“The elephant in the room” and “The frog in the pan.” The metaphorical expressions in the environmental documentary films Planet of the Humans (USA, 2019) and Punto de No Retorno (Argentina, 2021)

Abstract

Jeff Gibbs in Planet of the Humans (2019) and Sergio Federovisky in Punto de No Retorno (2021)interview scientists, politicians and environmental activists to expose the human impact in our planetreveals climate change is generated by global warming due to overpopulation, excessive consumerismand economic growth based on fossil fuels. Both documentarists argue that even though theenvironment and sustainable development are part of the world political agenda and of the ecologistNGO’s, greenhouse gasses emissions grow as a consequence of the production model imposed bycentral countries. Gibbs considers “the elephant in the room”, the issue we do not talk about, arebankers, industrialists, politicians and environmental activists focusing on green technology whobecause of economic benefit manipulate the population and create the green energy, the renewableenergy sources and the biofuels illusion even though they are neither renewable nor sustainable.Federovisky believes we are “the frog in the pan” that does not notice the changes around us, immersedin some stage of temperature rise on planet earth and that we could perish if we, as citizens, do nothave the necessary information to take the correct decisions. That is to say, become a society with thecapacity to intervene so the 15 countries responsible of the 75 percent of greenhouse gasses emissionsworldwide stop rising the temperature of the planet.