7.7 square miles and 70 mm IMAX
by Tom Sullivan
Interstellar, the new Christopher Nolan science-fiction film starring Matthew McConaughey, may come uncomfortably close to science fact:
McConaughey’s character, known only as Cooper, is a farmer in a world that has become desperately short of food. Human activity has degraded the soil so badly that they're forced to live in a giant dustbowl and crops are all but impossible to grow.
Although soil degradation is nothing new, Interstellar is proving strangely prescient, as its release coincides with a new UN report showing the trend has reached alarming levels, with 7.7 square miles of agricultural land being lost every day because it has become too salty. Climate change is making the situation worse because warmer temperatures require more irrigation and increase the speed at which the water evaporates, the report warns.
Now if we could only get people to suspend their disbelief and think about climate change for 2h 49m outside a theater.