OPINION

Hollywood Has a Dirty Little Secret: It Pollutes

Many talk about climate change as an existential crisis, then jump on private planes to go shopping. This may not be the most politically correct way to begin an article about sustainability, but perhaps . . . honesty is being called for.

Holly wood loves talking about climate change.

We . . .

• Make documentaries about it.
• Produce specials about it.
• Win awards talking about it.
• Then spend a lot of time telling everyone else what they should be doing to save the planet.

But do we truly practice what we preach?

Walk onto almost any major movie or television set. Generators run, trucks are lined up, plastic water bottles are stacked throughout.

Additionally, entire sets are built, used, dismantled, and hauled away.

No, none of this is malicious; it's simply the way this branch of show business has operated for decades.

Every television show, movie, documentary, news program, and streaming production creates a carbon footprint.

The question is whether we are willing to measure it, own it, and do something about it.

Looking at the Numbers

A major high-budget drama series can generate more than 14,000 metric tons of carbon emissions during a season. A studio blockbuster can generate approximately 3,370 metric tons. When you add together film, television, news broadcasting, movie theaters, streaming, and home viewing, the total U.S. screen ecosystem generated approximately 22.7 million metric tons of carbon emissions in 2025 alone, which is the equivalent of burning roughly 25 billion pounds of coal.

Surprisingly, 71% of that footprint comes not from production, but from the roughly 125 million American households watching content every day.

And, as they say, "Here's the Newsflash!"

Watching creates far more emissions than making.

Why Most Solutions Take Too Long

The usual answers to this crisis such as trees, solar, wind, electric vehicles are not bad ideas. But they are slow answers to a fast-moving problem.

A tree planted today won't meaningfully absorb carbon for 20 to 40 years.

Solar and wind projects take years to permit and build.

Meanwhile, emissions are entering the atmosphere right now.

So, the question this writer keeps returning to is quite simple: "What can we do that has an impact now?"

The 'Thing' No One Talks About

While searching for immediate solutions, I stumbled across something I had never heard discussed at a single climate conference or industry panel: abandoned oil and gas wells.

There are an estimated three million abandoned and orphaned wells in the United States alone, and many continue leaking pollution every day.

Collectively, they release approximately 400,000 metric tons of methane annually.

Over its first 20 years in the atmosphere, methane traps roughly 86 times more heat than carbon dioxide, making these silent, forgotten wells one of the most damaging sources of greenhouse gas emissions in the country.

These wells are not producing electricity.

They are not creating jobs.

They are simply sitting there, leaking.

Meeting a Man on a Mission

While researching a potential TV series, this writer met Curtis Shuck, founder of the Well Done Foundation. Curtis is not a Hollywood environmental consultant.

He is a real oilman who spent his career in actual oil fields. His mission is straightforward: find abandoned wells, measure their emissions, cap them permanently, and stop the leaks.

No projections.

No promises about what future generations might eventually see.

One identifies the source, stops it, and measures the result(s).

As a businessperson, that got my attention immediately.

From Footprint to Action

Tinsel Town is already very good at calculations.

We calculate production budgets down to the penny before a camera ever rolls.

So why not calculate the carbon footprint the same way?

The tools already exist. BAFTA albert, the Green Production Guide, and others have developed carbon-accounting systems specifically for film and television.

The data is already embedded in the budgets, schedules, and crew manifests we create for every production.

Once we know the footprint, we apply a simple formula: multiply metric tons of CO₂e by $20 and contribute that amount to the Well Done Foundation. A docuseries runs about $6,000. A large feature film runs about $21,600. A studio tentpole, $67,400.

Rounding errors in most production budgets.

That money funds the direct capping of leaking wells not a theoretical future benefit, but an immediate, measurable reduction in pollution already entering the atmosphere.

Thus, if every network, studio, streamer, production company, and news organization participated, the U.S. entertainment industry could generate approximately $454 million annually for methane-abatement projects, which is enough to help fund the permanent closure of nearly 7,000 leaking wells every year.

We have the resources. We just need the will to act.

As Batman put it, "It's what you do that defines you."

Lynn Scheid is chairman of the board of The Atlantic Media Group PLC.