COMMENTARY The ecological and consumption themes of the films of Hayao Miyazaki Kozo Mayumi a , Barry D. Solomon b, * , Jason Chang c a Faculty of Integrated Arts and Sciences, The University of Tokushima, Tokushima City 770-8502, Japan b Department of Social Sciences and Sustainable Futures Institute, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI 49931-1295, USA c Public Policy and Administration, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003, USA Received 29 November 2004; accepted 7 March 2005 Available online 10 May 2005 Abstract Films are an underutilized media to explore and amplify the many messages of ecological economics. While a few popular films and videos have effectively addressed environmental themes, this commentary argues that they have an even greater role to play in the educational process in order to reach a broader audience and help it to rethink its role in the world’s ecosystems. Hayao Miyazaki, the masterful animator from Japan, is singled out to offer ample material in many of his popular and children’s films to stimulate such critical thinking on the systemic problems addressed by ecological economics. D 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Animation; Film; Forest; Consumption; Japan 1. Introduction Ecological economics, as a trans-discipline, has an inclusive view on the contributions that the many traditional disciplines make to its advancement. As the science of sustainability, ecological economics must similarly take a broad view on both its audience (academia, applied practitioners, government, busi- ness and the general public) as well as the means of delivering its messages. Consequently the field not only needs to consider the use of scholarly journal articles, books and reports, but also popular writings and alternative means of using the visual field for both specialists in the field and the general public. Among the options for the latter are plays, television and films. One can imagine a broad range of topics that could be addressed, from the traditional focus on air and water pollution, recycling, waste disposal, toxic substances, sustainable resource use, overpopulation, international trade, etc. to advanced topics such as biodiversity loss, global climate change, and more complex questions of optimal economic scale, inter- generational and inter-species equity. A comprehensive videotape series on ecological economics topics was developed in the 1990s by Griesinger Films in Ohio. This series included an 0921-8009/$ - see front matter D 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2005.03.012 * Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 906 487 1791; fax: +1 906 487 2468. E-mail address: bdsolomo@mtu.edu (B.D. Solomon). Ecological Economics 54 (2005) 1 – 7 www.elsevier.com/locate/ecolecon