24 hours to save the planet

Can Jack Bauer save the world? News that television’s secret agent, played by Kiefer Sutherland in the addictive thriller 24, is to take the war against global warming into millions of homes has been welcomed by environmental campaigners as a seminal moment in the ‘greening’ of Hollywood.

It is 24 that has the most mainstream appeal and which, with its presentation in ‘real-time’ corresponding minute by minute to the life of Bauer as he strives to beat the clock and avert disaster, provides an opportune metaphor for the race to salvage the planet.
earning comparison with past causes that saw stars rally in support of the Second World War, protest against the Vietnam War and draw attention to the plight of HIV/Aids sufferers. Driving a hybrid Toyota Prius is now so de rigueur that it was recently reported Hollywood has a nine-month waiting list for them. But the town is hiding an inconvenient truth: last year an academic study found that the film and television industry comes second only to oil refineries in fuelling the smog above the Hollywood hills.

It is embarrassments like this that the Fox studio says it is setting out to change. It has announced that 24 will aim to become the first ‘carbon-neutral’ TV programme. Environmentally friendly production measures will include using biodiesel for generators and vehicles, buying energy from wind, water and solar power sources, rewiring a production stage to use electricity instead of diesel-generated power and phasing in hybrid vehicles for cast and crew.

The campaign will be evident on screen too. Fox said that 24 would incorporate the issue of global warming and the importance of carbon emission reduction into storylines ‘when appropriate’. The official 24 website includes a video appeal by Sutherland, who warns: ‘Global warming is a crime for which we are all guilty,’ and a list of tips for the public, including turning off lights, riding a bike and printing on both sides of the page.

The announcement was hailed as a breakthrough by Steve Howard, chief executive of the Climate Group, which promotes business and government leadership on climate change. He said: ‘An Inconvenient Truth [the global warming documentary featuring Al Gore] was remarkably influential, and The 11th Hour is a well put together film, but both will reach a relatively small audience. If you have 24 dealing with the issue, not in a hairshirt way but in a Hollywood exciting way, it has to be a good thing. People can be overwhelmed by another newspaper headline saying, “Ice caps melting, polar bears dead,” or “Another hurricane on the way”, but when you watch a film and the star is driving a hybrid instead of a Humvee, that is less daunting.’

Observer