'We need new figures': the actor David Cross makes jokes to spread awareness of the climate crisis | Comedy

David Cross is a lot: a famous comic strip, a winner of an Emmy Award and a bestseller from the New York Times. But this is not a climatologist.

This fact could make him the perfect person to communicate the urgency of global heating to the mass public.

“You have to talk to people in a way they can understand,” he said.

This is the purpose of a new video in which Cross Co-Stars with the famous environment scientist Michael Oppenheimer.

“Humor, as I think, has been shown over the centuries, is a very effective way to bring people to absorb information,” said Cross.

The new video puts this theory to the test. In this document, Oppenheimer plays the hetero man, emitting a disastrous warning: “Heat records are beaten all over the world. In fact, last year was the hottest year since the start of the industrial era, “he said.

Cross then interprets this message for the laity. “Translation: shit strikes the fan,” he says. “And the fan is the maximum.”

The video has been published by the Climate Science Breakthrough group, which has been making videos in the past two years with leading British actors such as Nish Kumar and Jo Brand to try to “help climate science to go through many more people – and unlock the action”.

“We aim to reach beyond the converts and to depolarize the debate,” said Ben Carey, one of the producers of the video. If the new video is welcomed, they will enlist more scientists and experts to produce more, he said.

The video series is part of a wave of comedy focused on the climate launched in recent years. In 2023, Oscar Director Adam launched non -profit dot Yellow studios to settle for the dangers of fossil fuels, and the following year, the climatic advocacy organization launched a project mini-series On the dangers of gas stoves.

These projects could help achieve people that experts do not reach often, “said Oppenheimer, because” most of the training for young scientists aims to communicate enough to get your next job, not necessarily to communicate to the public “.

If it seems strange to use humor to raise awareness of a dark subject, Cross says it is a tactic with a long history. Indeed, George Carlin denounced against censorship in the 1970s, while Bill Hicks used his platform for talk Against George W Bush’s foreign policy.

“Even before the existence of stand-ups, there was Moliere and Voltaire and [Jonathan] Swift and Mark Twain – There is a huge precedent for artists using humor and satire to bring a point home, “said Cross.

The use of humor can help stimulate the urgency of the house of climate crisis for certain audiences, “said Oppenheimer, in particular” when the news is so fully fully fulfilling people's attention “. But comedy is not the only tool that can be used to better communicate the urgency of the climate crisis, he said.

“Some scientists are excellent for communicating with the religious public and can supervise problems in a way that resonates with them [while] Other scientists are excellent to connect with parents, “he said.” The fact is that more and more scientists recognize that it is not always enough to define facts or data, that we must find ways to encourage people to listen and take note of them. “”