NitrateVille.com

What are some classic-era films, sound or silent, that possibly relate to climate change?

I can only think of...

THE WIND
THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD
THE GRAPES OF WRATH
THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE

Noah's Ark, The Ten Commandments, When Worlds Collide...

VERDENS UNDERGANG , August Blom 1916

The last part of STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. has always seemed pretty apocalyptic to me (until the happy ending of course)....if I'm remembering correctly, it even starts with a bland headline like "storm clouds in the offing...." kind of like Sandy sneaking up on the Eastern Seaboard.

There's also King Vidor's OUR DAILY BREAD and the documentary featurette THE PLOUGH THAT BROKE THE PLAINS from the 30s. Later, of course, there are the PLANET OF THE APES films, SILENT RUNNING, SOYLENT GREEN, and you might say ROBINSON CRUSOE ON MARS could fit. Robert Altman's QUINTET is another one.

"Fatty and Mabel Adrift" could represent bigger storms and the encroaching ocean. If increased CO2 and warm weather results in increased precipitation, it's always raining in "Blade Runner"... Of course global warming is seen by some as a positive: less difference between poles and tropics would mean MILDER weather, if perhaps more rain, so maybe Woody Allen's forested future in "Sleeper" is more accurate.

Perhaps WIZARD OF OZ is too obvious but there's climatic storms in SUEZ (1938), THE RAINS CAME (1939), and even the college football comedy HOLD THAT CO-ED (1938). I don't know if hordes of locusts are related to climate change but THE GOOD EARTH (1937) and BRIGHAM YOUNG - FRONTIERSMAN (1940) had very effective sequences.

Deluge (1933)
Henry Nicolella

The Hurricane (1937)