White House Effect
Three decades ago, the world was poised to stop global warming. Using exclusively archival material, THE WHITE HOUSE EFFECT tells the origin story of the climate crisis and how a political battle in the George H.W. Bush administration changed the course of history.
A masterful look at a key moment in the history of climate change, THE WHITE HOUSE EFFECT from directors Bonni Cohen, Pedro Kos and Jon Shenk travels back in time to document how a chance to take real action on global warming was not just squandered but deliberately undermined. Woven entirely of archival material, the documentary focuses on the key years of the George H.W. Bush administration—1988 to 1992—when the entire country was waking up to the reality of global warming and Bush had pledged to use “the White House effect” to tackle it.
Infuriating and irrefutable, THE WHITE HOUSE EFFECT tracks cause and effect with devastating precision to document just how hollow that promise became, culminating in Bush’s arrival in Rio in 1992 where the United States undermines the entire global project to set real limits on emissions by the year 2000—setting the stage for the ever-hotter and more dangerous future we all now face on the planet.
For screening opportunities, please reach out to:
Misha Schwarz at misha@actualfilms.net