Mark Ruffalo, Rosario Dawson, Adam McKay champion new resource to increase climate change representation

While the cultural reckoning experienced in the U.S. (and across the globe) over the past few years has opened people's eyes to the importance of — and lack of — representation across gender, race, and orientation in the content we consume every day, there is one other area that a segment of Hollywood is trying to remedy: climate change.

A new online resource called the Playbook, which was created by non-profit consultancy Good Energy in partnership with Bloomberg Philanthropies, is aimed to inspire and inform the creative entertainment community so climate change is represented more in TV and movies. The playbook's content includes the latest science, unique climate impacts like scorpion attacks and blood snow, and profiles of characters at the forefront of the climate crisis.

"Climate is the biggest story of our time. And it doesn't just have to be stories of loss and despair, but it can also be tales of bravery, humanity, big ideas, and new possibilities from every community," Mark Ruffalo said in a statement provided exclusively to EW. "I hope all creators will see themselves in shaping this future and want to be a part of this new wave of storytelling; I hope all producers will want to support such an array of storytellers for the future we want."

According to a study Good Energy conducted with USC's Media Impact Lab at the Normal Lear Center, across 37,453 scripts from 2016 to 2020 only 2.8 percent of them included any climate change keywords.

Adam McKay, whose latest film Don't Look Up was inspired by his terror over the climate crisis, added in a statement: "We've seen how the film has created more conversation and protests to demand that governments look up. Nonetheless, that is just one movie and we have so much more to do. Now is the time for real global action. The clock is ticking but we do have the answers. We have the technology. We need to demand that governments around the world make the climate their priority. As filmmakers and creators, we need to do our part in keeping the conversation top of mind."

For Rosario Dawson, the focus on climate change extends to both the content itself and how that content is shared with the world. In a statement, she said: "If we are going to continue to tell authentic, inspiring, 'I can relate to that' stories, we need to incorporate the reality of the climate crisis through every stage of development, production, post, marketing and distribution."

The Playbook's development included partnerships with organizations including CAA Foundation, Sierra Club, Walton Family Foundation, Kenneth Rainin Foundation, The Center for Cultural Power, and 1 Earth Fund. Other voices featured in the resource include Don Cheadle, Zazie Beetz, producer and writer Scott Z. Burns (Contagion and An Inconvenient Truth), Lyn and Norman Lear, writer and producer Sarah Treem (The Affair and House of Cards), and writer Dorothy Fortenberry (The Handmaid's Tale).

Related content:

• Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, and Meryl Streep get cosmic about their comedy Don't Look Up
• Lily Tomlin arrested in D.C. during climate change protest led by costar Jane Fonda
• Sting's 57th and 9th: How David Bowie and climate change inspired his new album