"Don't Look Up" director Adam McKay on the climate crisis that's no joke
The extreme heat that made headlines last week in Europe and the U.S. reminded us of the apocalyptic satire film "Don't Look Up," written and directed by Academy Award-winner Adam McKay. He has some thoughts on the climate crisis:
This past week around the planet we've seen the highest temperature ever recorded in the U.K., catastrophic heat and fires in Spain, Portugal, France, Morocco, China, and large swaths of the U.S., not to mention the tail end of near-Biblical, unprecedented flooding in Australia.
Temperatures and events that were predicted for the year 2050 are happening right now. Which means that while we always knew that man-made carbon emissions cause global warming, the speed of that warming, which in fairness scientists warned us was hard to predict, is much, much faster than we ever thought.
And yeah, this should be extremely alarming to everyone.
- Millions in U.S. and Europe face extreme heat as wildfires break out
- Britain bakes as heat wave brings record high temperatures and fuels wildfires across southern Europe
- Worst flooding in decades hits Australia's east coast
- The devastating economic toll of severe heat waves
Heat events, flooding, fires, storms, blackouts, food shortages, and mega-droughts are coming more and more, and after this week – whether you're a Republican or a Democrat or whatever – the time for tolerating inaction on climate should be over.
If a government is too corrupt or incompetent to take real action on climate, vote them out - quickly!
If a media outlet refuses to talk about climate, or downplays it, turn the channel.
If a company won't stop emitting carbon, stop buying their product.
Before anyone gets too down about what just happened this week, remember, we have the science. But we have to start using it on a large, World War II-level scale, and taking action right this very second.
Or, as is now very clear after this week, we will lose everything much, much faster than we ever thought.
For more info:
- Follow Adam McKay (@GhostPanther) on Twitter
- The Climate Reality Project
- Climate Program at Environmental Defense Fund
- Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
- The Climate Crisis – A Race We Can Win (United Nations)
- Climate Action Network
- Hollow Policies: When Corporations' Political Spending and Emissions Goals/Policies Conflict (Center for Political Accountability)
Story produced by John D'Amelio.
BTW, this happened this week:
