Guest essay by David Archibald –
They used to be against us, but now Hollywood is on the side of the angels in mocking global warming
The science of climate has had intense scrutiny for the last ten years and more with the result that we now know why the planet warmed in the second half of the 20th century and why it is going to cool instead from here. Yet the meme of global warming continues, seemingly unstoppable and immune to facts.
Politically, global warming peaked out at COP 15 in Copenhagen in December 2009 when heads of state of countries accounting for the bulk of the world’s GDP were in attendance. They don’t bother to attend now – it is mainly time-servers who turn up. But global warming’s momentum is still resulting in destructive and pointless legislation and regulation in the English-speaking parts of the planet.
Commercial storytelling in the form of movies has reinforced the global warming meme. As a plot device, global warming itself isn’t scary enough as the result of global warming would simply be warmer rain. So, for the movie world, global warming was somehow the cause of intense cooling. This was the plot device of the film The Day After Tomorrow in which the protagonist battles wolves in a frozen New York.
A movie just out, Kingsmen: The Secret Service, indicates that the cultural tipping point has been reached. It is now safe and commercially profitable for moviemakers
to mock belief in global warming. The plot is that an evil billionaire by the name of Richard Valentine believes that humans, who cause global warming, are a virus killing the planet. To stop global warming, he sets out to kill a large proportion of humanity. His evil plan, which is much the same as the dreams of the green movement, is thwarted by people who dress well and have impeccable manners.
Instead of working against truth and beauty, Hollywood is now on the side of the justly righteous. The next stage will be when, to indicate a character’s gullibility, insanity or mental instability, it is mentioned that he once believed in global warming. Of course Hollywood does not have any moral scruples and mocking global warming is only a business decision. But mocking something is the first stage of destroying it and we should be duly thankful.
David Archibald is a visiting fellow at the Institute of World Politics in Washington.
His most recent book is Twilight of Abundance (Regnery, 2014).
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Hollywood has an unfailing instinct for being a weathervane. No doubt their strategists have been discussing for a long time when the time would be right for throwing the alarmists overboard and try to get money from the other side. The disaster orange has been sucked dry, enter the Alarmist Bad Guy.
If this becomes a trend, imagine what rich pickings may be had from the story about a certain IPCC chairman, warts and all.
1 movie doesn’t show/make a tipping point but its a start.
time will tell.
dmacleo,
It depends in part on how well it does at the Boxoffice, but it at least indicates that in the Movie industry the use of climate warming as a theme may be losing marketing momentum.
true, which is why I said its a start and time will tell.
hoping this continues just not calling it a win yet.
…His evil plan, which is much the same as the dreams of the green movement, is thwarted by people who dress well and have impeccable manners….
That would be a re-run of The Avengers, then – the classic ones, not the comic book. I wonder what Steed and Mrs Peel would have thought…?
Wasn’t the latest Avengers about some weather controlling guy (Sean Connery)?
…My favorite thing to do is, instead of saying “hello” to everyone I know (and don’t know), I ask them, “How’s your carbon footprint?”
It’s very effective! People are taken aback. The unusual question interferes with the mechanistic greeting and makes people think for a moment. Next they usually chuckle, because they see how stupid the question is. Then I sense they don’t want to be seen as gullible, so they attempt to distance themselves from the whole climate change concept.
Try it. It’s fun and it works!…
Most people say “How are you?” to me.
I explain that, without a current medical doctor’s qualification, I’m really not in a position to hazard an opinion…
A: How are you?
B: Beats me, how are you?
A: Ok as far as I can tell, but I’ve been tricked before.
Not related to weather or climate, but I’ve been having fun with “My privacy policy does not allow me to divulge that information.”
The movie Snowpiercer was very popular among Marxists and their fellow travelers because it featured a proletarian rebellion against wealthy exploitative overlords, with an ample dose of revolutionary carnage.
However, the movie also presented two points consistent with the theme of this article.
First, the environmental catastrophe of snowball earth was caused by a stupid geo-engineering scheme to combat global warming.
Second, the evil oppressor overlord played by Ed Harris instituted regularly scheduled slaughters of the lower class population in order to maintain a “delicate ecological balance” on the train.
Coming soon to a theater near you: http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/sony/merchantsofdoubt/
Good luck with Quicktime7.3–my Vista won’t play it. –AGF
Although many Hollywood Left wing morons like Michael Moore mocked American Sniper, especially for the protagonist’s downhome patriotism, raking in over $330 million in 7 weeks gets their attention. Money ultimately is what motivates Hollywood producers.
joelobryan,
The only question about Moore is, does money motivate him more than food or not?
We’re back to 1966 where the movie “Our Man Flint” made fun of the spy movie genre, scientists, environmentalists, and extreme weather.
