That line -- "we have met the enemy and he is us" -- was written for a poster for Earth Day in 1970, and it's coming around again, this time accompanied by popcorn and an overpriced tub of soda.

The first time, it was uttered by Pogo Possum, lead character in the comic strip that bore his name. It was written by the strip's creator, Walt Kelly. ("Pogo" was kind of Doonesbury of yesteryear, even though its 1948 - 1975 run meant they overlapped -- trenchant political allegory and social satire in four-panel installments every day in the newspaper.)

Now that idea of us being the enemy is coming around again, the New York Times reports, as a number of feature films about to be released or in production posit a new villain instead of the standard parade of bad guys. This time, we're the evildoers, and the victim is the earth and its environment.

It's interesting to see this particular example -- a cultural shift affecting popular entertainment -- as another indication of a swift mainstreaming of environmental issues and concerns, this time driving the plot in everything from a saga about resurrected 1980s playthings to Titanic director James Cameron's first feature in six years to a tale of a simple everyman who could be anybody's neighbor.

What did Al Gore's movie unleash at the cineplex?