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The new climate film celebrates malpractice martyrdom, and enviros of all stripes are cheering it on

I had to force myself to watch Don’t Look Up. It was painful. Just as painful as it’s been to watch the litany of reviews extolling its virtues, with one righteous climate scientist and environmentalist after another claiming to identify with the valiant yet unsuccessful fights put forth by the film’s heroic characters.

Of course, this was all predictable. Which is why I tried to avoid watching the movie and remain in a bubble of detached bliss, protected from the nonsense I suspected would ensue. But still — surely, I thought, more people than just me and a few comrade-in-arms would see through the misplaced self-indulgence. Mainstream enviros would have their congratulatory field day, yes, but surely there’s a strong contingent on the fringe who saw what was plainly obvious to me and my small posse? Perhaps this is a cathartic clarion call to that silent contingent.

As heroic as climate scientists and climate activists are often made out to be, the trouble is that most of them are barking up the wrong tree. They’ve made the wrong diagnosis and are offering up a snake oil cure — a cure that’s not only totally detached from biophysical reality, but that would actually make the real problem worse. Even the few who grasp what that real problem is still mostly don’t understand its full implications and are offering up incomplete or altogether off-the-mark solutions.

So, let’s start with the diagnosis. We have no hope of fixing a problem or curing a disease if we don’t fully, accurately understand it. The diagnosis sold to the public by mainstream enviros (this includes climate scientists, climate activists, and the environmental community at large) is climate change…

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Spot The Illusions We Tell Ourselves

January 24, 2022

Spot The Illusions We Tell Ourselves

Whitewater Falls, North Carolina

Recently there have been a rather large number of occurrences which shine a light on some positive progress being made on ecological overshoot. Unfortunately, many outlets and even scientists have made claims about so-called “solutions” which are anything but, and generally they’re simply not true.

One of the loudest occurrences has been the release of Don’t Look Up on Netflix, which has elicited lots of reviews and is reverberating far and wide within the climate change community. I say “climate change” community because even many longtime climate followers are still in the dark about ecological overshoot, the predicament CAUSING climate change. One review in particular is extremely accurate, this one from Tom Murphy. On most articles, I usually try to avoid reading the comments following said articles. However, Tom’s site generally has comments which actually elevate each article because they are often thoughtful rather than the depressing comments after most “regular” articles. This particular snippet of one caught my eye because of the relevance it has with so many comments I see routinely, quote:

“When will “we” unite to solve “our” global problems? As much as each of us may wish otherwise, humanity is not a giant family. It is a large mass of clever primates who have evolved to cope with temporary resource surpluses followed inevitably by scarcity. After the feast always comes the killing famine, and we are built to compete in just such a world.

This does not foreclose united action against common threats, but when the chips are down and *somebody* must have less of a limiting resource, we will do everything in our earthly power to ensure that it’s not us.
…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Don’t Look Up! There’s Nobody There!

January 14, 2022

Don’t Look Up! There’s Nobody There!

On December 24, 2021, Netflix released a new film titled “Don’t Look Up.” It is an apocalyptic thriller about an earth-killing asteroid and is being rated among the top 10, along with a monster flick, an art crime flick and a snuff film. As a piece of entertainment it is barely watchable; as a piece of propaganda it is most interesting. The timing of its release—immediately before the Christmas/New Year holidays—was in line with its function as a public message, designed to attract the largest possible audience, since this is the time when most people have spare time on their hands. The venue—a streaming service—allowed it to dispense with the premiere, the schmoozing and hobnobbing, which, given the subject matter and the way it is treated, could have given rise to awkward questions that would have caused considerable discomfort for all concerned. Its subject matter—the destruction of our planet—clashed severely with the subject matter of Christmas, which is the birth of Our Savior, and in the pre-Christian era of the winter solstice, which is a turn of the seasons toward spring and rebirth.

