Last month’s Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal did a few things: it added the phrase “dieselgate” to the public sphere and incinerated a respected company’s brand perception overnight. But the carnage didn’t stop there.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Paramount Studios announced last week that they will be producing a feature-length film about the scandal.

This move can be seen through two different lenses. The cynic may be quick to bemoan big industry profiting off of another environmental catastrophe. However, as the Generation Y columnist astutely points out, cynicism is a disempowering narrative, and is one to shy away from.

Instead, Hollywood’s involvement has the potential to tap into the increasing public concern of corporate irresponsibility and environmental degradation. Simultaneously, it sets immense precedent for the enormous repercussions companies can expect to face it they are caught knowingly polluting.

On Oct. 7, Volkswagen’s incoming chairman Hans Dieter Poetsch proclaimed that the scandal could pose an “existence-threatening crisis for the company.” Now, it looks unlikely that this dissolution will manifest itself entirely, but speaks to the annihilation of public trust for the company, and how serious that can be.

Normally, a team of crisis communicators would apologize and try to steer the narrative elsewhere. However, with DiCaprio spearheading this upcoming movie, Volkswagen’s negative coverage will be continuous and, once released, forever immortalized.

The film will be based on the book written by New York Times journalist Jack Ewing. The book is expected to be finished sometime in 2016, according to Ewing’s agent.

Environmental issues are often highly politicized. In this example, however, there appears to be unanimous vilification of Volkswagen. This presents an interesting opportunity. A movie of this nature, one professionally produced with a celebrity at its helm, may appeal to both sides of the political spectrum.

It humanizes the oftentimes diffuse, existential threat of increased atmospheric pollution in a way that both grungy hippies and corporate CEOs can relate to, ruminate on and, ideally, act upon.

When environmental issues are divorced from the political sphere they become easier to understand. On the Hill, elected global warming skeptics and deniers commonly discredit the science behind our human-exacerbated climate, but so far those same voices have been unusually silent.

Perhaps fossil fuel energy lobbyists understand that defending Volkswagen is a lost cause, but is what Volkswagen did so different than what the fossil fuel industry does on mass scale every day? In both cases, the environment has suffered under the false pretense that the existing procedures are safe and trustworthy.

This exact trend has recently come to light with ExxonMobil. Reporters from InsideClimate News, the Los Angeles Times and researchers from Columbia University have unearthed information detailing how in the 1970s Exxon’s chief scientists warned the company of the environmental dangers of fossil fuel extraction. Privy to this information, ExxonMobil, along with the industry, spent massive sums of money working to obscure the truth from public discourse.

Corporations’ relationships with the environment are gaining visibility, most recently on the grandest stage imaginable: Hollywood. This emerging genre has immense potential, and should be taken advantage of by filmmakers.

Yes, they are profiting off of environmental scandals, but in the process these issues are becoming humanized, breaking down partisan political barriers and, most importantly, furthering a discourse that desperately needs rebranding.

Azor Cole is a senior public relations major and geography minor. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at azcole@syr.edu and followed on Twitter @azor_cole.

Published on October 22, 2015 at 1:05 am