Fall In Love With Our Planet - 10 "Green" Movies

Unfortunately, I don't mean movies made with sustainable resources. By 10 "Green" Movies I mean 10 Movies that will ignite a spark in you and open your eyes to the wonder that is Planet Earth and all its fine creatures. If these will not make you want to start recycling, conserving energy and becoming a 'greener' you, then you are a total lost cause and should just move to Neptune or something.

1.) AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH

This Academy Award winning 2006 documentary presented by Former Vice President Al Gore does not hold back. If you do not believe global warming exists or have no idea of what havoc we have wrecked on our planet, An Inconvenient Truth will set the record straight. The movie follows Al Gore as he travels throughout the world trying to educate people about the severity of the climate crisis. The film is not only a superior documentary (they make 94 minutes about a guy giving lectures around the world ridiculously fascinating) - it keeps you engrossed and at the edge of your seat, but you leave with a completely different outlook on the world. Yes, it does give you a little bit of the doom and gloom feeling but the movie ends on a very hopeful note. The credits are all about what you can do to avoid the terrible future of our planet. It is a must-see for any environmental activist or anybody in general.

2.) THE 11th HOUR

Leonardo DiCaprio's 2007 documentary is on the same note as An Inconvenient Truth. The 11th Hour brings together some of our world's most notable minds such as Stephen Hawking, Mikhail Gorbachev and more. It documents the grave problems facing the planet's life systems, such as global warming, deforestation, mass species extinction and the depletion of the oceans' habitats. It is a great source of information and another eye opener for those who do not realize the severity of our situation. But it is also not just all doom and gloom, the film proposes potential solutions to these problems. It is a great call-to-action documentary.

3.) THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW

The Day After Tomorrow is an apocalyptic science fiction film set in a time where the greenhouse effect and global warming continued at such levels that they resulted in worldwide catastrophe and disaster, including multiple hurricanes, tornadoes, tidal waves, floods and the beginning of the next Ice Age. Before you dismiss it as another one of those Hollywood apocalyptic blockbusters, it does ask a thought provoking question. Is this what will happen if we continue on our current path? That we may never be able to tell with absolute certainty but the movie manages to freak you into changing your ways. I would not survive a single second if there was another ice age.

4.) WATERWORLD

Waterworld, which in it's time was the most expensive film made, is set in a post-modern apocalyptic world where global warming has melted all the ice caps and causing the waters to rise and devastating all civilization. Only a few humans remain in a world made of just water. Waterworld is not necessarily a movie about our current environmental crisis, actually the biggest villain happens to be the Sun - our greatest resource which has now caused our doom. Ignore that part and imagine having to live in world made of just water, where dry land becomes a myth. Anybody seasick?

5.) IDIOCRACY

This one is a straight out absurd comedy that asks one very serious questions -- are we headed in the right direction? The 2006 dystopian movie is set in a world where advertising, commercialization and stupidity run rampant and dysgenic pressure has resulted in a uniformly stupid human society devoid of individual responsibility or consequences. Everybody lives on a gatorade-like drink and water is only used in toilets. There is a shortage of food because the plants don't seem to be big fans of gatorade. Humor aside, there is a serious question of where we are heading as a human race. Is this going to be the state of our planet?

6.) WALL-E

An Inconvenient Truth or Idiocracy might not be the right movies to show your child in order to make them more environmentally conscious. Something like Wall-E might be more well suited. Disney + Pixar's Wall-E is about a robot is designed to clean up a garbage-covered Earth in the far future. Human beings have left the planet and pretty much everything is dead and gone except Wall-E. What starts out as a love story between robots becomes a story about the future of humanity and our planet. In Wall-E's world, after centuries of living in microgravity, consuming liquid food and relying on the machinery around them, humans have suffered severe bone loss, and have become extremely obese and unable to walk, reclining on hover chairs and communicating only through video messaging. Earth is devastated and there is no green left except one little plant that sparks the change. Wall-E is a spectacular film for many reasons but it is especially effective if you want to plant seeds of environmentalism and consciousness in the little ones.