In short, those who ordered this spectacle did everything possible to make sure that as many people as possible entered the new year with the message of looming catastrophe on their minds. Who were these people? There is every reason to think that it was the oft-mentioned yet dimly perceived Deep State. The entire team behind the film is chock-full of high-profile Democrats. In turn, the Democratic party serves the interests of the Deep State, its power and reach made abundantly clear to all by the travesty that was the 2020 election…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Losing It

January 14, 2022

Losing It

Faced with the gathering collapse of the biosphere, and governments’ refusal to take the necessary action, how do we stop ourselves from falling apart?

No wonder journalists have slated it. They’ve produced a hundred excuses not to watch the climate breakdown satire Don’t Look Up: it’s “blunt”, it’s “shrill”, it’s “smug”. But they will not name the real problem: it’s about them. The movie is, in my view, a powerful demolition of the grotesque failures of public life. And the sector whose failures are most brutally exposed is the media.

While the film is fast and funny, for me, as for many environmental activists and climate scientists, it seemed all too real. I felt as if I were watching my adult life flash past me. As the scientists in the film, trying to draw attention to the approach of a planet-killing comet, bashed their heads against the Great Wall of Denial erected by the media and sought to reach politicians with 10-second attention spans, all the anger and frustration and desperation I’ve felt over the years boiled over.

Above all, when the scientist who had discovered the comet was pushed to the bottom of the schedule by fatuous celebrity gossip on a morning TV show and erupted in fury, I was reminded of my own mortifying loss of control on Good Morning Britain in November. It was soon after the Cop26 climate conference in Glasgow, where we had seen the least serious of all governments (the UK was hosting the talks) failing to rise to the most serious of all issues. I tried, for the thousandth time, to explain what we are facing, and suddenly couldn’t hold it in any longer. I burst into tears on live TV.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

It’s okay to look up

January 12, 2022

It’s okay to look up

I am told I should look into filing a copyright claim against the Netflix movie Don’t Look Up, since I wrote a version of it in my 2015 book, The Consciousness of Sheep, and for exactly the same reason:

“We’ve all seen this movie before: A giant asteroid is heading straight for us, and it looks like a big one. Although somewhat smaller than the rock that wiped out the dinosaurs – together with 90 percent of life on Earth – this one could well destroy human civilisation. If it hits a landmass, it will spew pollution into the upper atmosphere. This will initially produce a global ‘nuclear winter’ in which temperatures plummet and plant life withers as sunlight is blocked out. Those of us that survive the impact will face starvation as harvests fail. In the longer-term we face runaway global warming as the gases trapped in the upper atmosphere act like a blanket to prevent heat radiating into space. Even if the asteroid hits an ocean, things may not be much better. Super-size tsunami waves will sweep around the planet wiping out 70-90 percent of the World’s cities and causing massive damage to infrastructure. The water vapour that erupts into the sky is three times more powerful a greenhouse gas than the carbon dioxide that humanity routinely pumps into the atmosphere. This, too, threatens runaway global warming…

“What would we humans do if this was for real?

“The decision to act now should be obvious except for two compounding factors. First, governments in the modern world tend not to trust the people. So they have been trying to keep the lid on the whole thing while telling the population to carry on with business as usual…

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

‘Don’t Look Up’: Hollywood’s primer on climate denial illustrates 5 myths that fuel rejection of science

January 11, 2022

‘Don’t Look Up’: Hollywood’s primer on climate denial illustrates 5 myths that fuel rejection of science

DiCaprio and Lawrence look at cell phone in a still from the movie. — In ‘Don’t Look Up,’ scientists played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence watch with horror as people willfully ignore warnings of an impending disaster. Entertainment Pictures/Alamy Stock Photo

Every disaster movie seems to open with a scientist being ignored. “Don’t Look Up” is no exception – in fact, people ignoring or flat out denying scientific evidence is the point.

Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence play astronomers who make a literally Earth-shattering discovery and then try to persuade the president to take action to save humanity. It’s a satire that explores how individuals, scientists, the media and politicians respond when faced with scientific facts that are uncomfortable, threatening and inconvenient.

