Monday, February 23, 2015

The Oscars 2015 did their best to distract America and the world from the pressing issues of global warming

AN EDITORIAL
 

By the end of the bloated four-hour long Oscars 2015 telecast, in which not one movie nominated or gonged was about the pressing issues of climte change or global warming, the annual CLI-FI MOVIE AWARDS -- a digital online production linked at this site: korgw101.blogspot.com --served as punctuation to an awards season fraught with conversations and think pieces about Hollywood’s lack of concern for the Earth or climate issues.

The host Neil Patric Harris didn't say this but he just might as well have said something like:  "Welcome to the 87th Oscars. Tonight, we will do our best to distract America and the world with movies about everything -- except climate change!"

That's why the CLI FI MOVIE AWARDS were born. More next year, too.

In January 2015, when the Oscar nominations were announced, the social media hashtag alt.oscars was created -- file under #altoscars -- to bring attention worldwide to the Oscars lack of concern or interest in climate change issues.

A TV comic even referenced it in his inaugural broadcast of The Climate Show. “The Oscar nominations are out, and they’re so far away from shedding light on the climate change or global warming, a grand jury has decided to indict them for crimes against the future,” he lamented.

One climate activist organized a boycott of the Oscars telecast, telling his Twitter followers: “Do anything other than watch the Oscars,” he said in phone interview. “They don’t represent climate concerns at all. They don’t really care about your thoughts, and you’re just watching for that one snippet of your favorite actor who’s going to be on for 59 seconds and maybe speak up for the Earth or use that new movie genre term of cli-fi. They don’t deserve the ratings if they’re not going to think about climate issues the other 364 days of the year.”




Sunday was a study in contradictions; there was overwhelming emphasis on the world we live in, yet nothing about climate change or global warning. Nada .
There was a little too much envelope-pushing at this year's Oscars and not enough love for the Eearth and climate change issues for the tastes of climate activists worldwide.
On a night when politics dominated the winners' acceptance speeches -- and these shout out were good and imporant, yes, including best supporting actress winner Patricia Arquette's call for equal wages for women, best original song winner John Legend's blistering condemnation of the number of African American men in prisons and best director Alejandro G. Iñárritu's immigration reference -- climate activists were left....out in the cold...again.
 
"Hollywood can't help itself," said one climate activist in Alaska.
Every year the Oscars telecast is too long and filled with inappropriate distract the hell out of American flourishes, and tonight was no different. Maybe the rise of the CLI FI MOVIE AWARDS will help wake up Hollywood? Don't bet on it. Hollywood is in the business of distraction!

 
"The Oscars are a sad joke, very much like our government's lack of concern for global impact events once the Climapoclypse sets in in 30 generations," tweeted another climate activist in what looked to be like existenial despair. "So many things are wrong!"

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