Categories
movie

Don’t Look Up

I just watched “Don’t Look Up”. I’m glad I heard the mixed reviews because I went into it knowing that it’s not a comedy per se. It’s a humorous movie but ultimately a tragedy. I highly recommend it.

I read a review from Dave Winer a couple of days ago that convinced me to watch it despite the bad reviews. He said:

I didn’t watch a lot of movies this year, but my favorite, hands-down, was (of course) Don’t Look Up. It’s more than a movie, it’s an anthem, identifying the conclusion of our civilization one way or the other. We either overcome our need to be told simple bedtime stories and thus transform into something else, or we self-destruct. Either way, the past is not a template for the future. And they deliver the message in such an entertaining way! Maybe it’s the last fun movie our species will ever create? People who judge the movie on its ability to entertain alone are totally missing the point. We have not only hit the wall, but it destroyed us. Now it’s time to pick up the pieces, the best we can. As Dr Mindy says at the end, “We really did have everything.” Note the past tense, and it’s very true, in the movie and in our lives. The times of having everything is over. Now what can we salvage from the wreckage of our civilization?

When I came to bed afterward I was just reeling from the movie. It’s not about a meteor at all, and I think we’re already past the point of recovery, but some people most people don’t want to know.

Categories
news

What you need to know about the Wildfires in Australia

For anyone you know that thinks global warming isn’t real (okay boomer) this isn’t meant to convince them. For anyone that thinks, “ok the world is warming but what difference does it make?” See this primer on the Australian wildfires from The Verge (link below):

Dozens of fires erupted in New South Wales, Australia in November and rapidly spread across the entire continent to become some of the most devastating on record. An area about twice the size of Belgium, roughly 15 million acres, has burned. At least 18 people are dead, including at least three volunteer firefighters, and more are missing. More than 1,000 houses have been destroyed, hundreds more damaged. As blazes intensified in the days leading up to New Year’s Eve, thousands of people who were forced to evacuate sought shelter on beaches across New South Wales and Victoria. Over 100 fires are still burning.

And then it gets worse from there.

Categories
documentary environment nature

After the Warming

“After the Warming”, stars James Burke, whom you may remember from the days when TLC actually showed educational television and not just a bunch of reality-tv remixes in various flavors of “how to buy a house”, “how to fix up a house”, “how to flip a house”, or “how to be an cretin while making motorcycles”.

“After the Warming” is like a special edition of Connections (wikipedia) in which we learn how changes in civilization, the weather, and industrialization brought on the current climate crisis we now face.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfE8wBReIxw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YxJLyPSRusc

[“After the Warming” is] an early documentary about global warming. It theorizes and tells facts about the effects global weather has had on our history. It then theorizes a lot more about its effects on our future and especially the way in which we will overcome it’s bad effects. If you don’t mind some, not proofed, theorizing from a reasonably intelligent guy, and are interested in our climate, this is probably a must see.

I found the news clip style predictions of an increase in hurricanes, rising oceans levels, and the devastation of New Orleans particularly chilling. Some of the prediction dates were a bit off, but interesting to think about anyway.

(via)