18 Comments
Aug 20, 2023Liked by Melanie Newfield

Subscribed! Thanks for sharing all these - it’s good to look at the bright (and sarcastic) side of the terrible crisis we got ourselves into!

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I'm glad you liked it. I love the way that humour can put a different perspective on things.

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Aug 20, 2023Liked by Melanie Newfield

And I hadn’t seen the Offset John Oliver yet!! I got into his show with that amazing viral moment where he had one denier debate 99 climate scientists!

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That's a great one!

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Don’t forget First Dog in the Moon, whose cartoons appear regularly in the Guardian and who often deals with climate issues in a very amusing way, eg: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/aug/11/how-to-protest-climate-change-nicely-with-brenda-the-civil-disobedience-penguin?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

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Oh, wow, that's fantastic. Brenda the civil disobedience penguin! I love it!

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Love the artwork

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It's brilliant, isn't it.

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What great links! I'm enjoying them right now. And I agree that positive messages are almost always going to resonate more. Laughing people are in an open frame of mind almost by definition. That's not the moment to cram a lecture in there, but some of the best commentary is positioned as humor, historically and now.

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Absolutely. And there's a lot of good information conveyed through this humour too.

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This was fun. Love John Oliver.

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He's so brilliant. I only discovered him earlier this year when someone commented on one of my articles about his take on carbon offsets. I can't believe I went so long without knowing about him.

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Aug 21, 2023Liked by Melanie Newfield

Thanks a lot for the mention, Melanie!

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My pleasure. Your work is wonderful.

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Sarah Silverman called it. Love how these billionaires flying on private jets, excessive energy for their huge mansions, have the biggest foot prints.

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I hadn't discovered Sarah Silverman. Watching her now. I feel as if there could be a whole second round of climate humour.

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What a great take on how to get the scientific message across with humor. I agree that John Oliver does more for science journalism than most actual reporters, and his humor leavens the often bleak truths. "Don't Look Up" was poised to do the same for climate change, but due to the coincidental timing became seen more as an allegory for covid-19 and the Trump administration

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Thanks Eric. I'm so impressed with how John Oliver manages clear science communication at the same time as humour. I think that Don't Look Up could cover any number of issues in some ways. So often people go for the catchy-sounding non-solutions to complex problems.

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