Posted on 4 March 2023 by John Hartz

Story of the Week

10 of the best climate change documentaries to see in 2023

These films screened at the recent Wild & Scenic Film Festival.

What happens when you watch 20 or so documentaries that grapple with climate change and its many impacts — all in a row? I set out to find out at the 21st annual Wild and Scenic Film Festival, held in February in Nevada County, California.

I braced myself for a heavy affair. After all, the climate crisis is exactly that: a crisis. Doom and gloom can be hard to avoid. But as a fest vet, I also knew I could count on the morale boost that comes with seeing great people, doing great things, everywhere, every day.

This year was especially galvanizing as the festival came to life in person again for the first time since COVID, with filmmakers, activists, and people who just like nature converging to watch a bunch of films about the environment and climate change.

“CommUnity” was the festival theme this year, a concept that came roaring to life throughout the nine film venues scattered across downtown Nevada City and Grass Valley, sister towns in the Sierra Nevada foothills. The film selections included a wide range of films focused on people with different backgrounds, and ASL interpreters stood alongside presenters on stage at several screenings.

The sense that we’re in this together reached far beyond the theater walls, infusing activist workshops, environmental vendor booths, and even shops and restaurants where people seemed ready, eager even, to talk about the films they’d seen.

One evening at a popular pizzeria and brewery in downtown Nevada City, I sat with a friend to scarf down a broccoli lemon pizza and an Emerald Pool IPA, named for the local river’s sublimely green waters. The festival was all the talk at our communal table; the couple to my left were retirees who had volunteered as ticket takers at a previous session. They ended up taking our advice on what to watch with their passes that night. And the group to my right included a staff member at SYRCL, the organization behind the festival (making her an obvious VIP in our midst), and a trio of her friends who’d traveled from other parts of the state expressly for the occasion.

Through conversations like those, a few key themes began to take shape. The following are the major takeaways from my time at this year’s festival — with film recommendations to back it all up.

Click here to access the entire article as originally posted on the Yale Climate Connections webiste.

10 of the best climate change documentaries to see in 2023 by Daisy Simmons, Yale Climate Connections, Mar 2, 2023

Links posted on Facebook

Sun, Feb 26, 2023

• Republican Leaders Want to Reinvent the Party’s Climate Image. The Far Right Won’t Let Them by Kristoffer Tigue, Today's Climate, Inside Climate News, Feb 21, 2023
• How Climate Change and the Polar Vortex Influenced This Week’s Harsh Winter Storms by Kristoffer Tigue, Today's Climate, Inside Climate News, Feb 24, 2023
• China: What the world’s largest food system means for climate change, by Sally Qiu & Zizhu Zhang, Guest Post, Carbon Brief, Feb 20, 2023
• Saving water can help us deal with the climate crisis. Here’s how to reduce your use by Kristen Rogers, lifebutgreener, CNN, Feb 24, 2023

Mon, Feb 27, 2023

• Beware Creeping Biophobia by Emily Harwitz, Hakai Magazine, Feb 22, 2023
• 6 Podcasts to Help Tackle Your Climate Anxiety by Emma Dibdin, New York Times, Feb 23, 2023
• Book review: Greta Thunberg tells it like it is in “The Climate Book” by Michael Svoboda, Yale Climate Connections, Feb 21, 2023
• What Denmark’s North Sea Coast Can Teach Us About the Virtues of Respecting the Planet by Kiley Bense, Warming Trends, Feb 25, 2023

Tue, Feb 28, 2023

• How ‘15-minute cities’ turned into an international conspiracy theory by Laura Paddison, World, CNN, Feb 27, 2023
• Al Gore Talks Climate Progress, Setbacks and the First Rule of Holes: Stop Digging by Dan Gearino, Politics & Policy, Inside Climate News, Feb 25, 2023
• At a glance - What has global warming done since 1998? by John Mason & BaerbelW, Skeptical Science, Feb 28, 2023
• A ‘climate solution’ that spies worry could trigger war by Michael Birnbaum, Environment-Climate, Washington Post, Feb 27, 2023

Wed, Mar 1, 2023

• Farmers harassed for considering clean energy by Peter Sinclair, Yale Climatte Connections, YouTube Video, Feb 26, 2023
• "It's like a cult": attacks on farmers and clean energy in the Midwest by Peter Sinclair, Yale Climatte Connections, YouTube Video, Feb 26, 2023
• La Niña is finishing an extremely unusual three-year cycle – here’s how it affected weather around the world by William Roberts & Jayasankar Pillai, The Conversation NZ, Feb 28, 2023
• How broadcast TV networks covered climate change in 2022 by Ted MacDonald, Media Matters for America, Feb 28, 2023
• Big Tech Turns Big Oil's Big Tobacco-Inspired Disinfo 'Into a Viable Business Model' by Climate Denier Roundup, DailyKos, March 1, 2023

Thu, Mar 2, 2023

• Do heat pumps work in cold places? Here’s what you need to know. by Sammantha Harrington, Energy, Yale Climate Connections, Mar 1, 2023
• To Reduce Mortality From High Heat in Cities, a New Study Recommends Trees by Danish Bajwa, Justice, Inside Climate News, Mar 1, 2023
• Scientists prove clear link between deforestation and local drop in rainfall by Jonathan Watts, Environment, The Guardian, Mar 1, 2023
• As Millions of Solar Panels Age Out, Recyclers Hope to Cash In by Jon Hurdle, Yale Environment 360, Feb 28, 2023

Fri, Mar 3, 2023

• Guest post: Can higher ambition in developed countries create ‘carbon space’ for others? by Gaurav Ganti & Prof Carl-Friedrich Schleussner, Carbon Brief, Feb  21, 2023
• CO2 emissions may be starting to plateau, says global energy watchdog by Fiona Harvey, Environment, The Guardian, Mar 2, 2023
• More heavy-duty storms headeElizabeth Wolfe, Rob Shackelford & Alaa Elassar, CNN, Mar 3, 2023d for Southern Plains, Mississippi Valley by Bob Henson, Eye on the Storm, Yale Climate Connections, Mar 1, 2023
• Skeptical Science New Research for Week #9 2023 by Doug Bostrom & Marc Kodack, Skeptical Science, Mar 2, 2023
• 10 of the best climate change documentaries to see in 2023 by Daisy Simmons, Yale Climate Connections, Mar 2, 2023

Sat, Mar 4, 2023

• At least 9 people are dead as severe storms threaten more tornadoes and flooding across South, barrel toward Northeast by 
• As climate changes, climate anxiety rises in youth by David Schechter, Haley Rush & Chance Hornber, CBS News, Mar 2, 2023
• A new alliance for ‘high quality’ carbon removal highlights tensions within the industry by Emily Pontecorvo, Grist, Feb 28, 2023
• Water crisis in West has prompted desperate ideas: Drain the Great Lakes, desalinate ocean water by Trevor Hughes, Nation, USA Today, Mar 4, 2023