These 11 best environmental documentaries on Netflix streaming in 2015 illustrate the transgressions we commit against the planet and our environment on a daily basis. How much more of our abuse will it take before the damage we do becomes irreversible?
Perhaps our political leaders should take a look at some of the best educational documentaries on Netflix. That way they couldn’t claim ignorance when asked about their actions – and inaction – that jeopardize not only our future but our present as well. Despite all evidence to the contrary, there’s a vast number of deniers in every country that refuse to accept the simple truth – or should we say an inconvenient truth – that humans are the driving factor behind the global climate change that threatens every person on the planet. How much human suffering and misery will it take for them to open their eyes? The UN estimates that by 2050 the world may be faced with up to 150 million climate refugees. Right now, less than a million of Syrian refugees are causing havoc in Europe. Imagine what 150 million will do.
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These 11 best environmental documentaries you can catch on Netflix in 2015 do their part in persuading people that we need to change our ways before it is too late. In order to rank them, we consulted several movie sites and their list, created by their users. We also added IMDb ratings as a factor as well and created a unique Insider Monkey list. Before looking them up on Netflix, be warned: many are not for the faint of heart.
11. No Impact Man
Site rank 4, IMDb rank 1; Overall Score = 5
Directed by Laura Gabbert and Justin Schein
Manhattan’s 5th Avenue doesn’t really ring any bells when it comes to environment protection and living in accord with nature. Yet, the Beavan family managed to spend a year as a no impact family, leaving zero net impact on the environment. Based on a book by Colin Beavan in which he documents the year in the life of his family, the film brings us an important message that it is possible to live without destroying the planet and have fun in the process. While his wife doesn’t always agrees with his choices (especially when he made her give up the TV), she still fully supports him in his project.
10. The 11th Hour
Site rank 3, IMDb rank 4; Overall Score = 7
Directed by Leila Conners Petersen and Nadia Conners
Leonardo DiCaprio’s 2007 film shows us a grim perspective of our industrial civilization and all the damage we managed to inflict on our planet. The global changes we witness every day are just a part of a process that could very well wipe the humans off Earth. The film, featuring interviews with various politicians and scientists, including Mikhail Gorbachev and Stephen Hawking, presents an interesting thesis. It claims that the current crisis isn’t so much one of technology, but rather the crisis of leadership — and that human society possesses the technology to reduce our impact on the environment by more than 90%. All that prevents us from using it is the lack of a political leadership.
9. Dirty Business
Site rank 5, IMDb rank 2; Overall Score = 7
Directed by Peter Bull
Is clean coal an oxymoron? The authors of Dirty Business believe it is. In fact, in their film they go one step further and claim that clean coal is, in fact, a dirty lie. Peter Bull exposes how damaging coal mining really is and how it irreversibly damages the environment while at the same time coal power plants pollute our air to the point of no return. The Big Coal industry spends millions of dollars on propaganda campaigns trying to convince us that coal doesn’t have a viable alternative. Are they right?
8. Years of Living Dangerously
Site rank 1, IMDb rank 9; Overall Score = 10
Directed by N/A
Years of Living Dangerously is a 9 episode series focused on how the global climate change is affecting the ordinary people around the world, from the USA to Indonesia and Bangladesh. Each episode is presented by a different host, mostly Hollywood A-listers like Harrison Ford, Matt Damon, Jessica Alba, and others. They interview firefighters, activists, government and corporate officials, trying to find answers for local problems. The series was produced by Arnold Schwarzenegger, James Cameron, and Jerry Weintraub and it won an Emmy for Outstanding Documentary in 2014, as well as Outstanding Achievement for Environmental Content at the 2014 Environmental Media Awards.
7. Tapped
Site rank 6, IMDb rank 5; Overall Score = 11
Directed by Stephanie Soechtig and Jason Lindsey
Stephanie Soechtig and Jason Lindsey originally wanted to make a documentary about ocean pollution. After discovering the main causes of it, they changed their subject to the bottled water industry and uncovered some shocking truth. About 40% of all bottled water on the US market is just filtered plain tap water. But what is more concerning is the number of harmful and even carcinogenic substances found in bottled water. The icing on the cake is the amount of garbage we create due to the consumption of bottled water that gets dumped into the oceans every year.
