Celebrate Earth Day with some of these great films about our planet, its beauties and its challenges:
1. An Inconvenient Truth Al Gore’s Oscar-winning documentary makes a powerful case for the dire effects of climate change — and an even more powerful case for our ability to prevent more damage before it is too late.
2. Planet Earth — This magnificent BBC series includes extraordinary footage of our planet’s splendor — jungles, deserts, oceans, mountains, and caves, elephants, caribou, dolphins, snow leopards, penguins, and much more. If you can, see it in Blu-Ray — it jumps off the screen.
3. Flow: How Did a Handful of Corporations Steal Our Water? Americans take for granted our most precious and vital resource. We assume that when we turn on the tap, the water that comes out will be perfectly safe and more than plentiful, endless. And then there are those rows and rows of pristine water in bottles on our grocery store shelves. But it isn’t safe and it isn’t endless. If global warming creates floods, many of us can move to higher ground. If we run out of oil, many of us can walk. But if we run out of water, it is all over for everyone just about immediately.
4. Silent Running Douglas Trumbull, who created the special effects for “Star Wars,” “Blade Runner,” and many other movies, directed this outer-space story about a botanist caring for the last remnants of plant life from Earth. It features three of the most adorable robots in movie history, named after Donald Duck’s nephews: Huey, Dewey, and Louie.
5. Wall-E Two robots learn to cooperate as humans learn to reclaim the despoiled earth in this charmer from Pixar.
