Matt Groening -- Celebrity Green Report
Written By Katherine Sansom
May 14, 2007
Matt Groening, award-winning creator of ‘The Simpsons’, described his work’s motto as this: “To entertain and subvert.” His much-loved television program has certainly succeeded!
Through the character of Lisa, Groening is able to express contentious views on environmental destruction and, in particular, nuclear power, presenting the precocious eight-year-old as a role model and voice of reason. The show itself has been awarded six Environmental Media Association awards, and this was mirrored in the program in 2001 when we saw Lisa receive their Board of Directors Ongoing Commitment Award.
Homer, deliberately designed as Lisa’s opposite number, is the Safety Officer at Springfield’s nuclear power plant and is, needless to say, lazy, incompetent and the lowest ranking member of staff. Groening’s antagonism towards nuclear power is further elucidated in ‘The Simpsons Movie’, due for release in July 2007, when an accidental toxic waste leak requires the total evacuation of the area.
Matt Groening took another opportunity to support green initiatives when he appeared in a short, animated segment of Al Gore’s award-winning documentary, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’, last year.
