By Donald Gilpin

Climate change is no joking matter, and perhaps no one knows that better than Princeton University Geosciences Professor Michael Oppenheimer, who has been at the forefront of climate research and attempts to communicate crucial climate warnings to the general public for more than five decades.

But in his latest effort to bring understanding and a sense of urgency to the endeavor, Oppenheimer has teamed up with the famous comedian and Emmy Award winner David Cross to present a new video campaign.

Oppenheimer is very familiar with the challenges that scientists face in trying to explain their work in a way that the masses can understand. “So I thought this was an interesting way to think about getting out the climate message — a little different than previously,” he said in a June 6 phone interview.

“There is a problem in that scientists don’t receive training in how to simplify their message and yet assure that it’s still scientifically valid and get it across to the average person,” said Oppenheimer.

“Humor, as I think has been shown over the centuries, is a very effective way to get people to absorb the information,” said Cross as quoted in The Guardian. “Why not? Nothing else seems to work,” he added on a CBS News appearance with Oppenheimer last week.

In the video, produced by the British group Climate Science Breakthrough, Oppenheimer plays the straight man. “Most of it is me making a scientific statement and him commenting on it,” said Oppenheimer.

On last week’s CBS appearance, Oppenheimer elaborated. “If you need to explain something as complicated as climate change, you need to present the information in a familiar context in ordinary English, and scientists can’t do that. What’s more familiar than comedy, in ordinary English? They need to reach people they’re not used to communicating with.”

As the straight man in the video, Oppenheimer presents the grim facts, then Cross comes in with a condensed, down-to-earth, irreverent, usually-not-appropriate-for-printing-in-family-newspapers explanation.

“The climate crisis is no longer a matter of scientific projections or partisan politics. It’s here,” said Oppenheimer in the video. “Records are being broken all around the world. Last year was the hottest year since the industrial era began.” And Cross follows up with the message: “Translation: the shit is hitting the fan. And the fan is on maximum.”

Oppenheimer discusses the increasing prevalence and destructiveness of extreme weather events with images of hurricanes, wildfires, and flooding in the background.

He goes on to mention the impact of climate change on people’s pocketbooks, incomes, insurance rates, and ultimately the way the world will look in the future, the world that our children and grandchildren will inherit.

“Courage comes from knowing that when people want you to do something, comedy or any sort of humorous context is a way to engage more people so then they’re willing to do at least the minimum, which is to send a message to their leaders,” he said. “Tell them we heard this, we got it, and we want you to act.”

Oppenheimer is the Albert G. Millbank Professor of Geosciences and International Affairs in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and the High Meadows Environmental Institute and director of the Center for Policy Research on Energy and the Environment at Princeton University. He has written widely on climate science and climate change — hundreds of publications over the years. He has served on numerous prestigious panels, boards, and committees, and has been a guest on many television and radio programs, including ABC’s This Week, The News Hour, The Oprah Winfrey Show, the Colbert Report, and 60 Minutes.

Oppenheimer is not entirely a stranger to working with comedians. When he was approached by a group of U.K. video creators, he was initially skeptical but trusted the Climate Science Breakthrough Group and some of the other scientists he knew who had worked with them.

“It was interesting,” he said. “It was fun working with David Cross. And I’m delighted that it’s gotten a fairly good listenership.” He noted that it has appeared in a number of places on YouTube. “Whether it’s gone viral or not, I have no idea,” he said. “It’s out of my hands. Aside from that, I’m a professor, and I don’t think I’m going to convert myself to a comedic life style. I’m just enjoying the new format of message out there.”

Oppenheimer’s previous experience as comedian includes a successful appearance on the Colbert Report in 2007. “I enjoyed it by playing a straight man with a little bit of a sense of humor,” he recalls.” But a career as comedian is not on his agenda.

“I sometimes use irony because of the world we live in,” he said. “But I don’t really try comedy. My wife always tells me, ‘Don’t bother telling jokes. You’re not good at it,’ so I don’t.”

He is also reluctant to use humor in the classroom or lecture hall, since students, he says, are a very tough audience. “I tend to stay away from humor, especially in the context of something like climate change, but if done well it can be a way of drawing people in to want to listen to something they otherwise might not want to listen to.”

Oppenheimer has been off campus since the end of the term at Princeton University, so he hasn’t received feedback from his geosciences colleagues, but the responses to his YouTube appearance with Cross from family and friends have been uniformly complimentary, he reports.

“They all thought it was a great idea in the first place — not my idea, of course —and they liked the way we pulled it off,” he said. “And I trust them. Those are the people I trust the most on such things. There are times when I’m not so good online or on TV, and they’re perfectly happy to tell me that.”

Communicating to the average person through the mass media was a significant part of Oppenheimer’s job when he worked for more than two decades with The Environmental Defense Fund, where he served as chief scientist and manager of the Climate and Air Program before he joined the Princeton University faculty. “So I learned quite a bit about it — how to do it,” he said.

Reflecting on the complexity of the climate problem and the complications of the politics surrounding it, Oppenheimer remains somewhat optimistic, at least for the long term. “It is possible,’ he said. “I think we’re going to beat this thing. It’s just that there will be damage in the meantime. Unfortunately the biggest impetus to getting something done about the problem may be the damages themselves. I wish the world weren’t that way, but it is.”

He continued, “Human beings have trouble grappling with long-term problems, but they do do it sometimes. There are lots of examples of us as a society picking a long-term objective and getting the job done — water supply systems, other big infrastructure projects, national security objectives. And that’s the attitude we need to take with climate change.”