Global Meltdown
THE WATER IS RISING, BUT
ADMIRAL HORATIO HORNTOWER
IS IN DENIAL.
Standing atop a melting iceberg, Admiral Horatio Horntower ponders life’s mysteries with a series of animal friends. They recognize what Admiral Horntower can’t: We’re at the brink of global meltdown. Directed By Errol Morris. Starring Bob Odenkirk. Presented by Biscuit Filmworks & Fourth Floor Productions. Watch all the videos here.
DIRECTOR’S STATEMENT
I have never had any trouble believing in climate change, global warming, or whatever you want to call it. The scientific evidence is overwhelming. Galileo famously replied to Archbishop Piccolomini (or some other Vatican prelate), “And yet it moves.” Today we could just as well say, “And yet it changes.” But what to do about it? Logic rarely convinces anybody of anything. Climate change has become yet another vehicle for political polarization. If Al Gore said the Earth was round there would be political opposition insisting that the Earth was flat. It’s all so preposterous, so contemptible.
I’ve created nineteen thirty-second spots that profile a character I created: Admiral Horatio Horntower. He’s an admiral of a fleet of one and perhaps the last man on Earth. Hopefully it captures the absurdity and the desperation of our current situation. No pie graphs, no PowerPoint—just a blithering idiot played by one of my favorite actors, Bob Odenkirk.
—Errol Morris
CLIMATE ACTION AND THE ARTS
Last year, Institute for the Future and the Climate Investment Funds released its New Story to Spark the Future of Climate Action study along with an accompanying art installation to illustrate opportunity zones for climate action over the next decade that can accelerate progress toward a low-carbon world. In this study, we stressed the important role that artists and designers can play in the future of climate action. That’s why we are delighted to premiere this series of video spots, produced and directed by Errol Morris and starring Bob Odenkirk. They’re the kind of creative approach we were hoping to see when we developed our climate action framework.
CLIMATE CHANGE RELATED WORK AT IFTF
The Apocalypse Project: House of Futures
The Apocalypse Project: House of Futures was a 7-month exhibition in IFTF's Future Gallery that explored our environmental futures in the anthropocene through the lens of high fashion.
Adaptation Strategies
Over the next decade, as climate effects worsen, we will explore surprising combinations of simplicity and complexity, constraint and transformation, in our search for the most effective strategies for climate adaptation.
You Can’t Consume Your Way Out of Global Warming
Institute for the Future researchers Mark Frauenfelder and David Pescovitz talk with inventor and MacArthur "genius grant" recipient Saul Griffith about how need new mindsets as much as new technologies to alleviate climate change.
New Story to Spark the FUTURE OF CLIMATE ACTION
IFTF’s climate action framework is designed to stimulate thought and action on climate issues by describing hopeful signs of change happening now, asking provocative questions, pointing out areas of friction and providing positive scenarios for the future for stakeholders to consider as they ponder the actions they might want to take.
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Institute for the Future is the world’s leading futures thinking organization. For over 50 years, businesses, governments, and social impact organizations have depended upon IFTF global forecasts, custom research, and foresight training to navigate complex change and develop world-ready strategies. IFTF methodologies and toolsets yield coherent views of transformative possibilities across all sectors that together support a more sustainable future. Institute for the Future is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Palo Alto, California.