Plot line from IMDB: The world’s weather seems to have changed dramatically with violent storms everywhere and long dormant volcanoes suddenly erupting. No one is sure what is happening or why but when American intelligence chief Cramden loses yet another team of agents, there appears to be only one man who can do the job: Derek Flint, former super spy, incredibly rich and the ultimate ladies man. Despite Cramden’s concerns, Flint is on the job and soon discovers that the Earth’s weather is under the control of a secret organization known as GALAXY whose scientists are looking to pacify the world and devote humankind to scientific pursuits.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0059557/?ref_=nv_sr_1
Comercially profitable? Roaring success. I saw it (for the second time, as the wife’s cousin was visiting from Turkey, where it isn’t out yet) last weekend and the cinema was still full. We had to buy premium seats, even booking in advance, to get a decent view. That was over 3 weeks after it was released in the UK.
Quantum of Solace did lead the way for it though, with an environmentalist as villain supported by corrupt government officials and politicians. Perhaps why it is one of my favourite Bond films despite its unpopularity with reviewers.
Quantum of Solace was almost a very good movie but it was ruined by terrible editing.
There’s not a single memorable scene as the camera angle moves so often – to build the viewer’s heart-rate – it doesn’t let the mind engage. Even the brilliant stunt in the plane and the girl coated in oil (a la Goldfinger) don’t stick in the mind. The Bourne Identity had a similar problem.
Which is a shame as it was the first film to feature mocking of AGW.
When the taxi-driver blames global warming for the weather Bond looks at his colleague and wears a scornful expression.
A British movie again, of course.
The fact that a film can make fun of the warmists agenda and achieve commercial success supports the assertion the public does not believe global warming is a significant problem.
The warmists are losing support for their extreme global warming crisis, due to the fact that there has been no warming for 18 years and there is now observational evidence that there is cooling of both poles.
The tipping point in the warmists propaganda program will be unequivocal planetary cooling, coupled with an unexplained drop in atmospheric CO2, and accompanied by unexplained changes to the sun (TSI will eventually drop). Do you think the public, politicians, and non warmist scientists, will connect the weird and sudden change of the sun with the unexplained cooling of the planet?
Have a try to predict (put on your mass psychology thinking cap) how the climate wars will morph in response to unequivocal planetary cooling, coupled with an unexplained drop in atmospheric CO2, and an unexplained change to the sun (TSI will eventually drop, which will require a revision of stellar physics to explain, hint the explanation for a change in TSi is the same reason why quasars do not exhibit time dilation which is a paradox and is the explanation of super massive black hole downsizing which is also a paradox)?
1. Will there be public panic and a demand for answers concerning a list of issues? It will appear obvious to the public and media that some scientists and some theories were completely incorrect. How is that possible? Is there going to be a new ‘Ice Age’? It is a fact that the earth has cyclically warmed and cooled in the past with the changes correlating with solar magnetic cycle changes. Is a climategate culture part of the reason why mother nature fooled 70% of all climate sciences?
2. Is it possible/likely that top scientists in the scientific community (have started to abandon) will quickly abandon the incorrect warmist paradigm, to protect their jobs and because the majority of scientists believe the goal of science is solve scientific puzzles, rather than to ignore/suppress data and analysis that does not support the warmist paradigm?
Hot off the press.
I thought this was why they changed it from THE GLOBE IS WARMING AND IT’S ALL MAN’S FAULT. REPENT AND GIVE US YOUR MONEY SO YOU WILL BE SAVED. THE END IS NIGH to Climate Change? No matter what happens they can say, “See, we told you”.
Now, THE EARTH IS COOLING OR DOING SOMETHING AND IT’S ALL MAN’S FAULT. REPENT AND GIVE US YOUR MONEY SO YOU WILL BE SAVED.
Thanks, Dr. Archibald, I had a laugh.
What is the point of taking note of a movie actor’s views on any topic other than acting? They are paid to act, but how can you tell when they’re not acting, especially when there are cameras around?
Bohdan Burban
A good question, but I notice “nobody” in the CAGW religion doubted the utility or wisdom or problems with using Hollywood celebrities as Congressional witnesses for farm relief, for homeless photo ops before Congress, for “peace” missions and appeals, for international “wisdom” and support at fund raisers, the Oscars, in New York demonstrations, at parties (did I mention fund raising ?) and for publicity at democrat party conventions and in front of the democrat party TV newsreaders of the ABCNNBCBS press corpse.
See, it seems that only now that Hollywood publicity is “not favorable” to the democrat party elites and the administration’s political demands that people complain about how inappropriate it is to listen to Hollywood actors and actresses about international events.
1 They are expert communicators.
2 They have access to the people at the top of other fields because of their celebrity.
3 The actors who are spokespeople have reached the peak in their field. Anyone who is very good at one thing is worthy of respect.
