The 37 Best Environmental Documentaries of All Time

Some of these films rattled governments, while others quietly changed how people eat, shop and fish. Oscar winners share the field with scrappy campaign films that found their audience online.

1. 1
   An Inconvenient Truth

   Davis Guggenheim's Oscar-winning film of Al Gore's climate-change slideshow, which put global warming in multiplexes.
   1000pts
2. 2
   Flow: For Love of Water

   Irena Salina's investigation into the privatisation and pollution of the world's fresh water.
   732pts
3. 3
   The Age of Stupid

   Franny Armstrong's drama-documentary hybrid in which a man in 2055 asks why we failed to act on climate.
   732pts
4. 4
   Sea of Shadows

   An eco-thriller documentary about the fight to save the vaquita porpoise from illegal fishing cartels.
   705pts
5. 5
   The End of the Line

   The first major feature documentary about the global collapse of fish stocks from overfishing.
   660pts
6. 6
   Who Killed the Electric Car?

   Chris Paine's account of the rise and deliberate demise of GM's EV1 electric car.
   610pts
7. 7
   Breaking Boundaries

   Attenborough and Johan Rockström explain the nine planetary boundaries that keep Earth stable.
   610pts
8. 8
   Darwin's Nightmare

   Hubert Sauper's Oscar-nominated study of the ecological and human fallout of the Nile perch in Lake Victoria.
   610pts
9. 9
   The Cove

   An Oscar-winning undercover exposé of the dolphin hunt in Taiji, Japan.
   610pts
10. 10
    Koyaanisqatsi

    Godfrey Reggio's wordless, Philip Glass-scored portrait of a world thrown out of balance by industry.
    553pts
11. 11
    Anthropocene: The Human Epoch

    Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky film humanity's planet-altering footprint.
    553pts
12. 12
    Ice on Fire

    A Leonardo DiCaprio-produced HBO documentary focused on carbon-drawdown solutions.
    553pts
13. 13
    Kiss the Ground

    Narrated by Woody Harrelson, it argues that regenerative farming and healthy soil can help reverse climate change.
    553pts
14. 14
    The Biggest Little Farm

    A couple spends eight years turning depleted land outside Los Angeles into a biodiverse farm.
    553pts
15. 15
    The 11th Hour

    Leonardo DiCaprio narrates scientists and thinkers on the state of the planet's ecosystems.
    488pts
16. 16
    Tomorrow

    Cyril Dion and Mélanie Laurent's César-winning tour of grassroots solutions to the ecological crisis (Demain).
    488pts
17. 17
    Chasing Ice

    James Balog's time-lapse cameras capture glaciers retreating at astonishing speed.
    488pts
18. 18
    Manufactured Landscapes

    Jennifer Baichwal follows photographer Edward Burtynsky through the industrial landscapes of China.
    488pts
19. 19
    Mission Blue

    A portrait of oceanographer Sylvia Earle and her campaign to create protected 'hope spots' in the sea.
    488pts
20. 20
    An Inconvenient Sequel

    Al Gore's follow-up, tracking his campaign through the Paris climate negotiations.
    413pts
21. 21
    Honeyland

    A Macedonian wild-beekeeper's sustainable way of life is upended by careless neighbours; a double Oscar nominee.
    413pts
22. 22
    Chasing Coral

    Divers and photographers document the mass bleaching of the world's coral reefs.
    413pts
23. 23
    Virunga

    Rangers defend Congo's Virunga National Park and its mountain gorillas against war and oil exploration.
    413pts
24. 24
    A Plastic Ocean

    Journalist Craig Leeson and diver Tanya Streeter track plastic pollution through the world's seas.
    413pts
25. 25
    Racing Extinction

    Louie Psihoyos follows activists exposing the wildlife trade and the sixth mass extinction.
    413pts
26. 26
    Merchants of Doubt

    Robert Kenner reveals the PR playbook used to cast doubt on climate science.
    325pts
27. 27
    A Life on Our Planet

    David Attenborough's witness statement on the biodiversity loss he has seen over his lifetime.
    325pts
28. 28
    Before the Flood

    Leonardo DiCaprio travels the world as a UN Messenger of Peace to see climate change up close.
    325pts
29. 29
    2040

    Damon Gameau imagines the world his daughter could inherit if today's climate solutions were scaled up.
    325pts
30. 30
    Gasland

    Josh Fox's Oscar-nominated investigation of fracking and its effects on water supplies.
    325pts
31. 31
    The True Cost

    Andrew Morgan exposes the human and environmental toll of fast fashion.
    222pts
32. 32
    This Changes Everything

    Avi Lewis adapts Naomi Klein's book linking climate change to the economic system.
    222pts
33. 33
    Food, Inc.

    Robert Kenner's look at industrial agriculture and the environmental and health costs of cheap food.
    222pts
34. 34
    Cowspiracy

    Kip Andersen investigates animal agriculture's role in deforestation, water use and emissions.
    222pts
35. 35
    Albatross

    Chris Jordan's film about albatross chicks on Midway Atoll dying from ingested plastic.
    222pts
36. 36
    Seaspiracy

    A Netflix hit that turns its lens on the damage industrial fishing does to the oceans.
    0pts
37. 37
    Trashed

    Jeremy Irons follows the global trail of waste and its threat to food chains and health.
    0pts

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