Contextualizing Don’t Look Up

Highly acclaimed filmmaker, Adam Mckay directed the socio-comedy film, “Don’t look Up”. It is a satiric commentary on the political underpinnings and media framing that cultivates climate and environmental indifference.

Summary

The film had garnered mixed criticisms in terms of its effectiveness. However, almost all critics agree that its allegorical presentation of our environmental problems is painfully realistic.

The film focuses on and follows two mid-level scientists. The experts made highly integral findings that would lead to the destruction of the planet. After not being taken seriously by the president, the scientists took it upon themselves to publicize their findings to national television. The media, however, proved to be even less helpful than the government. The ultimate highlight of the film was when opportunities to derail the comet’s direction were stopped and hindered. This was because a capitalistic mogul saw the comet as an economic opportunity.

The Point of Don’t Look Up

For the longest time, climate change has been something that was depicted as a by-product of our irresponsible consumerism. It was depicted as something that the public has caused. In turn, we must resolve all of them on our own. We are being asked to limit and minimize our carbon footprints and carbon utility. This serves as a way to help and contribute to the healing of our planet. However, Don’t Look Up shows that the truth is the majority of the environment’s denigration is not our fault.

We are being forced to suffer the consequences of a problem that we did not cause. The majority of the overutilization of the world’s limited resources is perpetuated by multinational corporations that profits from exhausting the planet’s resources.

This means that in the grand scheme of things, adjusting our means of consumerism and minimizing our carbon footprints would not change anything. Its impact would still be minimal compared to the change corporations can bring. Making requiring transnational corporations to change their means of production and materials used for manufacturing, essentials.

Our environmental problem is imminent but it only got this way because there other, more powerful forces that led us to the temperament we are in today.