6. YERT – Your Environmental Road Trip
Site rank 1, IMDb rank 10; Overall Score = 12
Directed by Ben Evans
The majority of the best environmental documentaries on Netflix show us the grim reality we face as the consequences of our actions begin to hit us back. But YERT is different. Three people in a hybrid car tour America for a whole year determined to show us that that a way to a brighter future exists. Mark Dixon, Ben Evans, and Julie Dingman Evans toured all 50 states in search of projects that can help us save the planet.
5. More Than Honey
Site rank 8, IMDb rank 6; Overall Score = 14
Directed by Markus Imhoof
Einstein once said:” If bees die out, mankind will die out four years later.” Considering that bees pollinate about one third of world’s food supply, it is easy to see why he made that prediction. This Swiss documentary focuses on beekeeping in four countries: California, Switzerland, China and Australia. It reveals the causes behind the massive deaths among bee colonies worldwide, and how we can prevent the extinction of bees – and consequently humans. It is also visually stunning, offering incredible glimpses of life inside the beehives.
4. A Fierce Green Fire
Site rank 11, IMDb rank 3; Overall Score =14
Directed by Mark Kitchell
A Fierce Green Fire documents the development of the environmentalist movement since its beginning in the 1960s, from the rise of Greenpeace to the current struggle for stopping and reversing global climate change. The title is taken from the Aldo Leopold’s book A Sand County Almanac, in which he describes the death of a wolf: “We reached the old wolf in time to watch a fierce green fire dying in her eyes.” The film, narrated by Robert Redford and Meryl Streep among others, is immense in scope. Kitchell himself described it as the greatest challenge of his career. The environmentalist movement is the largest in history and some would argue that it is the most important as well. The film does a good job in portraying its history.
3. GasLand
Site rank 9, IMDb rank 8; Overall Score = 17
Directed by Josh Fox
Hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) has been all the rage in the last decade when it comes to natural gas extraction. But is it as safe as the oil and gas companies want us to believe? Josh Fox tries to answer that question by traveling the United States and interviewing people who live in the vicinity of fracking sites. GasLand has been hailed as being a very effective environmental documentary while still presenting its viewers with stunning cinematography, a rare combination in documentary films. Julie Riggs, an Australian movie critic, described it the best, calling it a “horror movie, and a wake-up call.” The film won an Emmy, a special jury award at Sundance, and several other awards at festivals at Sarasota, Yale and more.
2. An Inconvenient Truth
Site rank 10, IMDb rank 7; Overall Score = 17
Directed by Davis Guggenheim
This is the film that lit the fire of climate change awareness around the world. Originating from Al Gore’s speaking campaign after his unsuccessful 2000 presidential bid, the film was the first to point massive spotlights at the events caused by global warming. Despite all the evidence presented in the film, it has been dubbed “controversial” by the climate change deniers. An Inconvenient Truth won two Academy Awards in 2006.
1. The Cove
Site rank 7, IMDb rank 11; Overall Score = 18
Directed by Louie Psihoyos
Not many films have causes as much public outcry as The Cove. That is one of the reasons it tops our list of 11 best environmental documentaries on Netflix streaming in 2015. It took techniques that are usually seen in Bond movies to document the truth behind the Taiji dolphin drive hunt. In a small inaccessible cove, local fishermen herd the migrating dolphins and kill them in the cruelest possible ways. The horrors that happened in Taiji and elsewhere in Japan claim the lives of 23,000 dolphins every year. The cove in question is well protected with barbed wire and guards and access is limited. Yet the crew managed to infiltrate it and film the gruesome scenes that shocked the world. The film won an Oscar for Best Documentary in 2010 as well as the Audience Award at Sundance.
