Best Movies About Climate Change

Movie rating systems are part of how media outlets and critics attract readers. Most operate on some kind of points system and aggregate the opinions of both professional critics and general audiences. Among the most closely followed are Rotten Tomatoes, Metacritic, the New York Times, Rolling Stone, Netflix, and IMDb.

Climate Crisis 247 compiled a list of the best movies on climate change, drawing on these rating systems as well as data from Yale Climate Connections and  Earth.org. Because selections for these lists are inherently subjective, some editorial judgment was required. One key decision was to limit the list to documentaries, excluding films that are not entirely fact-based, however excellent they may be by other measures. The selection process also took into account the filmmakers, stars, and narrators behind each film.

David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet (2020)

Attenborough, now 99 years old, addresses the loss of biodiversity and the effect of human activity on global warming and greenhouse gas emissions. His other notable works include Natural World, Wildlife on One, Planet Earth, and The Blue Planet, and he has authored several books. The BBC has described him as “the voice of natural history programmes for the past 70 years,” noting that more than 40 animal and plant species — as well as a constellation — have been named in his honor. A Life on Our Planet is particularly well regarded, earning a 96% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The Telegraph called it a film of unmistakable “importance and urgency.”

Before the Flood (2016)

Leonardo DiCaprio, arguably the most prominent and widely acclaimed actor of his generation, travels the world to document some of its most pressing climate challenges, including melting ice sheets, deforestation, and extreme weather events such as flooding and wildfires. He interviews powerful world leaders, including then-President Obama, and delivers a speech at the United Nations, where he serves as an Ambassador of Peace. The film was executive produced by Martin Scorsese. The LA Times noted that DiCaprio visits a massive tar sands operation in Canada, mourns the depleting ice in Greenland, and is challenged by Indian environmentalist Sunita Narain on American consumption habits. Rotten Tomatoes gives the film a 75% rating, with its consensus calling it “a fervent call to action” delivered with urgency.

An Inconvenient Truth (2006)

Likely the most famous climate film ever made, this documentary follows Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States, as he makes the case for the grave dangers of global warming. The film won two Academy Awards: Best Documentary Feature and Best Original Song. According to Britannica, Gore’s presentation uses graphs, photographs, and other imagery to illustrate the greenhouse effect, historical changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide, human energy use, population growth, and their collective contribution to climate change. Gore continues to serve as chairman of The Climate Reality Project, a nonprofit dedicated to addressing the climate crisis, and has been vocal in opposing recent rollbacks of environmental regulations.

Chasing Ice (2012)

National Geographic photographer James Balog developed a time-lapse system to document the pace of glacier retreat. Using a method called the Extreme Ice Survey (EIS), his team deployed 27 state-of-the-art time-lapse cameras across 15 glacial sites to create a multi-year chronicle of the planet’s rapidly melting glaciers. The film holds a 96% aggregate rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Film critic Roger Ebert observed that the footage shows glaciers retreating to expose the bedrock beneath — in one case, losing ice equivalent in height to the Empire State Building.

2040 (2019)

Filmmaker Damon Gameau, motivated by concern for his young daughter’s future, travels the world interviewing experts to explore whether the damage of climate change can be reversed and what the world might look like over the coming decades. Some have questioned the optimism of its premise, but the film has been praised for offering a vision of hope grounded in real-world solutions. As Regenerator describes it, the film examines “the very real possibility that humanity could reverse global warming and improve the lives of every living thing in the process.” It is one of the few films to hold a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes.