It's quite an irony that we make films about the dangers of bringing dinosaurs back from extinction while we threaten the existence of their avian descendants.
Jurassic Park and its four sequels like The Lost World: Jurassic Park have hit home the consequences of wielding genetic power to resurrect the dinosaurs. One of the themes from the films challenges humans to think about the damage they may inflict before mindlessly plowing ahead with a harmful action.
We aren't bringing dinosaurs back at any point in the near future though, so it might be best to first examine how we already impact existing species. If we don't want to stray too far from dinosaurs, let's check out what we are doing to birds, the dinosaurs' living legacy.
A rufous hummingbird, one of the species most at risk of extinction from global warming.
In a new report, Survival by Degrees: 389 Bird Species on the Brink, the Audubon Society shows how global warming threatens two-thirds of all bird species in North American with extinction. Half of the species in Washington state alone face extinction from a temperature increase of three degrees Celsius. Instead of the power to create addressed by Jurassic Park, we are wielding the power to destroy, and we are doing it just as recklessly as John Hammond and the host of other characters who tried to cash in on dinosaurs.
The report from the Audubon Society does a great job of helping us visualize the possible consequences of our actions. We should take it as an opportunity to consider where we go from here.
No horror from any of the Jurassic Park stories could match the awfulness of wiping out the animals most closely related to dinosaurs.
The cosmetics world needs more heroes. Fortunately, we have Catwoman (well, a woman who has portrayed her on screen).
Michelle Pfeiffer, whose great acting career includes her movie-stealing performance as Catwoman in Batman Returns, grew tired of trying to find fragrances with safe chemicals. Just like Catwoman, she took matters into her own hands, and earlier this month, she launched Henry Rose, a brand of five genderless fragrances with safety certification from the Environmental Working Group (EWG). Watch the video below to hear Pfeiffer discuss the brand.
Pfeiffer has worked with the EWG before by helping promote their work to make cosmetics safer, work that includes their product-evaluation site, Skin Deep. Seeing no satisfactory options in the perfume/cologne industry, she decided to make her own, and for guidance, she turned to EWG. The result is an EWG-verified fragrance line that avoids the organization's ingredients of concern, provides full transparency about its ingredients, and adheres to EWG manufacturing standards. For more information on the certification, click here. Henry Rose also receives gold certification from Cradle 2 Cradle for health and sustainability. To learn more about the brand, click here.
With the weak oversight (especially in the United States) of the cosmetics industry and the difficulty in finding safe brands, Pfeiffer's creation of Henry Rose is a welcome development. She saw a way to help people and took action.
Stanley Lau’s ferocious variant cover
for Catwoman #11. The image is used
here with the artist’s permission.
Michelle Pfeiffer famously introduced her character in 1992’s Batman Returns by announcing, “I am Catwoman. Hear me roar.” In the 27 years since that movie’s release, some portrayals of the character have heard that roar. Still, a sense of unfulfilled promise has lingered over what could have happened for Catwoman after she stole the show from Max Shreck, the Penguin, and even the titular Batman. With a new run of the Catwoman comic book, Selina Kyle appears ready to make the leap toward that potential.
Catwoman proved so popular in Batman Returns that plans took shape for the film’s director, Tim Burton, to direct Pfeiffer in a spinoff. Similarly, according to writer and critic Tim Hanley, Catwoman almost received her own animated series in the 1990s. She had become one of the most coveted characters in the comic-book genre. However, neither the spinoff movie nor the animated series materialized, and although her popularity never completely faded, she struggled during the next two decades to regain the momentum Batman Returns had given her.
As soon as DC Comics announced in 2018 that Joëlle Jones would revive the Catwoman comic book and take the reins on the book’s writing and art, a buzz started building about the possibilities. It was as if the echoes of that 1992 roar had returned to voice their approval. Jones’ lauded work on comic books like Batman and especially her Lady Killer indicated the talent she could bring to Catwoman.
By redesigning Catwoman’s suit, Jones made an immediate and reverberating impact. The new design made clear its intention to honor the character’s look in Batman Returns, literally drawing on the power of that past portrayal. As much as it looked to the positives of the past though, the design moved Catwoman ahead even more. In The Many Lives of Catwoman, Hanley points out that the character has long suffered from over-sexualized portrayals. Hanley highlights the 1990s Catwoman art by Jim Balent as a classic example. Even the suit that replaced Balent’s, a change that Hanley commended, turned ridiculous. A zipper down the front allowed artists to depict the post-Balent Catwoman in downright laughable ways. Why would any superhero go into battle with an unzipped suit, particularly if that superhero is a woman who isn’t wearing a bra? Such a portrayal only serves to sexualize, and it detracts from the character’s credibility. Jones gave Catwoman’s suit an inspired design and a beautifully liquid-like coloring, and her most important contribution to the overhaul was certainly the repositioning of that zipper. Moving it from the body of the suit to the headpiece, she effectively eliminated its use in creating absurdly sexualized depictions.
For the first six releases of the comic, Jones’ writing built up Catwoman with character development and narrative construction. She explored Selina’s psyche and emphasized her connections with loved ones, filling out her personality and allowing for growth. The narrative made contributions to Catwoman’s development by giving her new supporting characters and antagonists that were all her own, not dependent on Batman’s mythology.
