People only ‘somewhat concerned’ over climate crisis are ‘killing us’, Don’t Look Up director says

Adam McKay says climate denial ‘fading’ but warns a lack of urgency was the new threat

Adam McKay says mentality that climate crisis is ‘about my grandkids’ has ‘got to go’ (StillMoving.net for Netflix)

People who are only “somewhat concerned” about the climate crisis are “killing us,” the director of Don’t Look Up has warned.

Adam McKay warned this mentality was currently a greater problem than climate denial, which he told British politicians was “fading”.

Don’t Look Up stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence as two scientists struggling to raise the alarm over a huge comet on a collision course with Earth in a metaphor for the real-life climate crisis.

Its writer and director met with MPs on Monday night to discuss the climate emergency and how the world is dealing with it.

Asked by Ed Miliband, the shadow environment secretary, about the “culture war” over the crisis in the US, Mr McKay said: “It's really interesting. The climate denial that you're talking about - it's really fading.”

“You look at the poll numbers across the globe, they're between nine and five per cent. Climate denial is not the issue with this subject.”

Mr McKay said the issue now was people who are “somewhat concerned with climate” and believe the crisis is “50 to 80 years in the future”.

“That is who is killing us. And they're not getting the real information that it's actually five to 10 years,” he said.

The director said these dynamics run across the world and are driven by misinformation, advertising and lobbying from fossil fuel companies.

He said the viewpoint that the climate crisis was “about my grandkids” had “got to go”.

You can read The Independent’s four-star review of Don’t Look Up here.