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Rainn Wilson is on a mission to learn more about climate change and the effects it’s having on our planet. In this episode, he travels back to the US to talk with a youth activist about how her generation is battling climate change. Then he goes to a protest in search of Greta Thunberg.
*This show was filmed before Covid-19 became a pandemic and stay at home orders were in place. We strongly believe in social distancing and wearing masks at this time.*
Transcript provided by YouTube:
00:00
– One last moo for the road, please.
00:03
That’s the worst moo I’ve ever heard in my life.
00:08
Keep working on the moos, okay.
00:13
SoulPancake presents, An Idiot’s Guide to Climate Change.
00:17
All right, folks, time to get the hell out of Greenland
00:19
and track down the infamous Greta Thunberg.
00:22
So long Greenland.
00:24
I love you, It’s been amazing.
00:26
Apparently you’re not for sale,
00:28
which is too bad ’cause I would have liked to have
00:31
taken some of that Office money and plunked it down,
00:33
bought a country like Greenland, perhaps.
00:38
Met some amazing people here,
00:40
getting hit hard by climate change,
00:42
losing a lot of glaciers.
00:44
We gotta do something about it.
00:45
Sorry I’m such a terrible travel host.
00:47
It’s my first time.
00:50
Here we go, all aboard.
00:53
I’m gonna go in and say hi to the pilot
00:54
and ask him about climate change.
00:57
Hello, sir.
00:58
How are you?
00:59
Have you noticed much climate change, flying over Greenland?
01:04
– [Pilot] Oh yes.
01:05
I can see the mountains.
01:07
The ice has disappeared.
01:09
– What about the color of the ice, kind of soot,
01:11
pollutants covering the ice, turning it darker?
01:14
– [Pilot] Oh yes, the ice cap is a lot darker,
01:17
accelerating the melting process.
01:19
– Well, there you have it.
01:20
Proof of climate change from a pilot.
01:24
And my first stop on my way home is…
01:27
New York City.
01:28
Pre-Corona folks, pre-Corona.
01:30
I’m getting to meet a really cool person today.
01:34
Katie Eder, she’s the cofounder
01:36
and executive director of Future Coalition.
01:38
And that’s what’s really exciting to me
01:40
about what’s happening
01:41
in the world of climate change activism,
01:44
is how much of it is being spearheaded by young women.
01:48
And they’re the heroes, they’re taking up the mantle.
01:52
They’re saying, we’re not gonna
01:55
accept the status quo anymore.
01:58
And that’s a really exciting thing.
02:01
It feels like a new age.
02:03
And that’s what gives me hope.
02:05
We need young people activated
02:08
because frankly, my generation screwed things up.
02:11
So, sorry guys.
02:13
And good luck saving the planet.
02:16
All right, here we are at Manhattan’s historic Highline.
02:20
Katie is that you?
02:21
– Hi. – Are you Katie?
02:22
– Yeah. – Hi, how’s it going?
02:24
– Let’s walk and talk.
02:25
I’m the executive director of an organization
02:26
called Future Coalition,
02:28
which is a network of youth led organizations
02:30
and youth organizers across the country.
02:32
– So when I was 19,
02:34
I was picking my nose, and watching “Star Trek”,
02:37
and playing Dungeons and Dragons.
02:38
– All right!
02:39
– And you are a youth organizer.
02:42
So I am very, very impressed.
02:44
– We had over 4 million people across the country,
02:48
excuse me, 4 million people across the world,
02:50
strike from school and work to demand that our world leaders
02:53
take action to address the climate crisis.
02:55
Whether it be forest fires in the West,
02:58
or hurricanes, or flooding in the Midwest,
03:00
we’re seeing the real effects of climate change
03:03
starting to impact real people.
03:05
And so, our generation is looking around and saying,
03:08
this is only gonna get worse.
03:09
– I heard a lot of this term being thrown around,
03:11
slacktivist. – Ah, yes.
03:13
– What’s a slacktivist?
03:14
– A slacktivist is essentially somebody
03:17
that is involved in activism, or a protest,
03:22
just for the Instagram shots or for the credit.
03:27
So, for example, if you don’t vote,
03:29
but if you go to protests and post pictures on Instagram,
03:32
you are a slacktivist.
03:33
– So what’s your message for slacktivists?
03:36
– Do more. – Get off your butts.
03:38
– Yeah, it’s not that hard.
03:40
You can take five minutes a day, take 15 minutes a day,
03:43
and there’s stuff that you can do.
