It's weird how climate breakdown has been such an untouched subject by our greatest artists - musicians, writers, filmmakers, visual artists... there has been some stuff, but given how literally Earth-shaking the subject is, weirdly little. We are still a society in denial.
This is why #DontLookUp was so powerful for me. I actually feel uncomfortable in new fictional worlds that pretend climate breakdown doesn't exist (movies, shows, books) because at this point in climate emergency they feel denial-y and irrelevant. And they help perpetuate denial
And then there are the disaster movies that are obviously inspired by climate anxiety, but that are frankly also perpetuate denial, probably because the artist is her or himself still in denial to some extent. A great example of this is the George Clooney film "The Midnight Sky."
What a dreadful, despair-inducing film. Everyone dies for some unknown apocalyptic reason. There's no room for agency, no room for solutions. And there's false techno-hope at the end, that his pregnant daughter could repopulate humanity on... you guessed it... another planet.
I really hope that #DontLookUp shows Hollywood "this is how you do good climate storytelling, and there's actually a big audience for it." And there are SO many other good climate stories to tell! Like stories of solution, and solidarity, and humanity growing up.
They will need to be done well. IMO this means getting the science right, and not giving false hope. Humanity still has a path - there will always be a path - but it grows rockier by the day. The solidarity will come with grief, and the longer we delay, the more we will lose.
And finally, in case this still isn't clear to everyone, the path out must center quickly ending the fossil fuel industry. Forget all the tech stuff, it's a sideshow at this point. We have enough tech. What we need is to get money out of policy and end the fossil fuel industry.
*new present-day fictional worlds
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