Today House Fellow Aaron Sachs joined us at Rose Cafe to talk about humor, or lack thereof, in talks about the environment. We watched numerous funny clips related to different facets of the problems facing planet Earth – from over-population, to man’s carbon footprint, and more. Some of the videos we watched, such as a news report about a new Toyota Prius that kills its driver thereby reducing his carbon footprint to zero, seem quite controversial and evocative. This sort of dark humor highlights the idea that environmentalists can sometimes loose sight of issues that are important to people, such as life, death, and war. I think we can certainly learn from humor as well as enjoy it, and one takeaway from the aforementioned video is that we should be careful not to take any one idea to the extreme. Humans seem to have contributed to the problems that are facing our planet right now, but we are also capable of creating solutions.

Therefore, mixing environmentalism and comedy seems like a good idea for a few reasons. Firstly, as Professor Sachs argues, comedy provides a morale boost and has the potential to inspire people to take action, more than tragedy can. Comedy has the potential to grab our attention and keep it. Moreover, if environmentalist try a new approach (humor directed at themselves and at climate change), they can inspire new conversations, new debates, and a renewed interest in saving our planet, something that is very important to all of us!