This was the week that the U.K. suffered during all-time record temperatures above 40 degrees Celsius — or 104 degrees Fahrenheit — GB News host Bev Turner made light of a meteorologist’s warnings about the coming heatwave in a televised interview that bears a striking resemblance to the much talked-about fictional TV interview in Adam McKay’s Oscar-nominated film Don’t Look Up. Actually, McKay was inspired by a Twitter user to combine the two scenes. Below is an example.
In the GB News interview last week, British meteorologist John Hammond warns that, while last week it was a near-perfect 20 degrees Celsius — or 68 degrees Fahrenheit — “By early next week you can scratch 20 degrees. It could very well be 40 degrees. I think there will be hundreds, if not thousands, of excess deaths next week. The charts that I can see in front of me are frightening.”
After Turner has made some more grim points, Turner interrupts by, “So John, I want us to be happy about the weather, and I don’t know whether something has happened to meteorologists to make you all a little bit fatalistic and harbingers of doom.”
She continues “All of the broadcasts, particularly on the BBC, every time I’ve turned on, anyone is talking about the weather and they’re saying there’s going to be tons of fatalities. But haven’t we always had hot weather, John?”
A seemingly incredulous Hammond replies with scientific data and more warnings about transit snarls and workplace difficulties — most of which proved true.
You can see it here.
Hammond was correct, obviously, in his primary counts: the temperature The top 40 degrees at London’s Heathrow airport and over 1,500 people diedAs a result, the heat wave has affected Europe.
The exchange is eerily reminiscent of that between Jennifer Lawrence’s astronomer in Don’t Look Up exploding onscreen after listening to the blithe dismissals of Cate Blanchett’s news anchor even as a massive comet heads toward Earth.
One Twitter user actually combined both scenes to create a devastating effect. Watch below.
McKay himself Weighed in with, “There are clips like this from quite a few European countries floating around but not any from the USA. Why? Because the US for the most part doesn’t have any substantive discussions with climate activists or scientists on broadcast news.”
😬 #DontLookUpReal life. 🥵 pic.twitter.com/K9hiFtxqa4
— Jānis Lācis (@Lidotajs) July 19, 2022
It’s not the first time comparisons have been made between the scene in McKay’s film and a climate change-centered interview on British television. McKay also answered another question in April.