Yasmina AboutalebJanuary 7, 2024, 4:48 PM
‘If you ask me: what is the biggest threat to our chance to survive this century? The fossil fuel industry or the media? Then I say: the media.’
George Monbiot, zoologist, journalist and climate activist, speaks in a video fragment of the third episode of Wintergasten shared online. He is known for his outspoken columns in The Guardian and his bestsellers, including Regenesis – Food for everyone without devouring the planet, in which he advocates the abolition of livestock farming. Radical ideas, which he not only advocates and defends with gusto in Wintergasten, but which he also manages to sell thanks to striking film fragments and a dose of hope.
Climate activist George Monbiot (right) chose a fragment from the film ‘Don’t Look Up’ in ‘Winter Guests’. Image VPRO
I know this because I decided to watch his interview with Janine Abbring after the stimulating video fragment. Always a risk, relying on such a lure: often, just like with film trailers, the most interesting part is already in the fragment. But not at Wintergasten, which has rarely disappointed in recent years with international guests such as artist Marina Abramovic and writer Colson Whitehead. In fact: Winter Guests, more than Summer Guests, is now something to look forward to.
In Wintergasten, Monbiot showed, among other things, a film fragment from the dystopian, satirical film Don’t Look Up. In it, two astronomers tell a popular morning program that they have just discovered that the Earth is in danger of being destroyed – unless immediate action is taken. When the TV presenters continue to respond to their story in a funny way, one of the scientists walks away emotionally.
I was that talk show guest, says Monbiot. He himself also burst into tears during an interview on a British breakfast show. ‘The constant banalization of the greatest danger that has ever threatened humanity… I couldn’t take it anymore.’ The climate crisis, he says, is constantly being suppressed, pushed out of consciousness. ‘Purposefully, because if we are going to talk about this seriously, something has to change radically. And those who benefit from it, those in power, don’t want that.’
Most media do not give space to this debate, says the activist, including ‘his’ BBC (for which he worked as an investigative journalist). For a while he kept up with the reporting on days when there was important climate news – until he became too gloomy. For example, a BBC radio program addressed the question of whether it is better to put on your socks while standing or sitting. Elsewhere it was about charcuterie boards for dogs. “I’m not making this up,” Monbiot tells a laughing Abbring. ‘This is daily occurrence in the media.’
Meanwhile, Dutch television makers are doing their best to allow viewers to enjoy winter pictures that are, indeed, enchanting. In Casa di Beau, RTL presenter Beau van Erven Dorens has been seen from a snowy mountain village since Sunday and in Winter full of love we see romantic dates among the moose in Lapland. Winter scenes solely as entertainment decor: one can guess what Monbiot would think of that.
Also read
2024-01-07 15:48:38
#Winter #Guests #Summer #Guests