The movie is an allegory for climate change, showing how those with the power to do something about global warming willfully avoid taking action and how those with vested interests can mislead the public. But it also reflects science denial more broadly, including what the world has been seeing with COVID-19.

The most important difference between the film’s premise and humanity’s actual looming crisis is that while individuals may be powerless against a comet, everyone can act decisively to stop fuelling climate change.

Knowing the myths that feed science denial can help.

As research psychologists and the authors of “Science Denial: Why It Happens and What to Do About It”, we recognize these aspects of science denial all too well.

Myth #1: We can’t act unless the science is 100% certain

The first question President Orlean (Meryl Streep) asks the scientists after they explain that a comet is on a collision course with Earth is, “So how certain is this?” Learning that the certitude is 99.78%, the president’s chief of staff (Jonah Hill) responds with relief: “Oh great, so it’s not 100%!” Government scientist Teddy Oglethorpe (Rob Morgan) replies, “Scientists never like to say 100%.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Why Pundits ‘Don’t Look Up’ from Progress

January 5, 2022

Why Pundits ‘Don’t Look Up’ from Progress

The new film about a total apocalypse of the human race is being slammed by many film reviewers. But when I chat to people who have seen it they think it brilliant. And my Facebook wall is full of friends writing versions of OMG what a film! So what might these extremely different reactions tell us?

When I read the reviews of ‘Don’t Look Up’ they seem to misunderstand the film. Even the reviews from environmentalists who slag off the other reviews miss what is seen as important about the film by me and people who are alive to the very latest climate trends.. So here are my two cents on the film and – like all important art – the lessons from the reactions it has generated.

Judging by its output since WWII, the role of Hollywood has been to produce stories that celebrate human power (mostly male), including conquest, progress, success and heroic individualism. The stereotypical ‘Hollywood Ending’ is not only good but is thanks to one special person. Even tragedies and horror films would typically include some of those themes. Compare American output to French films and those aspects of Hollywood content are quite clear. Such aspects are not accidental. They align with an ideology of modernity and progress that has dominated global cultures for… well there are many views on how deep it goes.. But at least since WWII.

With that background, a film that was released for Christmas and ends with all the main characters expressing love for each other before they are obliterated along with the entire human race is not very usual! Don’t Look Up is the first time I have seen ‘doomer humour’ in a film with the biggest stars.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

“Don’t Look Up” (part 1) – climate movie is kryptonite to the super villains

January 2, 2022

“Don’t Look Up” (part 1) – climate movie is kryptonite to the super villains

You know a satirical movie has hit its target when the mainstream reviewers call it “shrill” and “overblown.”

That’s what’s happened to the brash comedy “Don’t Look Up” which was released on Netflix the day before Christmas. Most of the mainstream reviewers panned it. Audiences disagreed – the movie promptly jumped to the top of Netflix’s most-watched list in 89 countries.

As one site said, “general audiences don’t give a rat’s ass about what the critics think.”

Like the earlier political comedies “Network” and “Dr. Strangelove,” the movie is a cry of frustration. We know bad things are in store. We know we’re being lied to by politicians, the media, the sociopathic billionaires.

But what can we do? We write earnest articles, we protest, we try to understand different points of view.

For years we do this, and the machine rolls on. Sometimes we just need to rear back and laugh at all the jackassery.

Peter Kalmus tweets:

As a climate scientist, I live in #DontLookUp every fucking day

I felt seen

… it’s satire but it’s also damn accurate … we need more climate storytelling like this

What’s ironic is that the movie doesn’t mention climate at all. Instead a comet is discovered hurtling towards earth. It’s a planet killer which will send tidal waves a mile high in all directions.

You’d think that the imminent catastrophe would set off screaming headlines and a lightning response from world governments.

If you think that, silly you! You haven’t been paying attention to our dysfunctional response to:

Climate change
Covid
Obscene wealth vs growing desperation
Species extinction
Resource depletion

The movie shows us a familiar cast of characters. Some struggle heroically to get the word out. Others plot how to squeeze the crisis to their personal advantage.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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