The podium is out, what looks like a government logo fixed in the corner: we are watching the People’s Emergency Briefing, introduced by… Chris Packham. Trying to emulate the Covid conferences, he explains in this government-style briefing that the world is being destroyed by climate change and it is all our fault.
The 50-minute film he introduces is based on a briefing at Westminster Central Hall, to which all MPs are invited, and consists of nine ‘experts’ lecturing its audience on how much this country must change to help the world survive, from energy to agriculture and national security – and which, according to the organisers, ‘lots of people cried’ upon hearing.
It features Lt Gen Richard Nugee (Emily Thornberry’s brother-in-law) calling climate change the ‘most insidious threat to our society’. Later, ‘tangerine’ Donald Trump gets his due. China, by contrast, is painted well: a country that gets on with implementing renewables, easy enough when nobody is asked for their views. But has anyone thought about whether we want to live like that?
‘A little bit of self-care probably needs to take place after what we’ve just watched,’ the host said
The documentary is cut Gogglebox-style: every grim projection followed by a famous person, or a selection of normal ones, pulling a face on a sofa. It feels as if we are being given ten pained minutes of Dragons’ Den’s Deborah Meaden and Ab Fab’s Jennifer Saunders tutting and shaking their heads. But it is St Christopher of Springwatch who dominates – even the welcome image before the screening starts features a black-and-white photo of him gazing stoically into the distance, only the halo missing. The film is being viewed thousands of times in events up and down the country.