While Jones breathed life into both the writing and the art, Stanley Lau added to the power of Catwoman with a series of stunning variant covers. All told, the work put into the book made it compelling and began clawing out new space for Catwoman as a comic-book character. Each issue reinforced the impression that something special was developing.
Mustering all the potential and momentum, Catwoman leaped to a whole other level in February. First, Lau, who had taken a couple of issues off, previewed his art for the March, April, and May variant covers. They all looked fantastic and continued his string of quality releases. The cover for Catwoman #11, due in May, stood out though. It featured a crouching Catwoman, claws out, teeth bared, and her whip swinging behind her like the tail of a cat about to pounce. It was menacing and ferocious. A character once sold almost completely on sex appeal now commanded attention for the power she possessed. Her essence so infused the art that the rainy alley in which she crouched could hardly contain it. Catwoman was roaring once again. Then, DC Comics released Catwoman #8 on February 20. In Catwoman #7, Jones teased a burglary caper in which the Penguin hired Selina to steal something. Such a story would fit nicely and a bit predictably within Catwoman’s history. However, in Catwoman #8, Jones surprised with themes, events, and supernatural elements that made clear the story ran much deeper than a simple heist: Catwoman’s roars will confront a big, wild world befitting a superhero who has come into her own.
In a media landscape saturated by superheroes, Catwoman may never achieve the same popularity she had after Batman Returns, but the work currently taking place on the Catwoman comic has set the stage for her to fulfill the potential encapsulated in Pfeiffer’s famous line. Her roar comes through in the work of Jones, Lau, and the others contributing to the book, and it’s good to hear it calling so boldly again. She challenges the powerful and the status quo and champions the powerless, and our world needs a character like that operating at her maximum capacity.
Note: This post is obviously a departure from the usual themes of envirofinn, but it is something I really wanted to write. Besides, Catwoman is a known defender of animals, so she isn’t too out of place here.
In the face of a warming planet, we should all embrace our inner Daphne Blake from Scooby-Doo.
I'll explain later, but first, watch this video from Cracked:
To sum up the video, it argues that quartets from popular culture represent four enduring personality types. For example, Fred from Scooby Doo, like Leonardo from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, is a duty-bound leader. Scooby and Shaggy, representing two pieces of one personality, echo the recklessness and playfulness of the turtle Michelangelo. Meanwhile, Velma parallels her studious and practical reptilian counterpart, Donatello. Daphne, on the other hand, resembles the sensitive and rebellious Raphael.
Although the Cracked video sticks to connections in pop culture, we can extend the discussion to the seasons. The clothing worn by the Scooby-Doo characters supports this contention. Velma, wearing a heavy sweater, represents winter. Shaggy is clearly dressed for summer. Both Fred and Daphne choose clothes for various types of weather. Their clothing is lighter than Velma's, but both have scarves, suggesting they are ready for the chance of cooler temperatures. That means, they are spring and fall. Fred, with his light hair and brighter-colored clothes, is spring, and Daphne's rich, red hair and purple dress speak of fall.
The fact that Fred and Daphne represent spring and fall gains added support when examining the roles of the individual seasons. Summer and winter are about high-pressure weather systems with more stable patterns of heat and cold and stagnant air. Fall and spring are the forces that move the action in the weather game. In the universe of ninja turtles, Leonardo (Fred's counterpart) and Raphael (Daphne's) are also the ones who produce action. Leonardo does it through leadership, and Raphael makes it happen by questioning the direction of the group. Additionally, Leonardo's mask is blue and Raphael's is red, both primary colors--the strongest chromatic forces, and of course, Fred wears blue and Daphne is a redhead.
Daphne's role as fall supplies the connection to global warming. A warming planet is an environment more in line with the forces of summer and winter with their intractable systems, particularly summer because of the heat. What is more, a reckless approach to life similar to that connected with the goofy Scooby and Shaggy and the carelessness of summer has led us to produce global warming. Fall, meanwhile, is in danger because of global warming. As summer expands, the transition to winter shortens. According to her Wikipedia profile, the nickname "Danger-Prone Daphne" came about because in early Scooby-Doo episodes, Daphne was the damsel in distress. As the strength of global warming grows, we, like Daphne and fall, are in distress.
Still, we should look to Daphne for guidance in this scary time. Daphne's Wikipedia page also notes that as Scooby-Doo progressed and over its numerous incarnations, Daphne changed. These changes culminated in a karate-kicking portrayal by Sarah Michelle Gellar in the live-action films. While retaining her sensitivity and even vulnerability, Daphne became capable of taking care of herself. Consequently, we learned that she was danger prone not because she was a damsel in distress but because she ventured out and exhibited bravery when faced with scary situations (and as I wrote in my last post, when it comes to global warming, we should "walk unafraid"). Scooby and Shaggy, who supposedly represent a carefree lifestyle, are the ones who are constantly afraid.
We can't be Scooby or Shaggy or the summer they represent now. That's what got us here. The truth of the matter is that we, like Daphne, are fall, and we must own that and the precarious position it currently occupies. We must have the bravery to look directly at our situation, step outside of the path we know, and take the actions necessary to address global warming.
Daphne and the other pop culture figures who share her personality have already shown us the way.
