As “big” problems go, climate change is in a class of its own: maddeningly complex, almost intangible, and bespeaking a kind of dread that makes you just want to stop thinking about it.
“Climate change is the policy problem from hell,” says Anthony Leiserowitz of the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, in a new video miniseries that kicks off today. “You almost couldn’t design a worse problem for our underlying psychology or the way our institutions make decisions.”
“Climate Lab,” a six-part miniseries created by the University of California and Vox Media — and hosted by Conservation International senior scientist M. Sanjayan — aims to shake climate change from its “gloom and doom” narrative and showcase emerging approaches and technologies to solve it. The series features eye-opening conversations with experts, scientists, thought leaders and activists about how everything from clean energy to food, from religion to smartphones, affects the future of our planet.
“Climate change is the biggest issue of our time,” Sanjayan said. “It can seem overwhelming, but in ‘Climate Lab,’ we meet some amazing people from all walks of life who are breaking the problem down and actually making a difference. We hope to inspire viewers to transform the planet by taking some of the ideas in this series and spreading it across the world.”
The series’ first episode, “Why humans are so bad at thinking about climate change,” debuts today on Vox; new episodes will premiere on Vox — at youtube.com/vox — every Wednesday for the next five weeks. Watch the first episode below.
Bruno Vander Velde is editorial director at Conservation International.