EPCOT's Energy Crisis

Last week, President Bush held a press conference in which he said Americans “expect action” on energy issues. With the cost of gas rising by leaps and bounds, fuel efficiency in cars and trucks under fire, and increasingly hard-to-ignore evidence that global warming is caused by greenhouse gases that can be controlled by changing energy-consumption habits, energy is a top-of-mind issue for many people around the world.

As I listened to Bush, two things came to mind: 1) No matter your party politics, it’s undeniable that we’re on the cusp of a major energy crisis; and 2) These are exactly the type of issues that EPCOT Center tried to bring to the forefront for guests.

Imagine, if you will, had The Walt Disney Company, not Exxon, been in control of what was presented and described in the Universe of Energy for the past 25 years. Imagine if it had been solely the Imagineers, without dictates from a corporate sponsor, who determined how and what to tell guests.

EPCOT was never a place, nor should it be, to incite or provoke arguments. However, as Bush spoke about the need for alternative energy and a decreased reliance on oil, I kept thinking about where I first learned about the exploration of alternative forms of energy. Yes, at EPCOT when I was about 15 years old. I had never given much thought to solar energy or wind power, for instance, but I remember being fascinated by the idea that someone was thinking about them. I recall the huge controversy around nuclear energy (always amusingly, maybe a little disturbingly) dismissed by the Universe of Energy, but I also recall thinking that perhaps it was an option for us in the future.

Of course, the Universe of Energy remained distressingly unchanged for a number of years before Ellen DeGeneres finally came along to give it a much needed dose of life. And then … nothing. It’s now been almost 11 years since Universe of Energy received a major rethinking, and there couldn’t be a more pertinent time.
I know little about it, but it seems clear that the subject of energy has never been more important or more fascinating. Disney has an opportunity, now that ExxonMobil is no longer a sponsor, to determine what content is presented and how. This is a fantastic chance for Disney’s best writers, designers, researchers, filmmakers and artists to tackle a complex, intensely intriguing topic and help shape the way millions of people a year think about it.

Imagine, for a moment, that Disney had not been bound to present an image of the energy situation as filtered through the corporate mindset of Big Oil. Perhaps a decade ago, tens of millions of people a year could have started to learn about hybrid cars or hydrogen-fuel technology. Perhaps 15 years ago, millions of minds could have started getting their heads around what happens when energy-created pollution goes out of control – and how we could, in turn, do our individual part to control it. Perhaps Disney, as it used to do in so many memorable and entertaining educational films, could have used its storytelling prowess to show us that the way we perceive energy use is limited only by our imaginations.

Teaching an audience does not have to be boring. Educating a park guest who would rather just see some more cartoon antics does not have to be a chore (for either the park or the guest!). And, most importantly, getting people to think about the future of the world in which they live doesn’t have to be dull – it can be inspiring and memorable.

That was the promise that EPCOT Center once held. It’s the promise that could again guide EPCOT in the future.

To see how potent a tool EPCOT can be in shaping hearts and minds, Disney need look no further than where even the president acknowledges we’ve made missteps in energy creation and consumption … then imagine a world in which it had taken the guiding principles of EPCOT Center to heart and built upon them, rather than tearing them down.