Good Gardeners of Planet Earth? The Vision of Silent Running (1972)

Looking at the 1972 film 'Silent Running' which imagined gardens in space, this lecture asks 'Are humans fit to be gardeners of this planet?'.

A lecture by Jim Endersby, Visiting Professor of the History of Science
23 March 2020 6:00pm UK Time

Are humans fit to be gardeners of this planet? Today’s biotechnology companies promote themselves in distinctly utopian ways, but increasing numbers of people find their claims difficult to reconcile with the daily evidence of the damage that technologies like intensive agriculture have done to this planet. This lecture explores these notions through an examination of the film Silent Running (1972), which imagined gardens in space, in which the last remnants of Earth’s vegetation are preserved aboard gigantic spaceships.

[timcarpenter]

I saw this film in the mid 70’s. I still cannot bear to watch it again with anyone else in the house, as the ending is so sad.

[flickrjazz]

Good soundtrack on the movie. Took me over 25 years to track down a CD version.

[richard_d_bird]

a very sappy movie with some pretty improbable premises, sci fi wise, as is typical in hollywood type sci fi productions. and if they made it today you'd have to call bruce dern some kind of terrorist or something. i mean we're cheering for a guy that kills all his ship mates and then blows up the ship. imagine the legal charges. those ships are expensive i bet. but anyway i always loved that movie all the same, special effects by douglas trumbull i think and the theme song with joan baez is awesome and bruce dern does a great job as the enlightened maniac and so on. haven't listened to lecture yet, will get to that later tonight, thanks

[margyrowland]

Plants need CO2 to live and grow. It’s not pollution. The plastic we’ve dumped in the environment is a real problem.

[ableadelaide]

What environmental crisis? There sure is a 'mental