understanding how common environmental narratives are,” Schneider-Mayerson said. “We often focus on individual stories, but this kind of large-scale content analysis helps us see patterns and trends that shape public perception.”
With a goal of encouraging more environmentally conscious narratives, Schneider-Mayerson has worked with Good Energy, a climate consultancy for the entertainment industry. He collaborated with the organization to develop the Climate Reality Check (CRC), described as a “Bechdel-Wallace test for a world on fire” with two simple criteria: Does climate change exist in the story world? And does a character acknowledge it?
In March and April 2024, the team released two public reports that applied the CRC to films, receiving coverage from the Associated Press, NPR, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe and more.
“For better or worse, most people’s understanding of climate change comes from media, not scientific journals,” Schneider-Mayerson said. “This tool helps storytellers include climate elements naturally, so audiences can connect what they see on screen with what’s happening around them.”
Schneider-Mayerson’s interest in environmental narratives dates back to his graduate research and his first book “Peak Oil: Apocalyptic Environmentalism and Libertarian Political Culture,” which examined apocalyptic portrayals of energy depletion in popular culture. His subsequent studies explored how climate fiction, or “cli-fi,” influences readers’ environmental beliefs. During his postdoctoral fellowship at Rice, Schneider-Mayerson collaborated with faculty across disciplines, a formative experience that drew him back to the university after a decade away.
“Rice fosters a unique environment for interdisciplinary work,” Schneider-Mayerson said. “My time here as a postdoc shaped my research trajectory, so returning as a faculty member feels like coming home.”
Schneider-Mayerson combines humanistic and social scientific methods to examine how environmental narratives shape public perception of climate change. His research, published in journals such as Climate Change and ISLE, explores how stories in literature, film and popular media can inspire climate action. He also co-edited “Empirical Ecocriticism: Environmental Narratives for Social Change” and is working on a book about reproductive decisions in the context of climate change.
During his years teaching at Yale-NUS College in Singapore, he published “Eating Chilli Crab in the Anthropocene: Environmental Perspectives on Life in Singapore,” the first book on environmentalism in Singapore, featuring essays written by his students. His collaborative projects include Fossilized in Houston, a public climate art campaign, and An Ecotopian Lexicon, which introduces new ecological concepts through language and art.
In his new role at Rice, Schneider-Mayerson aims to build on his film research by examining climate narratives in other media. One current project involves analyzing 470 short stories published in The New Yorker over the past decade to identify trends in environmental storytelling.
“We want to understand how literature portrays environmental challenges and how those narratives evolve over time,” he said. “These stories reflect cultural attitudes and could influence how readers engage with these issues.”
Schneider-Mayerson’s five co-authors on the upcoming article in Environmental Communication are former students of his from Yale-NUS and Colby College. He said he looks forward to mentoring Rice students who are interested in the intersection of literature, media and environmental studies.
“My goal is to empower students to see storytelling as a tool for change,” Schneider-Mayerson said. “Climate change isn’t just a scientific issue; it’s a narrative one. The stories we tell today can shape the world we live in tomorrow.”