CCPA (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives) Monitor, October 2013

Many Canadians must be watching their leaders with growing curiousity and concern on the issue of climate change. As people wade through flooded basements, sweat through heat waves, dodge falling branches and uprooted trees — or hear news of more fearsome climate upheavals abroad — our federal political leaders, oil executives, and certain media tycoons continue to treat climate change as a theory in search of evidence. But what if our leaders are not really to blame? What if these leaders, over-worked and over-dressed in chilled office towers, chauffeured about in climate-controlled SUVs, and isolated in high ground mansions are really just deprived of the experiences that inform the rest of us?

Reality TV can help.

Reality TV is a proven format for bringing together people of different backgrounds – entrepreneurs and investors, former NHL stars and figure skaters, undercover bosses and their employees… Since experience is the best teacher pairing our leaders with regular people can help fill the experience gap.  The concept isn’t as outlandish as it sounds.
Political leaders are usually eager to profit from the glow of scripted photographs, perhaps drinking coffee in the local Tim Hortons while business and media executives are keen to be known for their common touch.

The first episode could bring together a Big Oil CEO and a homeowner after a torrential downpour. The first scene follows the CEO wading through the homeowner’s flooded basement. The cameras might catch the CEO daydreaming, then tugged back to reality when a floating family portrait snags on his pants. He later explains that the basement’s flooding inspired visions of the growing opportunities for shipping landlocked tar sands oil through the melting Arctic.

In a jocular boardroom tone the CEO tries to tease the homeowner into revealing his family’s disaster evacuation plan. But as the bewildered homeowner begins to speak the power goes out (this is, after all, a reality show).

The second episode of the show could match a member of the federal Cabinet (let’s say the natural resources minister) with a worker on a road construction crew. The episode starts in the midst of a heat wave (or to be realistic for Torontonians: a flood followed by a heat wave followed by a violent storm).
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As the political star greets the worker the humidex hovers around 40C. Soon both the minister and his smartly-tailored suit are in trouble. At the morning break the flustered minister tries to keep up with a discussion about whether the Prime Minister is relying too heavily on the fossil fuel industry for his climate information. When the workday finally ends, the minister and worker push their way onto a crowded bus to get to the worker’s home. A sleepless night in the sweltering third floor apartment is already making a stronger impression on the minister than sifting through dreary science studies about rising temperatures.

The third episode matches media stars with farmers in developing countries. The segment’s subplot is adaptation. The struggle for the show’s producers is in choosing from among the many potential venues: drought in Africa, higher temperatures in Asia, or violent storms in Central and South America.

To save on travel emissions Guatemala is chosen. A peasant kicks the dust around his withered maize crop lamenting his inability to provide for his family. The rain no longer arrives when it’s needed, and when it does arrive it’s often in damaging torrents. Buying maize to feed his family will be a challenge given rising food prices. The peasant asks whether the West will be helping with adaptation programs. The media star explains that austerity must be the first priority of rich countries. He encourages the weary farmer to endure his fate with courage, pull up his bootstraps, and adapt to farming without rain and feeding his family with smaller harvests.

Additional episodes could be filmed in the U.S., perhaps with Tea Party candidates meeting victims of floods in Colorado, survivors of wildfires in western states, or residents cleaning up in Oklahoma after tornados. Other episodes could take a wildlife perspective – a season ending finale might have a federal minister, equipped with a wet suit and water wings, out for a swim with polar bears struggling to make it to the next ice floe.

The multitude of climate change impacts globally, a growing number of victims, and plentiful climate skeptics among our leaders provide virtually unlimited material for the show in future seasons.

The reality show could do more than simply draw large audiences. Leaders who have failed to take action on climate change — despite at least twenty years of compelling scientific evidence — might be roused from their stupour with a strong dose of reality.