Extrapolations: The Climate change series we deserve, but not the one we need

Extrapolations is a 'climate-fiction' series on Apple TV. My review.

Extrapolations is a miniseries on climate change that released on Apple TV in March 2023. I saw it a few weeks back with much expectation (if nothing else I had the gorgeous Kit Harrington to look at!) and my recommendation is this: If you already care about the climate crisis, it'll only validate what you already know, so could possibly skip. If you don’t already care about the climate crisis, then definitely skip!

Extrapolations is 8 episodes set in the future from 2037 to 2070. Each episode follows a specific story depicting impacts of the climate crisis ranging from increasing sea levels to poor air quality. It’s real. It’s fairly scientific (from what I know). And it’s quite in line with predictions from the scientific community on the future we should expect.

It’s the series we DESERVE

The dystopian future the series paints will scare the living daylights out of any rational person.

It shows people buying a few minutes of ‘Oxygenated air’ in India

It shows dystopian cities covered in smog becoming the norm

It shows children being born with something they call a ‘summer heart’, unable to tolerate heat and wearing monitors that tell them they can’t spend any more time outdoors!

It talks about entire cities migrating out because sea levels are rising.

It talks about the ultra-rich buying tickets to leave the earth on a rocket.

It shows ONE LAST WHALE left on Earth and scientists desperately trying to find a way to preserve it.

It shows billionaires looking to build hotels in the Arctic as the sea ice melts making way for boats and revealing hard land.

It’s frightening. It’s the kind of stuff that will keep you up at night worrying about your kids.

But we deserve to be scared.

We have had enough scientific evidence to know the climate crisis is real for decades, but have taken this and continue to take this so casually.

But… it’s not the series we NEED

The series paints a doomsday picture, and a pretty real one. It shows us everything that could and will go wrong, but we need more - we need a show that’ll give us hope and tell us there is a way out and at least point us to how!

#1 It says almost nothing about the power of the people to make better choices

Through the series you see the lives of ordinary citizens get worse - the air is not breathable, there is an acute water shortage, there are wars being fought over water, the heat is unbearable and you can’t step outside on most days. But it doesn’t show any examples of people actively making better choices - like saying no to overconsumption or electing a better government. It shows people continuing to follow a path that has been laid out for them by corporations selling things they want to sell and governments prioritising the short term.

#2 It seems to suggest ‘technology will get us out of this’

At the end, the series does show that humanity has found some way to avert absolute disaster, but it seems to suggest that it has done so solely using technological innovations like desalination and carbon capture.

I don’t agree. Such narrow technology solutions alone will not get us out of the climate crisis. We need to have a broader lens - that looks at biodiversity, community, and justice. And we definitely need to make changes to our way of living, our definitions of ‘development’ and the culture of ‘overconsumption’.

#3 It’ll either confuse you or bore you

The biggest problem with the series though is that its confusing and not nearly as engaging as it needs to be. The 8 episodes are rather convoluted and way too long.

I was glad to see a series on climate change in mainstream media. This one was as mainstream as it gets - Its got Meryll Streep and Kit Harrington and was playing on Apple TV! But this one doesn’t cut it.

Talking about climate change is hard. Striking the balance between the doom and gloom and the solutions even more so. But this is a great way to make the conversation about climate change mainstream and I hope we see more and better content coming up soon.