In England, a YouTube channel broadcasts videos featuring comedians and scientists to talk about global warming. The objective: to use humor to be more educational and to raise awareness.
What if humor was a weapon in the fight against climate change? In England, while a call for four days of “non-violent and family-friendly” demonstrations in Parliament Square in London was launched by Extinction Rebellion to push politicians to act much stronger and faster, leading British scientists have decided to team up with comedians to support the movement which started on Friday, April 21.
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The goal: to talk about the climate emergency in another way, with rigor and humor at the same time. But also reach a wider audience and mobilize the English en masse. “Climate science is complicated. We will translate that into human language.” This is the message displayed at the beginning of each video.
In an excerpt, for example, Joanna Haigh, professor of atmospheric physics in London, first puts forward some figures: “Historically, fossil fuels are responsible for about two-thirds of emissions. But this industry is lobbying very hard against cuts. In fact, it is pushing governments to grant new licenses for more exploration. More oil and gas”.
And in the process, comedian Tom Walker, drops his jokes and it’s more black humor: “When you’re at the bottom of a hole, stop digging. That’s the saying. It’s not, he said accelerating, “Dig deeper to maximize profits until the whole planet is fucked and you can go live in your bunker”.continues the scientist, “Go see your MP. Demonstrate. Boycott your bank if it finances oil or gas”.
“What we really hope is that other countries take this idea. We would like to see French actors and scientists making films together. We would like all countries to do that.”
Nick Oldridge, co-founder of Climate Science Breakthroughto the international editorial staff of Radio France
Nick Oldridge is part of the team of environmental activists who came up with this concept. “I often wondered why some friends or colleagues weren’t as worried as I was” explains the co-founder of Climate Science Breakthrough, the channel that publishes the videos. “I concluded that they did not understand exactly what the science explainscontinues Nick Oldridge, and how fast and severe the impacts are going to be.” After this realization, he “so asked how do we get more people to hear climate science”.
In England, so far, two videos have been released. Others will follow, each time with a different scientific-comedian duo. The London protests are supported by two hundred organizations including Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth. The aim is to make it the biggest climate protest in UK history. On the Extinction Rebellion website, nearly 30,000 people have already announced that they will be present.