7.) FREE WILLY

This beloved classic has won millions of hearts all over the world. It is not only a great film for all ages, with lessons about friendship and love; it also evokes a love for our planet and its magnificent creatures and teaches us not to exploit nature. Willy, the beloved killer whale Orca, has been kidnapped and put on show. It is up to his trusted human friend, Jesse, to free him and return him back to his family and home. Free Willy reminds us that everything around us is living and deserves the utmost love and respect. We should befriend our planet and its creatures, not victimize them.

8.) MARCH OF THE PENGUINS

This 2005 Academy Award winning documentary depicts the yearly journey of the emperor penguins of Antarctica. In autumn, all the penguins of breeding age leave the ocean to walk inland to their ancestral breeding grounds. There they participate in a courtship that, if successful, results in the hatching of a chick. For the chick to survive, both parents must make multiple arduous journeys between the ocean and the breeding grounds over the ensuing months. It is a delightful, fascinating and wonderfully charming documentary showing just one of the many beauties of our planet. If we continue on the path we currently stand on, these adorable penguins will be marching towards extinction. The movie illustrates how essential the ice and its strength is to their lives. Now imagine the effects of global warming on that ice. It is an unimaginable and devastating truth and after watching this amazing film, one we definitely want to avoid.

9.) PLANET EARTH

I saved the very best for the very last -- BBC/The Discovery Channel's PLANET EARTH series. Technically it isn't a movie (for that see Disneynature's EARTH - which develops on some of the stories from Planet Earth). Planet Earth is one of the greatest documentaries I've experienced. It actually can't even count as a tv series or a documentary, Planet Earth is an experience. It is a remarkable feat - shot over a time period of 4 years in perilous conditions. Planet Earth is sure to take your breath away, you have never experienced our planet the way you do in this series. It captures the beauty of our world and every intricate detail that makes our Planet the greatest there is. It features 11 episodes covering every aspect of our planet: From Pole to Pole, Mountains, Fresh Water, Caves, Deserts, Ice Worlds, Great Plains, Jungles, Shallow Seas, Seasonal Forests and Ocean Deep. The series also captured a lot of creatures/events that were never before seen on TV such as Wild Bactrian camels eating snow in the Gobi desert and an Amur leopard mother and cub in the forests of eastern Russia. It is excruciatingly beautiful and after watching it, if you don't feel the urgency to protect and preserve our planet and every creature on it, then you shall not call yourself an Earthling.

10.) HOME

And Last but not least a movie that released just TODAY (June 5th) and you can watch in its entirety right now. Yann Arthus-Bertrand's HOME. What is Home?

HOME is an ode to the planet's beauty and its delicate harmony. Through the landscapes of 54 countries captured from above, Yann Arthus-Bertrand takes us on an unique journey all around the planet, to contemplate it and to understand it. But HOME is more than a documentary with a message, it is a magnificent movie in its own right. Every breathtaking shot shows the Earth - our Earth - as we have never seen it before. Every image shows the Earth's treasures we are destroying and all the wonders we can still preserve. "From the sky, there's less need for explanations". Our vision becomes more immediate, intuitive and emotional. HOME has an impact on anyone who sees it. It awakens in us the awareness that is needed to change the way we see the world. (HOME embraces the major ecological issues that confront us and shows how everything on our planet is interconnected.)

Synopsis: In 200,000 years on Earth, humanity has upset the balance of the planet, established by nearly four billion years of evolution. The price to pay is high, but it is too late to be a pessimist: humanity has barely ten years to reverse the trend, become aware of the full extent of its spoliation of the Earth's riches and change its patterns of consumption.

WATCH HOME on YOUTUBE

So there you have it - 10 movies you that will definitely make you fall in love with our planet. Whether you want more information, are wondering what our planets future will be or just want to experience the glory of Planet Earth - these ten are a must see. Our planet is beautiful, it is complicated, it is spectacular, it is sensitive and it is moody but it is our home. Handle with care.