4 ms·

Ironicaly, it's easier to picture the world ending, than to picture someone pitching the concept of a realistic "end of the world from the laymen perspective" m

Ironicaly, it's easier to picture the world ending, than to picture someone pitching the concept of a realistic "end of the world from the laymen perspective" movie. That being said, I think climate activists need to have their "The Day After" moment, but the problem is that they have to distort science just enough to have a movie where they show _westerners_ taking the blunt of the damage. Don't get me wrong, adaptating the first chapter of "The Ministry for the Future" would make for an harrowing look, too (*) - but watching 20 million people from India die in heat bulb, is, sadly, simply never going to have the same impact as seeing the house next door explode. (Also, for those who've read the book: I want to watch the Davos scene on a big screen.)

mellosouls 3y ago
That being said, I think climate activists need to have their "The Day After" moment Mentioned in other comments The Road is a possible contemporary parallel, but the time has probably past for experiences as communally shared as watching Threads due to the very fragmented media landscape, especially compared to the very limited UK TV choice of the 80s.
- phtrivier 3y ago
  I've only seen the movie, but If I remember correctly, the Road never really explains the catastrophe, nor does it link it to climate change, does it ? Also, a cataclysm that kills bugs but spares Charlize Theron ? Come ooooon..
adrianN 3y ago
„Westerners“ will either be killing a lot of people or be inundated by refugees.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  They will try to go into island mode. This is effectively already happening. Not that it will make one bit of a difference but they will definitely try.
  - adrianN 3y ago
    Yes and that will soon require killing a lot of people at the borders.
    - jacquesm 3y ago
      That is also already happening.
      - phtrivier 3y ago
        Not everyone is confortable with killing them yet - we're still at the "let's play human ping-pong with them instead" [1]. Or, even worse, subject them to the terrible torture of "filling asylum paperwork." [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66157259 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66157259 (</sarcasm>)
        jacquesm 3y ago
        The thing to look for is dehumanization and there are plenty of signs of that and historically speaking that's the prelude to lots of people dying.
      - ta1243 3y ago
        You see a few hundred people die in the Mediterranean, or climbing over a wall in Mexico When that becomes billions knocking at the door, even the most liberal lefty in the west will say "nope, can't do it". Think about the US/Mexico walls. Now think of that scene from World War Z where the zombies storm Jerusalem. It's going to be genocide, it won't be pretty at all.
      - fouric 3y ago
        Source?
        phtrivier 3y ago
        The very morbirb "shot at border" Google search yields a few cases : https://www.texastribune.org/2023/01/19/national-guard-migrant-shot-border/ https://www.texastribune.org/2023/01/19/national-guard-migra... https://www.npr.org/2023/04/22/1171450334/two-men-shot-at-a-group-of-migrants-in-west-texas-residents-still-dont-have-answ https://www.npr.org/2023/04/22/1171450334/two-men-shot-at-a-... In Europe it's not shooting, but the treatments are called "bordering on torture" (by pro-migrants ONG, naturelle) https://www.liberation.fr/international/europe/une-violence-sans-limite-contre-les-migrants-aux-frontieres-de-leurope-20210504_I6GG4J64JZACJN4X4CKLKKBSQY/?redirected=1&redirected=1 https://www.liberation.fr/international/europe/une-violence-... We have no way to know if this is going to end with massive shootouts at borders. The political costs of "just build makeshift camps, keep them fed and out of sights, eventually send them to another country, and let most people ignore them" is still lower than "handle a viral video of your army massively shooting migrants".
jacquesm 3y ago
The immediacy of war is never going to be matched by a slowly evolving disaster such as climate change and that is exactly why we're not doing anything that will move the needle. It is just over the horizon, very comfortable and plenty of people strongly believe that since they are not personally going to be affected that it doesn't concern them. But if a country is invaded that is something that you can actually do something about, on the spot and see the result.
- phtrivier 3y ago
  > The immediacy of war is never going to be matched by a slowly evolving disaster such as climate change and that is exactly why we're not doing anything that will move the needle. True. So the best medium might not be a single movie, but a long-period-spanning series where you would follow "regular" people (possibly from around the world) while they age and come with a changing climate. Sort of "Years and years"[1] but on an even bigger timescale. Or maybe non-interactive fiction is not the right medium, and we need an mmorpg where every day/week of game play is a year in game-world time, and effects of climate are baked-in ? And you get to repeat the experience of "from now until 2050" every few weeks ? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Years_and_Years_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Years_and_Years_(TV_series)
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    Soon enough it won't be fiction. So frustrating all this.
goodbyesf 3y ago
> That being said, I think climate activists need to have their "The Day After" moment, but the problem is that they have to distort science just enough to have a movie where they show _westerners_ taking the blunt of the damage. We've had so many already. Day after tomorrow, snow piercer, don't look up, etc and that's not including all the 'documentaries'. Isn't it amazing how mankind is always forced into a state of existential angst by the people in power. Nuclear winter to globalcooling to ozone to hiv to global terrorism to global warming. Will an asteroid end life on earth? Who cares? Life goes on.
- phtrivier 3y ago
  Well, 'Day after tomorrow' and 'Snow Priecers' are perhaps distorting science a bit too much ;). 'Don't look up' is a bit more on topic, but it's a comedy about our handling of a prediction of a catastrophe, not our handling of the catastrophe itself. > Isn't it amazing how mankind is always forced into a state of existential angst by the people in power. Nuclear winter to globalcooling to ozone to hiv to global terrorism to global warming. Well, it depends on "which people" in power of "what". The exact opposite arguments pops up regularly, where some indefinite "They" is accused of "hidding" a very dangerous thing that is going to destroy us all. We have almost as much evidence of governements, corporations, interest groups downplaying risks (nuclear winter, global warming, AI, etc..), than of governments, news outlets, activits overblowing risks (global cooling, terrorism, etc...) It's usually just fun when the risks are completely imaginary, but in practice someone _is_ affected. In the end, we have survivor bias for "mostly past" risks (nuclear war, covid, ozone layer, terrorism, hiv, etc... are not things of the past per se, they're just less acutely present), and Cassandra syndrom for the future ones - with the benefit of our capacity for fiction. At some point, the proverbial shit hits the proverbial fan, and we do our best, and we 've historically survived as a species - but I'd rather not be too close to the feces, and I wish more people would "see the movie" before it happens.
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    I think 'Don't look up' isn't so much a comedy as it is a documentary.

