Press

Kiwi Comedian Finds Funny Side of Climate Change

By Jenny Suo Reporter

 

Today, the Pope told 1.2 billion Catholics that the Earth is starting to looking like a pile of filth.

 

He was talking about the effects of climate change and one Kiwi comedian and eco-activist agrees.

 

Tejopala Rawls is making a series of comedy sketches and has a couple of things to say about the way the news reports on climate change too.

 

"We're hooked on this stuff- that is our relationship with fossil fuels. It's my relationship with fossil fuels," says Rawls.

 

"We need a 12-step program for climate change."

 

Rawls is a former stand-up comedian who has spent the past 15 years

working in sustainability.

 

He says the public isn't getting an easily digestible message about

climate change and that the news is partly to blame.

 

"As a general rule, no offence, but it's pretty bad. People need to just go

'oh yeah I get it in my heart'. Not 'give me some more really dry information, please we'll fix this with an excel sheet full of information'."

 

So he's making a series of comedy sketches to get across a very serious message that will make people feel and think.

 

"You either laugh or you don't and when you laugh, you go 'yes', and then people open up and that's different."

 

The plan is to release five comedy sketches in the lead-up to the UN climate talks at the end of the year.

 

"We're basically saying we're too small to make a difference and I don't think we're like that as a country. I don't think the All Blacks think 'we're too small to win the World Cup'."

 

Rawls is hoping his short films can help make a long-lasting change.