Three Informative Environmentalism Documentaries
A look into a few documentaries that effectively illustrate varying environmental issues in Canada and the United States.
Many contributing factors to environmental damage are conducted on a large scale. Banning plastic bags and straws is a minute step towards protecting the environment when big corporations and governments propose pipelines for fossil fuels, polluting the water, while favouring gas, oil, and animal agriculture companies over the land and the people on it. In this vein, the following is a list of films that examine issues of environmentalism across Canada and the USA.
There’s Something in the Water (2019)
There’s Something in the Water (2019) is a film examining the living conditions of black communities in Nova Scotia. Well water in these communities were contaminated, and the correlation between this contamination and increased rates of cancer went unaddressed for years. The film also looks at the Pictou Landing First Nation in Nova Scotia who were also affected by water pollution, and follows their fight against gas companies wishing to dispose of salt brine in their water. In March 2023, a few years after the release of the film, the Canadian government passed a bill to address the issue of environmental racism. There’s Something in the Water (2019) is considered to be a contributing factor to this bill as it helped raise awareness about issues that minority communities face in modern day Canada.
Yintah (2024) is a documentary about the Wet’suwet’en clan and territories in Canada and their fight against colonialism in the form of environmental damage and fossil fuel development on Indigenous land. The Wet’suwet’en people have never signed any treaties and have ruled their land in northern British Columbia for thousands of years, and is recognized as theirs by the Supreme Court of Canada in the 1997 Delgamuukw-Gidsaywa case. Despite these rulings, the Canadian government continues to assert jurisdiction over the land by issuing project permits without the consent of the Wet’suwet’en people. They’ve gone as far as criminalizing and arresting them for exercising their rights to uphold their own law on their own land.
Both Yintah (2019) and There’s Something in the Water (2024) illustrate the issue of environmental racism within Canada in the present day. Canada often prides itself on being progressive but this pride is simply attempting to white out the actual problems occurring. The newly instated Truth and Reconciliation Day put forth by the government is only a bandaid, PR solution, as it simply gives government workers the day off of work while Indigenous communities continue to suffer and fight for jurisdiction over their land. Moreover, these films show how basic necessities and resources, such as water and land, are actively being weaponized in a colonial way against the Indigenous and Black communities of Canada. These films also succeed in showing how although these specific communities are the ones being targeted, they do in fact affect the population as a whole. The projects and pollution occurring in these spaces are ones that affect the environment everywhere and contribute towards climate change.
Cowspiracy (2014) looks at the North American animal agriculture industry and its harmful effects on the environment. Factory farming is the leading cause of deforestation, water pollution, and makes up for more greenhouse gas emissions than the transportation industry. Despite these facts, factory farming is rarely mentioned, let alone criticized, in discussions of climate change by leading environmental protection organizations and government bodies. The film dives into specific damages the industry does, as well as analyzes why the meat and dairy industry is rarely present in discussions of environmentalism.
Like the previous films, part of Cowspiracy’s success in conveying its message is its consideration of larger corporations and entities and their impact on the environment. In the context of Canada specifically, there is a disconnect between the government’s banning of single use plastics such as straws and shopping bags and its failure to mention the greater damage done by the animal agriculture industry. While the government and major corporations can give recommendations on how to help the environment, encourage us to recycle, and participate in Earth Day, they are still actively harming the environment and allowing people to continue to contribute to it for their own profit.
