Governance. Using the metaphor of a comet hurtling towards the Earth, the film Don’t Look Up by Adam McKay shows different types of denial with regard to global warming: refusal to believe, indifference to the disastrous consequences, or candid optimism convinced that technology will fix everything. Each in its own way, these postures deny a reality yet as visible as a comet in the sky, and the tragicomic motivation of the film lies in the gap between the evidence of the phenomenon witnessed by the spectator and the peremptory blindness entrepreneurs and politicians.
The success of the film shows, paradoxically, how much the future of our societies confronted with climate change has become a central concern in the collective consciousness: Netflix would not have supported such a work if it had had no chance of reach a politically shared feeling and a wide audience. Calculation successful if we are to believe the tens of millions of viewings of the film since December 2021 and the debates it has aroused.
The evidence of climate change in the coming decades is now commonplace in the spirit of the times, even if we do not know the extent and violence of this upheaval, the deadline of which exceeds human experience. current.
Towards an assessment of wealth production
It is precisely this uncertainty that has changed public demands on economic actors. Half a century ago, financialization had reduced the creation of value by companies to a few financial results that polarized their activities. Today, expecting only high profits from them is a derisory blindness to the urgency of common issues. They are asked to anticipate the consequences that climate change will have on society. This does not boil down to a few good ecological intentions, but requires a radical reformulation of models of production and consumption of resources.
Imperceptibly, we have gone from financialization to the societalization of companies, that is to say to an evaluation of the production of wealth, which integrates its effects on society as a whole. Efficient is a responsible deployment of economic activities that does not exhaust present or future resources. Even better, activities are effective when they are intended to contribute to mitigating or solving climate and social problems. This is expressed by the notion of societal impact.
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