When is too late?
In case you don’t watch as much (US) late night TV as I do, let me update you on the latest key development: this week, several major late night hosts decided to team up and address the global warming crisis. It mirrors New York’s Climate Week and highlights the problem ahead of the next UN climate change conference in November. What is interesting is the tone different hosts use to tackle the issue, though…
To be honest, I only had time to watch 2 monologues today (already pretty good: I have 6 instagram accounts to run) — Stephen Colbert’s and Jimmy Kimmel’s. What is interesting is to see how both these guys phrase essentially the same ideas. They agree on the thing every sensible individual on earth does at this point: that this is an eminently serious situation, that we need to actually focus on it and start finding solutions, or else we are gonna face even more consequences than the ones we’re already seeing. However, while Colbert gets to the bottom of the problem all the same, he still somehow maintains a certain degree of wit and distance through, effectively implying that we are not an endangered species the way giant pandas are. Yet.
And that is true: although the situation is becoming increasingly critical, there is still a way out of this. One that will require all the more work and effort, seeing as we failed to address the unfolding climate crisis decades ago, when the solutions would have been significantly easier to implement — or at least start to. As Kimmel put it, at this point in time, we are most likely going to need a transformative solution rather than an iterative one: something big, such as drastically reducing carbon emissions, silencing right wing idiots and/or moving faster on nuclear fusion…
What is noteworthy — I believe — is the way Kimmel specifically talks about it: as if the likelihood of mankind transforming anything is about as high as the likelihood of Trump reading a book. On a personal note, this goes to show that Jimmy Kimmel, an astute entertainer who’s clearly seen and done quite a few things in his life, is starting to show that reality is affecting him a little too much. After 18 months of Covid-induced hysteria, a significant part of which coincided with the mindblowing debacle that was the end of the Trump presidency, you could see why. But it is still sad, and somewhat worrisome, so see a media veteran such as him start to crack…
On a more general note, Kimmel’s belief happens to be a widely shared one, especially amongst the youth every poll shows a significant part of which seems to believe we are already doomed. I do not mean to minimize the danger that we are facing — very far from it: I take it as f*****g seriously as every educated guy should — but I also do not believe that fear and anxiety will be the most efficient way to find that transformative solution we very likely need. Fear, as a survival instinct mechanism, works when your life is in immediate danger: when you see that tsunami wave close in on your building. However, when the deal is about research and scientists going through extremely complex work — far more complex than I am able to understand — what we need is support. Towards that common goal. And no kumbaya b******t either: more like financial, material, social and/or political support.
Now, let’s get to it.