mellosouls 3y ago

That being said, I think climate activists need to have their "The Day After" moment Mentioned in other comments The Road is a possible contemporary parallel, but the time has probably past for experiences as communally shared as watching Threads due to the very fragmented media landscape, especially compared to the very limited UK TV choice of the 80s.

phtrivier 3y ago
I've only seen the movie, but If I remember correctly, the Road never really explains the catastrophe, nor does it link it to climate change, does it ? Also, a cataclysm that kills bugs but spares Charlize Theron ? Come ooooon..

adrianN 3y ago

„Westerners“ will either be killing a lot of people or be inundated by refugees.

jacquesm 3y ago
They will try to go into island mode. This is effectively already happening. Not that it will make one bit of a difference but they will definitely try.
- adrianN 3y ago
  Yes and that will soon require killing a lot of people at the borders.
  - jacquesm 3y ago
    That is also already happening.
    - phtrivier 3y ago
      Not everyone is confortable with killing them yet - we're still at the "let's play human ping-pong with them instead" [1]. Or, even worse, subject them to the terrible torture of "filling asylum paperwork." [1] https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66157259 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-66157259 (</sarcasm>)
      - jacquesm 3y ago
        The thing to look for is dehumanization and there are plenty of signs of that and historically speaking that's the prelude to lots of people dying.
    - ta1243 3y ago
      You see a few hundred people die in the Mediterranean, or climbing over a wall in Mexico When that becomes billions knocking at the door, even the most liberal lefty in the west will say "nope, can't do it". Think about the US/Mexico walls. Now think of that scene from World War Z where the zombies storm Jerusalem. It's going to be genocide, it won't be pretty at all.
    - fouric 3y ago
      Source?
      - phtrivier 3y ago
        The very morbirb "shot at border" Google search yields a few cases : https://www.texastribune.org/2023/01/19/national-guard-migrant-shot-border/ https://www.texastribune.org/2023/01/19/national-guard-migra... https://www.npr.org/2023/04/22/1171450334/two-men-shot-at-a-group-of-migrants-in-west-texas-residents-still-dont-have-answ https://www.npr.org/2023/04/22/1171450334/two-men-shot-at-a-... In Europe it's not shooting, but the treatments are called "bordering on torture" (by pro-migrants ONG, naturelle) https://www.liberation.fr/international/europe/une-violence-sans-limite-contre-les-migrants-aux-frontieres-de-leurope-20210504_I6GG4J64JZACJN4X4CKLKKBSQY/?redirected=1&redirected=1 https://www.liberation.fr/international/europe/une-violence-... We have no way to know if this is going to end with massive shootouts at borders. The political costs of "just build makeshift camps, keep them fed and out of sights, eventually send them to another country, and let most people ignore them" is still lower than "handle a viral video of your army massively shooting migrants".