4 Screen acting is a profession with lots of downtime which permits expertise to be developed in other fields.
5 Many actors have excelled in other fields because they have the riches to take advantage of their opportunities (for example Hedy Lamarr developed weapons guidance systems in WW2).
6 Being rich and famous doesn’t make you stupid anymore than it makes you smart.
7 They are more pleasing to the eye than most politicians.
OK, you get a Ronald Reagan for every Glenda Jackson but you can’t always get what you want.
MCourtney…..
They are expert liars. They are schooled on drugs, alcohol and narcissism. For every Ronald Reagan there are 10,000 Tom cruises…for every heady Lamar there are 100,000 Kim Kardashian. Exceptionally few have the capacity to read more than a few lines of their scripts AND even fewer work on attaining any “higher education.”
Okay…..name a few that have “excelled in other fields” and ease don’t use any conservative actors. Use only liberals.
That is an exercise in futility.
Er, I meant you get a Ronald Reagan (doh) for every Glenda Jackson (heroine). I’m a lefty.
From recent times I would put forward Emma Watson’s recent speech on feminism at the UN as a fine example of a celebrity promoting thoughtful and useful ideas. And feminism is hardly conservative.
Yes, many celebrities are stupid, obviously. News just in, many bankers, salesmen and even scientists are stupid outside of their speciality. But not all. And they have specialist skills that are transferable.
In the case of actors their transferable skills are media manipulation and communication.
Don’t ignore that resource.
Your comment reminds me of a very old tale in which a man has a bad cold. He is given advice on how to cure it. To prove her credentials, the woman giving the advice says (and this shows how old the joke is…..): “I’m Billie Burke of Hollywood.'” He replies, modestly: “I’m a doctor at the Mayo Clinic.”
I refuse to believe that the idiot left has somehow gained IQ and has flip flopped to the other side. It’s probably their attempt at sarcasm, although it maybe a little too subtle for some people.
Given some of the apparent misgivings in the States about the integrity of some of the Congress men and women , especially on environmental issues , I wonder what a remake/ update of “Mr Smith Goes to Washington ” would look like. (Probably need a gender update).
Hollywood has always had an influence on society both in the USA and on this side of the Atlantic. I am certain that the number of people who believe in AGW will go down sharply if more films like Kingsmen are released. Here we have our Nanny state finger wagging whenever someone lights a cigarette on-screen followed by shrill squeals to ban it!
The w’rm1sts should be very worried.
There is a good website that specialises in failed climate predictions http://climatechangepredictions.org/
(I know it has been mentioned on WUWT before, but there is no harm in another mention)
andrewmharding , Thank you for posting it again. I had not seen it before. I suggest you keep posting it. I am very happy to have it to add to my files.
PS I have noticed on certain sites that I visit regularly, the Wall Street Journal being one, the AGW true believers have gone silent. Now, I will admit that the subscription price is hefty and you probably have more than your fair share of intelligent people on there, but it is interesting to me how I no longer hear of rising sea levels, melting ice caps and Global Warming. The prior AGW believers just don’t mention it anymore. Not one has said, “Oops, guess I was wrong”, but they know they will be creamed if they dare mention Climate Change, so they just pretend the topic does not exist. The trolls don’t even comment on it anymore.
Has anyone else noticed this on other sites?
Hollywood, listen up…
WUWT – the Movie
Luke Climatewalker (Anthony Watts) battles the IPCC Empire who have developed a Death-Computermodel capable of destroying the entire planet. The secret plans for the computermodel are hidden inside a cute Stevenson Screen weatherstation that talks in chirps and whistles. Luke must decode the programme and deliver it to the WUWT Rebel Forces, whilst rescuing Princess Nova from the clutches of evil Data Evader (played by Michael Mann).
The movie concludes with an epic light-hockeystick-saber battle between Climatewalker and Evader.
Coming soon to a theatre near you!
Comic relief provided by a risible, bumbling robot FUBO (played by barack obama).
Coulda put the trailer on???
Thanks for that, it looks brilliant! 🙂
I have to say thank you, David, for posting about Kingsman. And thank you, mwhite, for posting the trailer. I wouldn’t have heard about this movie otherwise. I just came back from watching it and had a wonderful time. LOL at several places.
Well, some writers in Hollywood are true belivers. In the TV show Bones there are several references to climatechange and how bad science the sceptics use. I noticed the same in other TV shows.
Gotta have that constant reinforcement of the propaganda.
Yup, it’s everywhere. In the UK TV show “The worst place to be a…”, last night featured a cattle farmer from the UK spending two weeks in Kenya with the Samburu tribe, subsistance cattle/goat farmers. Climate change was mentioned as the cause of the “worst drought in 60 years”, but then they go on to mention the cattle have evolved to live in that hot and dry environment drinking brackish water and scrounging for grass etc. Go figure!
