Behind The Mask

XV. Eco, Environmental, & Environmental Legal Thriller

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Eco-Thriller, Environmental Thriller, & Environmental Legal Thriller
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The hero dashes from one continent to the next trying to stop the evil scientist / evil corporation / evil megalomaniac from flipping the switch and causing a world-wide catastrophe. The eco-thriller! Not only a novel, but coming to a screen near you.

There was a time when the vast majority of thrillers involving environmental issues, so called "Eco-Thrillers," dealt with catastrophic, world-wide, or science fiction/horror type calamities. For the most part, they were not about climate change or localized issues.

All are thrillers, meaning that there will be a lot of action, quick pacing, suspense, dread, excitement, surprise, anticipation and plot twists. By definition, all three of these genres feature the environment as a central issue. To some extent, the protagonist will be trying to protect or defend some aspect of the natural environment or human health. For the most part, all feature villains, often corporations (but not always), that are much more interested in financial profit or power at the expense of the environment or human health. Generally, the antagonist performs some activity that is criminal or highly unethical. The antagonist could also be a governmental entity, evildoer, or some aspect of the environment itself. Nevertheless, there are district differences between the three genres.

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Eco-Thrillers put environmental issues front and center. The difference is, unlike Eco-Thrillers, Environmental Thrillers deal with real-world environmental issues that are more localized in their impact. I would put some novels dealing with climate change in this category too, when the impact of climate change is experienced locally (rising seas, drier/wetter weather, increases in extreme weather, and the like). Thrillers about climate change, however, get their own sub-genre: Cli-Fi.

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Cli-Fi

There is a growing body of novels, mainly thrillers, dealing with the possible (probable? likely?) impacts of climate change. These are often imbued with science fiction (Sci-Fi/Cli-Fi, get it?) or at least speculative fiction. They range from climate change deniers, like Michael Crichton's State of Fear, to the more common, full-on Jeremiads about the probable devastating impact of climate change. Books positing serious impact as a result of climate change include Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver, Barkskins by Annie Proulx, and Aurora and 2312, by Kim Stanley Robinson.

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Eco-thrillers. An eco-thriller is a novel in which the action involves an environmental calamity that may be world-wide in scope or that will change some significant aspect of the Earth as we know it. At best, the activity is unethical, at worst it is criminal. Frequently, greedy corporations or super-wealthy individuals are the antagonists. These books are part-science fiction or speculative fiction (e.g. what if a company figured out a way to recreate dinosaurs). Often a massive calamity that shatters the norm or defies scientific principles takes place in these books (e.g. ZOO, in which all of the animals attack humans effectively taking over the Earth; RELIC, in which a monster accidently is brought back from the Amazon rain forest to the New York Academy of Sciences and runs amok in Manhattan killing dozens of visitors to the museum; JURASSIC PARK, in which dinosaurs are brought back to life).

For decades eco-thrillers were the mainstay in the environmental thriller category. Certainly, with issues like climate change, that can wreck disastrous consequences from one end of the planet to the other, eco-thrillers are here to stay. They are now sharing the spotlight, however, with environmental thrillers and environmental legal thrillers.

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Environmental thrillers. These stories deal with real-world environmental issues such as unregulated development, contaminated drinking water, and oil spills. Often corporations are portrayed as greedy, thoughtless villains more interested in profit than in the safety of humans, animals, or the environment. Again, there is criminal or highly unethical activity. There may be no legal proceedings in the book or they may be only tangential to the story. (e.g. THE MONKEY-WRENCH GANG, in which a group of environmental activists become eco-extremists in an effort to oppose environmental degradation and offenses by callous corporations; OIL AND WATER, in which a family is nearly destroyed when a corporation tries to steal a device they invented that makes oil from garbage).

Environmental thrillers are taking more of the spotlight as current writers highlight environmental issues that have real world consequences, as opposed to science fiction-y type books. These books resonate with readers who are concerned about environmental issues and who enjoy the thriller genre.

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Environmental legal thrillers: a sub-genre of legal thrillers, environmental legal thrillers portray both environmental harms and the legal battles associated with those harms. The legal battle is central to the story and can involve investigations, trials, and appeals of significant environmental issues. Lawyers are central characters in these stories (often he or she is the protagonist) (e.g. GRAY MOUNTAIN, in which a young lawyer opposes mountaintop removal mining in western Virginia; THE PELICAN BRIEF, in which opponents are assassinated on behalf of an oil tycoon who intends to drill for oil on Louisiana marshland that is habitat for an endangered species of pelicans and where the main character is a law student; DRINK TO EVERY BEAST, in which two teenagers die after swimming through chemicals illegally dumped into the Susquehanna River and a young environmental prosecutor is assigned his first big case and must find, and stop the dumpers).

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Sources of information:
https://crimereads.com/the-past-present-and-future-of-the-eco-thriller/

https://thrillbegins.com/2019/05/27/thrillers/

If you have questions, please don't hesitate to ask. Thank you.