The 2021 EMA Awards for World Environment Day 2022

Happy World Environment Day! Because I promised the Sunday entertainment feature today, I am celebrating the day by blogging about the 2021 EMA Awards, presented by the Environmental Media Association on October 16, 2021. Better late than never!


"No Sudden Move" won Feature Film over "The Tomorrow War" and "Vivo." If I had blogged about the nominees when they were announced, I'd have picked "The Tomorrow War" because it's about an alien invasion facilitated by climate change and fought using time travel. That summary looks outlandish, but trust me, it's better than it sounds. I would have also understood the nomination for "Vivo" because of its appreciation for the natural world. I would have puzzled over the inclusion of "No Sudden Move" because it's a modern film noir with no obvious environmental content. I had to read the movie's plot summary page to find out that the film's MacGuffin is a "document [that] is revealed to be plans for a catalytic converter, seeking to conceal its existence from public knowledge and avoid governmental pressure on the car companies to implement pollution controls." Now I understand why it was nominated. Based on its cast and production values, I can also understand why it won, too. It's probably eligible for the Emmy Awards and might also be eligible for a Saturn Award along with "The Tomorrow War" and "Vivo."

Speaking of awards, this is the only award I can find for "No Sudden Move," but its IMDB page doesn't list it. In fact, I can't find any mention of the 2021 EMA Awards on IMDB despite The Hollywood Reporter covering it. The most recent year with a page is 2020, which only lists one of the nominees for Documentary Film, "The Story of Plastic," but not the winner, "Ted Turner: Captain Planet." That's it. 2018 and 2019 are even worse as they list a creator and two of his projects winning awards in categories that I can find no evidence of ever existing or that haven't been bestowed since 2002 but none of the actual nominees or winners. In fact, the last year with an even halfway complete list of winners and nominees is 2017, the year that turned me onto the award. Finding this out is enough to convince me to ask if the EMA has an official representative for IMDB to correct these errors or Charity Navigator to improve its rating in addition to my New Year's resolution from 2020 to see if I can vote for these awards when I join.

Time to climb out of that rabbit hole and write about the rest of the nominees and winners.


On the other hand, I predicted "I Am Greta" would be nominated for an EMA Award and would have picked it to win over "Jonathan Scott’s Power Trip" and "Purple Mountains," so I'm not the least bit surprised it won. The only thing that surprised me was that I also predicted "David Attenborough: A Life on our Planet" would earn a nomination here, but it didn't. That may be because industry representatives have to submit their works to the EMA for consideration and I suspect that Netflix didn't do that, which is probably why "My Octopus Teacher" wasn't nominated, either. In fact, while "Vivo" is streaming on Netflix, EMA lists Sony Pictures Entertainment instead. There are no mentions of Netflix on the winners page at all. On the other hand, the Emmy Awards snubbed "I Am Greta" while "David Attenborough: A Life on our Planet" earned five Emmy nominations and three wins. I suspect Netflix is OK with that.

Follow over the jump for the television winners.

Greta Thunberg reflects on three years of climate activism

I shared an optimistic take on the IPCC report that warned 'code red for humanity' in SciShow says 'There’s Hope in the Latest Climate Report'. For a more pessimistic perspective, I turn to Greta Thunberg, who Now This News profiled in 3 Years After Greta Thunberg's First 'School Strike for Climate'.

Three years ago today, a 15-year-old girl named Greta Thunberg skipped school as part of a climate strike outside the Swedish parliament. Since then, Thunberg has become one of the most recognizable climate activists in the world, and her 'School Strike for Climate' has grown into a global movement. Listen to Thunberg reflect on her legacy thus far.

Medhi Hasan also interviewed Thunberg Greta Thunberg On Three Years Of Climate Protests on MSNBC.

It's been three years since Greta Thunberg first sat alone outside the Swedish Parliament to call for action on climate change. Now the young activist has become a global voice, continuing to hold world leaders to account on global warming. Six months after President Biden took office, is he doing enough? “This administration is not ready to act as seriously as we need, unfortunately,” Greta Thunberg tells NBC’s Mehdi Hasan.

She's probably right. The Biden Administration may not be doing enough to stop climate change. However, Biden's plan for half of vehicles sold in the U.S. to be electric by 2030 strikes me as a big step in the right direction, along with all the rest of the administration's proposals for energy, infrastructure, and transportation. Politics is the art of the possible, and right now, that's what's possible. It may not be enough, but it's better than nothing and a lot better than the active sabotaging of environmental protection that took place under The Former Guy's Administration.

That written, I encourage Thunberg and her youthful followers to continue to raise people's awareness and prompt action on the climate. Doing so will change what is possible.