50 Years Later, Silent Running Is More Relevant Than Ever

There’s a line in Silent Running, a film released 50 years ago this month, that hit me extremely hard when I heard it: “If people were interested, something would have been done a long time ago.” The line is said in response to the news that Earth has decided to abandon all of its efforts to save its own plant life. Instead, humanity is resigning to living a desolate life without plants. Of the four characters present for the news, three are excited by it. But the other, a bota