The American mass media overwhelmingly promote a consumer culture, while paying scant attention to the effects this culture has on the environment. American film and television, especially, is reaching more and more people worldwide, thus promoting wasteful overconsumption on a global scale by encouraging people to abandon traditional, sustainable lifestyles and to aspire to an unsustainable consumerist lifestyle. Hollywood has produced many highly successful movies addressing major social issues, including environmental issues such as chemical pollution, nuclear radiation, and global warming, yet it fails to tie these concerns to the consumerist behavior that is at the root of these problems. Although it may be too much to expect the American mass media to actively promote sustainable development, it is surely irresponsible to promote consumerism as if it had no adverse environmental consequences. Of course, ultimate power rests with the consumer, without whom there would be no audience to make movies for; but the decision about which movies to make, and where to release them, is in the hands of production companies. They have responsibilities not only to present generations but also to future ones.

Special interests include organizational ethics, rare species, the relation between environmental ethics and culture, intrinsic value theory, genetic engineering, future studies, and environmental education. I have held visiting scholar positions at Duke University, North Carolina, at North Carolina State University, and at Griffith University, Australia. Member of The National Ethics Committee on Assisted Human Reproduction, and former member of Health Waikato's Ethics Advisory Group, of the Waikato Ethics Committee (Research), and of the organizing committee of the Information and Resource Center, Singapore. Convenor of the University of Waikato Human Research Ethics Committee. I have a particular interest in ethics education for professionals and have conducted numerous training workshops for governmental and private sector organizations in New Zealand, Australia and South East Asia; I am also an ethics consultant for various organizations in the region, and have represented New Zealand at several international workshops and gatherings in Australia and Asia. Publications include three books and many articles in scholarly and general interest journals and I regularly broadcast on New Zealand television and radio.

Fiona Jackson has ten years experience in the American Television and Movie industry, both in front of and behind the camera. She is currently completing a children's action screenplay for Nelvana and working towards a PhD in the Screen and Media department at the University of Waikato.