In a godforsaken hotel by the highway, seven climate scientists partake in group therapy to confront a previously unknown field of study: their own emotions.
I have just seen a premier of this brilliant film in Stockholm, Sweden. Nathan Grossmann (the director) and Richard Beck (the therapist) were there. As a scientist working on climate, I found the film brilliant and terrifying. The empty chair on which a child from the future is sitting is a powerful visualisation that will stay with me forever. I strongly recommend watching the film and it is wonderful that you, Britt Wray, have made it possible for your subscribers to meet Nathan. This is a fantastic opportunity, which I warmly recommend. Best wishes, Alasdair (from https://takingontheclimatecrisis.substack.com/).
Wow! It's wonderful to hear from you Alasdair right after you've seen the film to hear your fresh reflections on it. Thanks so much for sharing. Incredibly interesting to hear how it landed for you, given that you're a scientist working on climate.
I remember hearing about this film a few weeks ago and looking forward to watching it. There have been a wave of similar therapy films on the festival circuit -- one focused on comedians dealing with anxiety, another focused on youth climate activists. There's a lot of power behind these unfiltered conversations that I think more people need to see.
It feels like part of what’s needed now is learning how to stay in relationship with what we know on an emotional level, not just an intellectual one. This speaks to that in a powerful way.
I have just finished watching this film. Thank you for providing this opportunity to know about it and see it. I'm sorry I'll miss the session with the filmmaker; I have a direct conflict. I retired early due to my inability to function in my role as a climate researcher, specifically as we made new, high spatial and temporal resolution maps of global vegetation and vegetation change. Now those satellites are nearing end of life powered reentry with no continuity on the drawing board, let alone a launch timetable. The Mission to Planet Earth appears to be over. I intentionally serve as best I can with the Red Cross to hang on to the complexity of hope in the knowledge of challenges before us.
Yes, the NASA Terra and Aqua satellites carrying the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instruments, acquiring daily global data at finer spatial resolution than any prior daily global imagers. I was part of land surface science team, principally engaged in design and testing of automated algorithms for land surface vegetation classification, and once our baseline was created, how it was(is) changing. All the data and many images are freely available to all at https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/.
That's no doubt upsetting such a sophisticated project won't be renewed to carry on the great work you and your colleagues have done. I'm sorry, and thank you for your work on it!
Dear Britt, Thank you for making it possible for us to listen to you speak with Nathan about his film. In the last viewer question, you both spoke about the scientist who said that there would not be a child sitting in that chair in the future. I write now, because I was that scientist. We were in a cinema in Stockholm and Nathan and Richard (the therapist) were there. The future means different things to different scientists. I am a geologist, so I think on long timescales. When Richard asked us to think about what we would say to that child in the future, I found myself thinking about the parallels between the past five mass extinctions (each of which is either directly or indirectly connected to climate change) and what we are doing to our beautiful planet and all that lives on it right now. Sadly, mass extinction is a possible outcome of buring fossil fuels as fast as were are burning them. This is what I was thinking about when I said that the chair would be empty. I have written about it here: https://takingontheclimatecrisis.substack.com/p/the-empty-chair. Anyhow, many thanks, once more, for all you are doing for the climate of the future. Best wishes, Alasdair
I have just seen a premier of this brilliant film in Stockholm, Sweden. Nathan Grossmann (the director) and Richard Beck (the therapist) were there. As a scientist working on climate, I found the film brilliant and terrifying. The empty chair on which a child from the future is sitting is a powerful visualisation that will stay with me forever. I strongly recommend watching the film and it is wonderful that you, Britt Wray, have made it possible for your subscribers to meet Nathan. This is a fantastic opportunity, which I warmly recommend. Best wishes, Alasdair (from https://takingontheclimatecrisis.substack.com/).
Wow! It's wonderful to hear from you Alasdair right after you've seen the film to hear your fresh reflections on it. Thanks so much for sharing. Incredibly interesting to hear how it landed for you, given that you're a scientist working on climate.
I remember hearing about this film a few weeks ago and looking forward to watching it. There have been a wave of similar therapy films on the festival circuit -- one focused on comedians dealing with anxiety, another focused on youth climate activists. There's a lot of power behind these unfiltered conversations that I think more people need to see.
Interesting! I wasn't aware of all the others
It feels like part of what’s needed now is learning how to stay in relationship with what we know on an emotional level, not just an intellectual one. This speaks to that in a powerful way.
I have just finished watching this film. Thank you for providing this opportunity to know about it and see it. I'm sorry I'll miss the session with the filmmaker; I have a direct conflict. I retired early due to my inability to function in my role as a climate researcher, specifically as we made new, high spatial and temporal resolution maps of global vegetation and vegetation change. Now those satellites are nearing end of life powered reentry with no continuity on the drawing board, let alone a launch timetable. The Mission to Planet Earth appears to be over. I intentionally serve as best I can with the Red Cross to hang on to the complexity of hope in the knowledge of challenges before us.
That's powerful, thank you for sharing. These were US funded satellites, I imagine?
Dear Britt,
Yes, the NASA Terra and Aqua satellites carrying the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer instruments, acquiring daily global data at finer spatial resolution than any prior daily global imagers. I was part of land surface science team, principally engaged in design and testing of automated algorithms for land surface vegetation classification, and once our baseline was created, how it was(is) changing. All the data and many images are freely available to all at https://modis.gsfc.nasa.gov/gallery/.
That's no doubt upsetting such a sophisticated project won't be renewed to carry on the great work you and your colleagues have done. I'm sorry, and thank you for your work on it!
Dear Britt, Thank you for making it possible for us to listen to you speak with Nathan about his film. In the last viewer question, you both spoke about the scientist who said that there would not be a child sitting in that chair in the future. I write now, because I was that scientist. We were in a cinema in Stockholm and Nathan and Richard (the therapist) were there. The future means different things to different scientists. I am a geologist, so I think on long timescales. When Richard asked us to think about what we would say to that child in the future, I found myself thinking about the parallels between the past five mass extinctions (each of which is either directly or indirectly connected to climate change) and what we are doing to our beautiful planet and all that lives on it right now. Sadly, mass extinction is a possible outcome of buring fossil fuels as fast as were are burning them. This is what I was thinking about when I said that the chair would be empty. I have written about it here: https://takingontheclimatecrisis.substack.com/p/the-empty-chair. Anyhow, many thanks, once more, for all you are doing for the climate of the future. Best wishes, Alasdair
Do we have access to this film for free if we’re an Unthinkable Substack Subscriber?
They couldn't make it available for free for anyone sorry to report, but it was priced for all at $3.99 and the Kinema link is here: https://kinema.com/events/Climate-In-Therapy-n7mnnk
Thank you for your quick reply Britt! I look forward to hearing the discussing in about 15 min. It’s still happening, yes?
Yep!
Also, when I search “Climate In Therapy” in Kinema it doesn’t show up.