What do I mean with Toxic Environmentalism?
On principle, there is nothing wrong with taking care of the planet; specially if motivated by charity towards others (by not polluting their water, for example).
In fact, I would argue that some movies with toxic environmentalism might actually be detrimental to the cause of planet welfare.
By focusing their might into unrealistic scenarios, poor biology, human-hating narratives, hypocrisy and stupidity, this movies help to foster in the ecologist the immature, manipulable mentality we are all familiar with.
The signs of toxic environmentalism are the following:
1: Using the planet to promote cosplay pagan communism
Because many pagan tribes live a fairly green life, environmentalists seem to believe that paganism is the answer to the ecological problems of the world.
To this I respond: There is nothing wrong with living like they do. It's a humble and austere life.Thats how the monks lived.
If the tribes of the world choose to keep their simplicity of life, they are entitled to do so. Even if they should do away with their gods and shamans.
What I object to is the ideology behind movies like Pocahontas and Avatar. This movies have not been directed by people from tribes, they have been written by white / Jewish individuals. Therefore, their perspective is different.
This people promote the "noble savage" myth. This is the idea that people from tribes are very good, intrinsically virtuous, elf-like beings who are incapable of violence or other forms of evil. That is a lie.
Even though tribes lived closer to nature than modern civilization, they were still able to impact the planet whether they realized it or not.
The people who believe this are often communists, who believe civilized society is monstrous not because of the inherent vices of humanity, but because "capitalism corrupted people". To this I respond: if people weren't corrupt from the beginning, all the evils of usury, greed and worker exploitation (what Marxists call capitalism) would never have happened in the first place.
So it's basically preaching the absurdity of weak gods and the idealistic trumpets of communism because "the planet". Considering that even old european civilizations were greener than our oh-so-diverse society, I don't think we need Pachamama to know that deforestation is bad.
2: Antropophobia
Many environmentalists think they are good people because they love animals and plants, but their hatred for people is quite intense. This is unacceptable.
Many "ecological" movies focus all their might in demonizing humanity as if the writers didn't had a larger impact on nature than most of the people in the planet. The result is that anyone who attends to the message becomes an antropophobic hypocrite while others just smirk and laugh and feel offended.
Case Studies.
The following case studies tell very similar stories, and yet their approach is different enough for you to be able to distinctly recognize each feature of toxic environmentalism.
Pocahontas
Released in 1995, Pocahontas was a (well-deserved) financial flop. Yet, as many Disney movies, it was able to make its way into the common consciousness, specially because it received good reviews by critics.
Pocahontas tells the story of a Powhatan woman who has a relationship with an English colonist. While both the Powhatan and the English fight against each other for the land and to defend their way of life, Pocahontas & John Smith try to impose dialogue and diversity to their people.
The movie also has an environmental side to it. You see, the colonisers are looking for gold and their first action consists in chopping down trees. The natives, in contrast, are presented as magical elves who speak with tree entities and live in contact with nature.
The song "Colours of the Wind" has some phrases that evoke this, as Pocahontas chastises her lover for his greed and insensitivity to both nature and the elven protectors Powhatan.
You think I'm an ignorant savage / And you've seen so many places / I guess it must be so / But still I cannot see / If the savage one is me / How can there be so much you don't know - you don't know
You think that you own whatever land you land on / The earth is just a dead thing you can claim / But I know every rock and tree and creature / Has a life, has a spirit, has a name
Property, the final boss of communism, is criticized; it's criticism is applied to our relationship with the planet.
Come run the hidden pine trails of the forest / Come taste the sun sweet berries of the earth/ Come roll in the riches all around you / And for once never wonder what they're worth.
The rainstorm and the river are my brothers / The heron and the otter are my friends / And we are all connected to each other / In a circle, in a hoop that never ends.
This part suggests pantheism - the belief that all things are essentially, the same thing. And that thing is divine.
For whether we are white or copper-skinned / We need to sing with all the voices of the mountains / We need to paint with all the colors of the wind.
I am rather confused by "paint with the colors of the wind", but I think it's a metaphor for paying close attention to nature's beauty and "becoming one" with it.
You can own the earth and still / All you'll own is earth until / You can paint with all the colors of the wind.
This final phrase doesn't really fit with the rest of the song, in which land is not something to be owned, but something to be one with. No offense to Steven Schwartz, but how can you own the earth by painting in the wind when painting in the wind implies you don't see nature as your property?
Moana
Released in 2016, Moana tells the story of a messianic Polynesian princess who saves a Pachamama-type goddess, Te Fiti.
Moana is sad because she feels called to the ocean - a living entity that played with her once - but her father prefers to stay in the island Motonui.
However, as the fish and plants of Motonui start dying, Moana decides to embark on an epic quest to return a green jewel (heart) to Te Fiti.
Moana learns to sail from the entity Maui, a polynesian demigod. Shortly after a fight with a giant, greedy lobster who loves gold, they split up; Maui had stolen Te Fiti's heart, and was the cause of the environmental decline of Motonui.
Moana is then contacted by her Grandma's ghost and is given a pep talk about how she is the Polynesian messiah.
Moana resolves to return the heart, but first she needs to fight against a giant volcano monster. As they face each other, Moana discovers the monster is Te Fiti, and sings to the entity to return the heart.
As Te Fiti receives the organ transplant, she becomes a green lady with flowers on her hair. A Pachamama figure for the masses.
To be specific: Unlike other ecological films, Moana doesn't preach you in the head about how bad pollution is. It is a metaphor.
Also, Moana doesn't teach you to respect and worship Polynesian gods. In fact, if I were Polynesian, I would be appalled by Maui's portrayal by The Rock.
It is simply a subtle, fantasy introduction to earth-type Goddesses.
Avatar
Released in 2009, Avatar was widely loved for it's beautiful graphics and creative world building. Skip over to the year of the Lord 2026 and Avatar is often mocked for it's cartoonish antropophobia.
While the recent sequels try to redeem humanity with a new character - Spider -, the original wasn't like this.
Our main character, Jake Sully, is a paralyzed marine struggling in a nasty, overpopulated, energy-deprived planet earth. Sully is then contacted to replace his dead brother in the remote planet of Pandora.
Upon arrival Sully is given an alien body to posses. The paralyzed man is thrilled to recover his physical abilities. Later on, he infiltrates the alien locals - the Nav'i - in a quest to learn about their culture and get their permission to mine a precious mineral conveniently named Unobtanium.
As the movie progresses, Sully learns to love the Nav'i and their planet, and turns against humanity to protect his new found family.
In the movie all humans are either evil or reject their humanity to save Pandora. It's no coincidence that Sully was paralyzed; after so many years of being trapped in his useless body, Sully is allowed to leave it. He is symbolically freed from the prison of humanity; free to feed from the wisdom of Pandora and it's hive-mind goddess, Eywga.
Indeed, Eywga is an entity connected to all the beings of Pandora, and all the beings of Pandora connect with each other psychically. This - together with the "tribal people" texture pack of the Nav'i - is the way in which James Cameron introduced many to some sort of sci-fi paganism.
Conclusion
In order to avoid the problems with Toxic Environmentalism, the following could help:
+ Good catechism. Good apologetics. Good philosophy.
+ Nuanced ecology. Children should know how the system works and why it is difficult to get solutions.
+ Teach them to love their fellow human beings, and notice the patterns I mentioned above for themselves.
+ Give them plenty of wholesome entertainment
Finally, I will dedicate my final words to encourage my readers to live as ecologically friendly as possible.
Austerity, not stupidity, is the key to solve many of this problems.
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