jacquesm 3y ago

The immediacy of war is never going to be matched by a slowly evolving disaster such as climate change and that is exactly why we're not doing anything that will move the needle. It is just over the horizon, very comfortable and plenty of people strongly believe that since they are not personally going to be affected that it doesn't concern them. But if a country is invaded that is something that you can actually do something about, on the spot and see the result.

phtrivier 3y ago
> The immediacy of war is never going to be matched by a slowly evolving disaster such as climate change and that is exactly why we're not doing anything that will move the needle. True. So the best medium might not be a single movie, but a long-period-spanning series where you would follow "regular" people (possibly from around the world) while they age and come with a changing climate. Sort of "Years and years"[1] but on an even bigger timescale. Or maybe non-interactive fiction is not the right medium, and we need an mmorpg where every day/week of game play is a year in game-world time, and effects of climate are baked-in ? And you get to repeat the experience of "from now until 2050" every few weeks ? [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Years_and_Years_(TV_series) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Years_and_Years_(TV_series)
- jacquesm 3y ago
  Soon enough it won't be fiction. So frustrating all this.

goodbyesf 3y ago

> That being said, I think climate activists need to have their "The Day After" moment, but the problem is that they have to distort science just enough to have a movie where they show _westerners_ taking the blunt of the damage. We've had so many already. Day after tomorrow, snow piercer, don't look up, etc and that's not including all the 'documentaries'. Isn't it amazing how mankind is always forced into a state of existential angst by the people in power. Nuclear winter to globalcooling to ozone to hiv to global terrorism to global warming. Will an asteroid end life on earth? Who cares? Life goes on.

phtrivier 3y ago
Well, 'Day after tomorrow' and 'Snow Priecers' are perhaps distorting science a bit too much ;). 'Don't look up' is a bit more on topic, but it's a comedy about our handling of a prediction of a catastrophe, not our handling of the catastrophe itself. > Isn't it amazing how mankind is always forced into a state of existential angst by the people in power. Nuclear winter to globalcooling to ozone to hiv to global terrorism to global warming. Well, it depends on "which people" in power of "what". The exact opposite arguments pops up regularly, where some indefinite "They" is accused of "hidding" a very dangerous thing that is going to destroy us all. We have almost as much evidence of governements, corporations, interest groups downplaying risks (nuclear winter, global warming, AI, etc..), than of governments, news outlets, activits overblowing risks (global cooling, terrorism, etc...) It's usually just fun when the risks are completely imaginary, but in practice someone _is_ affected. In the end, we have survivor bias for "mostly past" risks (nuclear war, covid, ozone layer, terrorism, hiv, etc... are not things of the past per se, they're just less acutely present), and Cassandra syndrom for the future ones - with the benefit of our capacity for fiction. At some point, the proverbial shit hits the proverbial fan, and we do our best, and we 've historically survived as a species - but I'd rather not be too close to the feces, and I wish more people would "see the movie" before it happens.
- jacquesm 3y ago
  I think 'Don't look up' isn't so much a comedy as it is a documentary.