- Hi, I'm Dr. Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist.
The film "Don't Look Up" has generated a lot
of conversation around climate.
As has the United Nations' latest very alarming IPCC report.
And we're going to discuss how we can take this concern
and turn it into effective action.
I'm joined by Selwin Hart,
Special Adviser to the United Nations on Climate Action,
by U.S. Climate Envoy, John Kerry,
by activist Xiye Bastida,
and by Adam McKay, who's the director of "Don't Look Up."
(upbeat music)
- Your breathing is stressing me out.
- This will affect the entire planet.
- I know, but it's like so stressful.
- I always joke that there is a lot
of different ways that you are creatively inspired.
You're inspired by emotion, of course,
but it can be a laugh.
It can be something beautiful you've seen.
Well, in this case,
it was stark terror that motivated this film.
So I had read the IPCC report
from three, four years ago.
I had spoken to a lot of scientists,
including Dr. Hayhoe, who's with us.
And I kept asking, "Is this really as bad as I'm seeing?"
Because I had been led to believe
that this was 80 years away, this was 100 years away.
And what I kept hearing back is, "No."
Yet I kept seeing a culture treating this
like just a story.
- Even in the face of scientific certainty
around what was going to happen,
there was this inertia around action
and that's precisely what we are seeing with climate.
- To care about climate change
and to understand why climate action matters,
we only have to be one thing.
And that one thing is quite literally a human being living
on this planet.
The IPCC tells us the planet is heating.
The ice is melting.
- We're nearing a point of no return.
We have to do everything that we can
to keep the 1.5 degree goal of the Paris Agreement alive.
We're now at 1.2 degrees
of warming above pre-industrial levels
and we're seeing unprecedented impacts all over the world.
Fires, storms, floods.
- Hey, cheers everyone, huh?
- There's that powerful scene at the end
of the movie where people are sitting around the table,
you know, kind of coming together for their final moments
and talking about the things that they were grateful for
and made a difference in their lives.
We can't wait till then.
- We really did have everything, didn't we?
- Really, the whole driving force
of the movie was that ending.
And it was the idea that as many clicks
and as many bright colors as there are
and as many career goals as we have,
you are missing the biggest looming threat
that has ever hit mankind.
And that's terrifying.
It's also sort of a relief to acknowledge it.
There's a little part of it that's funny.
- Don't look up! - When we think about
climate change, we often think of those very few
but very loud voices who reject the science.
But the good news is,
is they are less than 10% of the population.
70% of us in the United States are already worried
about climate change.
And according to the Yale Program on Climate Communication,
only 8% of us are activated.
So the biggest gap we have is not between people who say yes
or no, whether climate is changing,
it's the biggest gap between people who are very worried
about it already, but who are not activated.
What's the first step to activation?
Among people who don't know what to do,
it's using our voice.
It is the absolutely critical first step,
because you know what?
Most of us aren't doing it.
Across the whole country,
there is a deafening climate silence.
We're not having those conversations
because we don't know where to start
and we don't know how to end
that isn't more depressed than where we began.
So here's the secret.
Begin with something we have in common,
connect the dots to climate change.
- It's about meeting people where they're at
and realizing that a lot of the times,
some people have the inclination to lead something,
but most people need to be shown how dots are connected.
And that is kind of what we are doing
in the Youth Climate Movement.
You know, we are never gonna get a change in policy,
a change in the business model,
a change in the education model,
if we don't have a movement behind it,
and movements cannot start without a changing narrative.
And that's why movies like this are important
because what needs change is culture.
And once culture changes, everything else comes easier.
So if you wanna be part of the pushing,
join a climate group.
You don't have to do much more than use your voice,
like Katharine Hayhoe said.
The best thing you can do is learn so you can communicate
with the people who you're in contact with everyday.
- And I think young people all around the world are
sending an enormous message to so-called adults
who are not really behaving like adults.
And you have a human cry from every country in the world,
where young people are saying,
"What are you doing to our future?"
And at the local level,
you have a hell of a lot more response, actually,
to these kinds of things, and mayors and governors.
So there's a lot of activity at the grassroots level
and that is the way we're gonna hold people accountable.
- The excitement is that the young people have become
masters at seeing through misinformation and propaganda.
- Most advertisement is catered to my generation
and what we are really are looking for is truth.
We wanna be able to trust companies.
We look right through green-washing.
We are looking for truth, but we're not getting it.
And a lot of the times it's because
that truth is not communicated properly.
As youth climate activists,
we are not only gonna call people out
for not telling us things like they are,
but we're also, with that information,
gonna push forward action in every single sector.
- Call it 70% and let's just, let's move on.
