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Climate Change

11th Apr 2022

GMB viewers are comparing this daytime TV clash to famous Don’t Look Up scene

Charlie Herbert

‘Evidence that Don’t Look Up is more of a documentary’

Richard Madeley interviewed a Just Stop Oil protestor on Good Morning Britain on Monday morning, and viewers couldn’t help but notice similarities with an iconic scene in apocalyptic dark comedy Don’t Look Up.

If you’ve seen the Netflix film starring Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio you’ll probably already know the scene in question.

Lawrence and DiCaprio play scientists who realise that an asteroid is going to hit Earth, and spend the film trying to convince the world of the obvious threat it poses, whilst everyone ignores them.

The whole film is a thinly-veiled metaphor for the climate emergency facing the planet.

In one scene, the scientists go on a news programme to warn everyone, but are laughed at and not taken seriously by the hosts.

When a climate activist from Just Stop Oil appeared on GMB on Monday, many felt she was given similar treatment by Madeley.

One person said that Don’t Look Up is “more of a documentary about the mass media and political system than a comedy,” with another tweeting that they suddenly the Netflix film didn’t look like it was “overstretching things.”

A third joked that it seemed that this Don’t Look Up “sequel” was a bit too similar to the original.

https://twitter.com/donne_mark/status/1513498173939007493?s=20&t=G-YtD412FxdUno_RJ3140Q

Several praised the woman for not losing her patience and managing to calmly explain the group’s aims and objectives and why they felt their protests were necessary.

https://twitter.com/jemimah_knight/status/1513493620782948352?s=20&t=G-YtD412FxdUno_RJ3140Q

Just Stop Oil have been carrying out protests across the Midlands and the south of England in recent days, blocking entrances to oil terminals in Essex, Hertfordshire and Warwickshire.

The group wants the government to commit to “immediately halt all future licensing and consents for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the UK.”

Alongside similar protests from Extinction Rebellion, Fair Fuel UK Campaign claimed the action had caused one in three petrol stations in southern England to run out of petrol and/or diesel.

But the government has since claimed only one terminal was out of action on Sunday afternoon because of protests.

A total of 338 arrests have been made since protests began on April 1, with Essex Police accusing the protestors of “exceptionally dangerous” behaviour that put “themselves and our officers at real risk of harm.”

The force has insisted it is not “anti-protest.”

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