Disney-Pixar’s 2008, Wall-E, is an animated family-friendly film that depicts a dystopian future caused by the loss of plant biodiversity and sustainability. The movie takes place 700 years into the future where humanity has left the barren and deserted Earth that was caused by all the waste left behind. The main character, Wall-E, is a robot that was left on Earth to clean up all the garbage that was left behind. As he spends his time cleaning up garbage piles, he eventually comes across a single plant which he puts in an old shoe to nurture throughout the film. He introduces the plant to another robot that was sent to Earth after him, Eve, and together they both teach humans the importance of plants and how to heal Earth.
Biodiversity is extremely important to life on Earth because of the amount of oxygen they create along with providing food sources and medicines. Without plants, humans wouldn’t have any food to eat because all animals either directly or indirectly need plants to survive (e.g., carnivores eat herbivores who eat plants). The loss of plant biodiversity is caused by habitat loss along with pollution which teaches the audience that even a little pollution can eventually lead to a large impact on Earth.
Overall, while the topic of the potential extinction of Earth is a dark and heavy topic to understand, the film delivers the message of ecology problems in a fun and simple way for all audiences to understand. This movie is definitely a film I highly recommend, whether it’s just to simply cure boredom, you end up learning things you might not have known before along the way.
Applied Plant Ecology Winter 2020 