03:44
And you know, talking about it with your friends,
03:46
and registering your friends to vote.
03:48
All of these different things.
03:49
There are such small ways that you can help.
03:51
– I will say, I have been a slacktivist
03:53
for a very long time, so I’m ready to get my butt into gear.
03:57
You have inspired me.
03:58
– Thank you.
03:59
Well I’m glad you’re doing this.
04:00
– I’d give you a high five,
04:01
but I’m holding this stupid camera.
04:03
– All right, well we’ll do a mental high five.
04:05
– Ready, right now.
04:06
Three, two, one.
04:07
Okay, fellow slacktivists,
04:09
time to burn some more carbon
04:11
on my way home to Los Angeles.
04:14
Mission, track down real activist Greta Thunberg
04:18
at the youth climate strike, Fridays for Future.
04:22
Ho, ho, fossil fuel has got to go.
04:24
Hey, hey, ho, ho, fossil fuel has got to go.
04:28
Someway, somehow, someday I will meet great Greta Thunberg.
04:35
I might get a Greta tattoo, by the way.
04:38
I’m thinking about it.
04:39
PETA’s climate change cow wants you to go vegan.
04:42
I’ve given up eating beef
04:43
and tell other people to do that as well, so.
04:46
One last moo for the road, please.
04:50
That’s the worst moo I’ve ever heard in my life.
04:55
Just keep working on the moos, okay.
05:00
– [Crowd] This is what democracy looks like!
05:02
This is what democracy looks like!
05:09
– Here she is, Greta the great.
05:13
– Thank you all so much for coming here.
05:18
Right now, we are living in the beginning
05:21
of the climate and ecological breakdown.
05:25
And we cannot continue to look away
05:28
from this crisis anymore.
05:32
Everywhere around the world we can see
05:35
these horrible environmental feedbacks,
05:39
that countless of people are suffering and dying from.
05:44
Why is the world still ignoring the science
05:49
and those most affected by this crisis?
05:52
Doesn’t this mean anything to the decision makers?
05:56
I will never understand how they can put
06:00
short term interests above human lives,
06:05
above the planet itself, and our very future.
06:14
The older generations are failing us.
06:17
They are failing future generations.
06:21
But future generations do not have a voice.
06:25
And the biosphere doesn’t have a voice.
06:30
So we will be the voice that speaks up for them.
06:36
And that is what we will continue to do every Friday
06:39
when we strike, and every single day that goes by.
06:45
Do you think they are listening to us?
06:47
– [Crowd] No!
06:50
– Well, we will make them listen!
06:58
Thank you.
07:04
– Well, looks like that’s as close
07:06
as I’m gonna get to Greta today.
07:08
And as I got my middle-aged, slacktivist self
07:11
back into the protest, you’ll never guess who I ran into.
07:14
Youth activist, Katie Eder.
07:16
Hi, how are you? – Good.
07:17
– Nice to see you, wow. – You too.
07:19
– Katie’s here, how about that?
07:21
I can’t believe it.
07:22
So we have some people here talking about revolution.
07:25
Do you think revolution is what we need?
07:27
– I do think revolution is what we need.
07:28
And I think that’s what we’re working toward.
07:31
We need to totally change and shift how we live,
07:34
and what the energy that we use is.
07:36
And I think it’s very possible.
07:38
We just have to decide that we wanna do it.
07:40
– Kinda how we do everything on this planet
07:42
needs to be completely rethought, doesn’t it?
07:44
– Yeah, definitely.
07:45
– It’s not just as much as like, oh,
07:46
stop burning coal and drive electric cars.
07:48
A lot more needs to happen than that.
07:50
– Yeah, most definitely.
07:52
I think it really needs to be change
07:53
that’s coming from the top.
07:55
Coming from companies, coming from elected officials,
07:57
from the government.
07:59
– Well it seems like it’s a revolution
08:00
that needs to happen from the top and also from the bottom.
08:02
– Yeah, most definitely.
08:03
It’s gonna take people power to pressure
08:05
the people in power to make change.
08:07
– [Rainn] That’s right, guys.
08:08
People power to pressure the people in power
08:11
to make a change.
08:12
– [Crowd] Climate justice, now!
08:14
– Coming up, on An Idiot’s Guide to Climate Change.
08:19
Would it be all right if I called you Greta Thunderberg?
08:28
– Now you get me that Carell autograph, okay.
08:31
♪ SoulPancake ♪
08:32
♪ Subscribe ♪
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Photo credit: Screenshot from video