Oooooh! I just put “Kingsmen” on my ‘must watch’ list…
Around the pool (hey, I’m in Florida… Warm is good 😉 most everyone likes making snarky remarks about all that “Global Warming” falling on Boston 😉 We also have a hoot or two about all the new “warm snow” up there. I’ve run into exactly zero people who are ‘true believers’ and only one or two who are “not sure but don’t know much”. True, it’s a place mostly populated by older folks (retired or snow-birds), but some are fairly young (some with kids in the ‘water wings’ stage). Overall, there’s zero belief in the warming idea here.
Oh, and I need to point out, many of the folks complain about it being colder than in prior years. The ability to NOT use the pool is rare, even in winter, and folks are very aware of it. So, for example, the last 2 or 3 days have been a bust. Today is cold and raining. (Well… relatively cold… still went out with no shirt on but had to use an umbrella and felt a bit cool… Washer / drier access is outside the ‘cottage’…)
The basic problem for Hollywood is that propaganda movies do not sell once the public realizes what it is. And a cold public waiting for warmth (to use the pool or to melt the snow enough to get food) is NOT buying the “warming” idea.
So a (belated) cheer for Hollywood! Welcome to the side of truth, justice, and the American Way… 😉
Here’s the perfect cast for an anti-CAGW Hollywood movie: Liam Neeson as McIntyre, Tom Hanks as Anthony; me as myself (a lurker) with Scarlett Johansson (my partner) as we make love reading WUWT and Climate Audit. Since this movie would be for a good cause I would work for free. Anybody paying attention ?
I suspect it wouldn’t run to feature length.
Meh ! I beg to differ. It would be a double feature with several sequels.
Well, I have to defer to your expertise in this matter as I have no empirical data to counter it and frankly, I don’t want any. Unless you are similar in appearance to the Black Widow actress, of course.
Just remember what happens in a sequel with a Black Widow 🙂
Can you write in a part for a nerdy Leprechaun?
I haven’t seen the movie, nor read all the comments, but that will be the day, when Hollywood is on the side of the justly righteous. Until then, it’s all about profit and propaganda, same as it ever was.
Just as the other mass media do, Hollywood is quick to glom onto anything that has currency, buzz or legitimacy among certain groups. By showcasing such material, the mass media hope to burnish their credibility.
No cultural tipping point, iow, just business as usual.
I looooooove disaster movies! The Al Gore Movie (Day After Tomorrow, not the pedantic Inconvenient Truth) was outstanding, not to mention its own best sly mockery of global warming. But my very favorite was 2012. Can anyone ever top that?
But 2012 wasn’t about global warming as far as I can recall. It was about the fears of what might happen when the Myan calandar ended, Dec 12 2012 (I think it was) and the shift of magnetic poles and the like. Notice, it was the Chinese who built the “Arks”?
Omigosh!! The end of the world came and went already and I missed it. Thanks for reminding me.
David, please disclose your previous funding from Exxon. From your website:
“After graduating from Queensland University in geology in 1979, he worked in coal and oil shale exploration in Queensland and then in oil exploration with Exxon in Sydney.”
Er, dude… that means he did.
Did you mean from some other website?
And this all looks like you’ve made another faux pas.
Because you haven’t said he was paid by Big Oil to post this article.
Barry, if you likes my movie review, you are going to love my advanced theological analysis:
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2015/02/studies_in_comparative_theology_hidden_imam_versus_hidden_heat.html
Barry, very happy to and I am glad you asked. Exxon stopped funding me in 1984 when I left the company. I am grateful to them. I was the first of the geologists hired in the boom after the second oil shock. Exxon took a very rough young geologist and gave me a hell of a lot of training. One year I had three months of EPRCo courses.
Barry,
He was an exploration geologist, looking for oil And gas, apparently, employed by Exxon.
Shrill about that at Hot Moma’s.
I still think the film An inconvenient Truth will achieve cult status and people will shout the facts back at Al while they watch it.
Not only that, they’ll show it at CO2 parties! With Bonfires!
“Interstellar” also mocks the enviros. It goes so far as having an evil “Dr. Mann” who murders his colleagues, lies about his intentions to save mankind and is a coward whose attempts to save himself and no others are so panicked that he kills himself, destroys the rescue vessel and condemns the survivors to a short and brutish future (until saved in the last reel).
“12 Monkeys” as a TV show also portrays environmentalists as man-hating maniacs who want to kill off the human race to “save” the planet.
Evil fanatics are always good for movies. Not everyone thinks the type is restricted to the industrial- military complex anymore.
Evil fanatics are always good for movies. Not everyone thinks the type is restricted to the industrial- military complex anymore.
______
The military-industrial complex, past and present, looks downright benign compared to the enviros. Also, like a really cheap enterprise in comparison.