[imagesource: United Nations]
It is time to do whatever it takes to get through to the world leaders and make them deal with the climate crisis properly.
Driving home the urgency with a dinosaur named Frankie (voiced by Jack Black) is not really the first solution one would think of, but that is precisely what is happening.
In a new campaign video released by the United Nations, Frankie the T-Rex waltzes into the iconic 193-member General Assembly Hall at UN Headquarters in New York.
Everybody in the video, some of whom are real UN members, scurries away from the creature as if he is the threat to our survival.
But Frankie has come to warn us about the actual threat facing our existence: ourselves, and our nonsensical policies that are ruining the environment more and more every day.
According to the UN, via CBS News, the “Don’t Choose Extinction” campaign and film are intended “to shine a spotlight on fossil fuel subsidies and how they are cancelling out significant progress towards ending climate change and are driving inequality by benefiting the rich.”
Watch Frankie throw those truth bombs around:
The campaign has been launched at the same time as the international 2021 UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), in which world leaders are convening in Glasgow for a week (ending on November 12) to discuss the Paris Agreement and how to handle the pressing climate crisis.
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The video sends viewers to DontChooseExtinction.com, an interactive site hosted by the United Nations Development Program [UNDP], which heads the organization’s Sustainable Development Goals.
The site explains the most commonly heard excuses for not addressing climate change, like “We need fossil fuels for our economy.”
It also provides resources for individual action to address the decades-long crisis, including the Global Mindpool, an education initiative and digital information hub for people around the world to learn more about a sustainable future.
Ulrika Modéer, who directs UNDP’s Bureau for External Relations and Advocacy, says that while the film is “fun and engaging, the issues it speaks to could not be more serious”.
Achim Steiner, the UNDP’s administrator drives the point home:
“COP26 must be the moment where all nations rise to the challenge of climate change, especially high-emitters. As the window to limit global warming to 1,5 degrees Celsius narrows, this is our only pathway to secure the future of people and planet,” said Steiner.
As Frankie says, “At least we had an asteroid. What’s your excuse?”
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