BAN #391: Don’t Look Up review, Galaxy garden

10 January 2022 Issue #391

January 10, 2022

I recommend

Something I think you’ll like

I know it’s a bit late for this, but we watched “Don’t Look Up” on Netflix recently and I figure it’s worth a brief review.

First, a very brief review: It’s great, so if you have Netflix go watch it.

If you exist at all online then you’ve already heard about this movie. In the spirit of the sentence above, a very brief non-spoilery synopsis: Astronomers discover a comet on a collision course with Earth, so they report it to the authorities and are basically mocked and ignored. And when action finally is taken it’s not exactly what the scientists had hoped for.

A slight spoiler, though this idea has been discussed widely: The movie is a parable, a satire of climate change and how it’s been politicized and denied despite the herculean efforts of many scientists to warn us the threat is real and it’s here, now. The Leo DiCaprio character feels loosely based on climatologist Michael Mann, and other characters are much more obviously based on real people, or amalgams of them.

[“Don’t Look Up” poster. Credit: Netflix]

It’s very funny, though oddly paced, and I thought it did a fine job sending up the peculiar trait of so many humans to ignore a dire, existential, and obvious threat. If the movie had been made even six years ago people would’ve thought it was over the top and silly, but after four years of Trump and another year of QAnon and brain-stompingly anti-science lunacy, the movie, if anything, was too on-the-nose.

In fact that’s my only real complaint about it; I squirmed through a lot of it because it reflected my own experience so well. I’ve been shouting about climate change denial (and anti-vaxxers and other chuckleheadedry) for years — decades, really — and have been rebuffed, trolled, laughed at, mocked… watching those scientists go through that was very uncomfortable for me and my stomach churned through a lot of it.

And that’s just my personal experience. The woman astronomer, played by Jennifer Lawrence, took the brunt of the trolling, which was depicted fairly accurately in my opinion; I’ve seen many women leave science (or at least public science communication) due to knuckle dragging misogynists. The Black scientist was simply ignored. Again, oof.

There are a lot of subtle jabs. One of my favorites is a running gag (SPOILER, though minor) of a general who tells the astronomers that a bottle of water and snacks at the White House costs money, and takes their cash for them; they find out later the food is free and can’t understand why he lied to them about something so minor. There are a few ways to interpret this, but for me it mocked Trumpian political grift, and how even the dumbest con job will be implemented even when it’s patently transparent.

I’ve read some critiques of the movie and to a one I found them off-base. Some complained that the situation of an impending comet is nothing like climate change, which made me chuckle. There are obvious parallels — an impending science-based threat, scientists sounding the alarm, etc. (impact scientist Mark Boslaugh mentioned others, too), but one critique said the timescales are different. Well, yeah, but this isn’t a scientific paper, it’s a satire. They might as well complain that Jennifer Lawrence doesn’t really have red hair. It’s silly.

And the idea of an impact as climate change parable occurred to me years ago; I wrote a blog post called “A Cautionary Tale” on this exact topic. I mean, exact. In fact as I watched the movie I kept laughing at the parallels with my story.

I’ll add that the factual science of the movie was fine as far as satire goes; I could whinge at a few details but overall it was fine. That’s no surprise, though, since my friend and asteroid astronomer Amy Mainzer was the science consultant for it. She’s also the head of an upcoming space-based mission called NEOSM, which will look for Potentially Hazardous Asteroids and comets using infrared light, which has advantages over visible light surveys (that link has details). Amy is brilliant, and I have a lot of trust the mission will be fantastic.

So if you haven’t yet, give this movie a watch. And if you’re on Twitter take a look at my list of climatologists and other climate-related accounts to follow there. It’s not anywhere near complete, but it’s a good start to get solid info on real science and also on those who attack it. My friend and climatologist Katharine Hayhoe also maintains a list with a lot more (3,200!) accounts on it, too.

And please. Look up. Always.

Blog Jam

[Could dark matter actually be black holes? Read Monday’s article to find out! Credit: NASA ]

Apropos of nothing

Not everything needs to be themed

I know it’s a little early in the northern hemisphere season, but if you’re looking for a garden idea, here’s one that’s a little different: a galaxy garden!

That galaxy garden is located at the Delaware AeroSpace Education Foundation in Smyrna, Delaware. The original is in Kona, Hawaii, designed by space artist Jon Lomberg (who sent me a note about the new one in Delaware). It’s over 30 meters across and based on astronomical observations of the shape of the Milky Way. After seeing Jon’s, DASEF CEO Stephanie Wright decided to make one on the Foundation’s grounds.

Another (smaller) one is at the San Diego Air and Space Museum (a lovely place; I visited there some time ago), too.

[Using your galaxy garden as a scaled map of the Milky Way. Credit: Jon Lomberg.]

This is a very cool idea, and it would be interesting to build one. You’d have to update it every time a new Milky Way structure paper came out, but knowing the gardeners I know they’d probably enjoy the challenge of doing that. Maybe a black dahlia in the center for Sgr A*, a sunflower for the Sun, and Euonymus alatus for known nebulae…?

Et alia

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