- But it's not even close to 70%.
- You cannot go around saying to people
that there's 100% chance that they're gonna die.
You know? It's just nuts.
- The IPCC also tells us there are solutions if we act now.
- This is a case where we have the answer right
in front of us, and it's renewables.
And they're actually, for the most part,
cheaper than fossil fuels.
- Ending coal is the single most important step
that can be taken to keep this 1.5 degree goal
of the Paris Agreement.
The Secretary General said
that fossil fuels are choking the planet
and that's a correct assessment.
So we must end the global addiction to fossil fuels.
We must exit coal as quickly as possible.
- Everybody can make a difference.
You can make a difference at home
in the products you decide to buy,
what kind of car you drive,
involving yourself in the local community.
And you can make a difference by being one
of those people who marches to Washington
or marches to the state Capitol.
The people who don't wanna change
and who are, in some cases, just doing the bidding
of powerful interests in our country,
they need to see that their ability
to stay in a position of power is threatened
if they're not responding to the needs of the community.
And everybody can be part of that
- Secretary Kerry is right.
It's gonna require a cultural movement.
Every corporation, every president,
prime minister's office around the world should be bringing
in climate communicators and scientists
and hearing the real truth here,
because what's happening right now,
is a total abdication
of responsibility as leaders, as business leaders.
What's scary is a lot of these oil companies
and fossil fuel companies,
they really want to keep their profits in the moment.
So they'll use some of that science like carbon removal,
carbon capture, as kind of a false hope so they can
just keep making profits.
But the number one thing is renewables.
- You see that there's a lot of protests in the movie.
You see that there's a lot of movement
and that's what's important.
Behind any type of global change,
there needs to be people behind,
because when we see each other as part of a community,
that is when you don't burn out,
that's when you stay nurtured.
- We need to increase the share
of renewables in the energy mix by at least threefold.
Yes, we need to reduce emissions,
but we know that impacts are happening.
They're accelerating in vulnerable countries.
If you're living in Central America,
if you're living in South America,
East, Central, or West Africa, South Asia,
or in a small island, developing state,
you are 15 times more likely
to die from a climate impact.
And these are countries that have contributed least
to the climate problem.
Climate justice does not stop at the borders
of the United States.
There needs to be an equal focus
on supporting these countries to build resilience
to climate impacts.
It's a moral imperative.
Every dollar of climate finance for adaptation,
it saves a life in the developing world.
- We tried to tell you this whole time!
It's right there!
- The fundamental bottom line of that film is
we are living in a brutal age of denialism.
That denialism has existed about cigarette smoking,
about ozone, about acid rain,
but you're left at the end with a very clear understanding
of the dilemma we are now in.
- We know with scientific certainty
what is going to happen if we don't act
with a much greater sense of urgency,
but yet, we continue to see this inertia
all over the world.
And this really has to be a moment
where we accelerate our effort really
to solve the climate crisis.
- We're trying to tell you
that the entire planet is about to be destroyed.
- I want people to feel optimistic about the possibilities
because we should be.
80% of all the emissions come from 20 countries.
And we're working with them, very closely,
to help them reduce their emissions, get off coal,
transition to the new technologies, the new energy future.
Trillions of dollars are now beginning to move to do this
but we've got to get people to vote climate per se.
- What I never imagined was that the world
would have the response that it's had.
And it's been remarkable.
There are "Just Look Up" days spreading
all around the world.
I was very heartened to see countries like Pakistan,
Nigeria, Vietnam respond to the message of this movie,
which is we are living in a "everything is fine" economy
in a "la-dee-da" economy, I call it,
and we're being lied to, and it's not the truth.
And we are facing a threat that is so much bigger
than we can ever imagine.
- You don't have to change who you are as a person
to be part of the solution.
And I think Adam McKay really showed us
that you have to learn about new things every day.
And that, in your brain,
makes you have so many more connections
and allows you to talk to different groups of people.
- I can never give up hope that we will be incapable
of solving a crisis that is within our capacity to solve.
The UN has, on its website,
the Act Now campaign,
which details individual actions that can be taken
by individuals, as consumers,
as voters, as investors.
In addition to all that we are doing,
we can make a difference to do our part,
a very small part, to address the climate crisis.
- Our hope is not in a single person, a single place,
or a single action.
Our hope is in what we can all do together.
The IPCC concludes this.
Every bit of warming matters. Every year matters.
Every choice matters and every action matters.
So where do we find our hope?
We've find our hope in acting
and knowing that we are not alone,
that there are millions of hands on
that giant boulder of climate action,
pushing it down the hill.
So people often say, "Well, what should I do?"
And my answer is do something, anything, and talk about it.