As the UK is about to be hit with unusually high temperatures in the coming week, a concerned meteorologist warning of fatal consequences from the brutal heat was undermined by a news host who wanted to "be happy" about it.
The interaction was compared to a scenario out of Netflix's apocalyptic film Don't Look Up–in which two scientists played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence warn the media to no avail about a deadly comet hurtling toward Earth.
On Thursday, hosts Bev Turner and Mercy Murokihe from the UK's GB News channel spoke remotely to meteorologist John Hammond about the weather. Turner seemed to fail to grasp the seriousness of the rising temperatures.
The segment started with Turner asking Hammond regarding current temperatures:
“It’s not too hot, is it?”
\u201cMeteorologist John Hammond stars in the latest UK remake of #DontLookUp: the #heatwave edition.\u201d— Media Tell The Truth XR (@Media Tell The Truth XR) 1657826294
Hammond replied:
“No, it’s absolutely lovely, you’ve got 20 degrees [Celsius, 68° Fahrenheit] out here, it’s lovely."
But he quickly switched gears to help viewers understand the gravity of the situation ahead. Hammond revealed just how much of a scorcher it could become for unprepared UK residents who lack air conditioning, fans or other methods to cool down when they become overheated.
The unusual temperatures mean most households aren't designed to deal with the extreme heat.
"On a serious note, folks, by early next week, you can scrap 20°, it could well be 40° [104° Fahrenheit]."
Hammond continued:
“I think there’ll be hundreds, if not thousands of excess deaths early next week."
"The charts I can see in front of me are frightening, so we all like nice weather, but this will not be nice weather—this will be potentially lethal weather, for a couple of days."
“It will be brief, but it will be brutal.”
Turner, however, downplayed Hammond's warning and tried to lighten the mood by telling him:
“I want us to be happy about the weather."
She added, laughing:
"I don’t know whether something’s happened to meteorologists to make you all a little bit fatalistic and harbingers of doom."
\u201cI had to look up the insensitive idiot who\u2019d tell people to smile about deadly weather instead of warn people of the dangers. Great news reporting @beverleyturner @GBNEWS do better\u201d— Alana Evans (@Alana Evans) 1657920231
\u201c\u201cI want us all to be happy about the weather! I don\u2019t know whether something happened to meteorologists to make you all so fatalistic, you all sound like harbinger of doom lately!\u201d is a really, really amazing thing to say. Lady, you\u2019re so very close\u2026\u201d— Dan Visioni \ud83e\udd94 (@Dan Visioni \ud83e\udd94) 1657882564
\u201c@TTTMediaXR This woman should come talk to people in British Columbia. Our heatwave killed hundreds last year. One small town recorded the highest temperature ever in Canada\u2026that burned entirely to the ground days later. We had climate disaster after climate disaster. Scary as hell.\u201d— Media Tell The Truth XR (@Media Tell The Truth XR) 1657826294
Turner added whenever she tuned in to the BBC and listened to people talking about the weather, everyone was talking about how there were going to be "tons of fatalities."
Turner asked:
“Haven’t we always had hot weather, John?"
"The summer of ’76, that was as hot as this, wasn’t it."
\u201c@alanaevansxxx @beverleyturner @GBNEWS Oof. That is bad, unprofessional, and not something you'd expect to see in the UK. \n\nCompletely lacking any reporting integrity.\u201d— Alana Evans (@Alana Evans) 1657920231
\u201c@TTTMediaXR be prepared for new levels of denial and distraction, while the UK gvmt is leaving the civilized world.\nit will be brutal\nhttps://t.co/vJOuxMSke4\u201d— Media Tell The Truth XR (@Media Tell The Truth XR) 1657826294
Hammond shook his head and responded:
“No, and we are seeing more and more records more and more frequently and more and more severely ... Heatwaves are becoming more extreme, this is yet another one which is coming down the tracks towards us.“
"I don’t think we should be too light-hearted about the fact that many are going to die over the next week because of the heat."
"40° [104° Fahrenheit], this sort of temperature in this country, I’m afraid, is not geared up to cope with.”
Frustrated viewers immediately compared Turner's denial to similar reactions from Don't Look Up.
\u201cGBeebies Going Full don't look up\u201d— Paul Robert Baldwin (@Paul Robert Baldwin) 1657886563
\u201cToday John Hammon explained the danger of increasing extreme heat to people in the UK. @GhostPanther seems like @GBNEWS have copied your film #DontLookUp! Oh wait..this is real life. This is denial. This is the #media\u2019s reaction to #ClimateChange. And it will cost lives.\u201d— JustStopOil (@JustStopOil) 1657826282
Others gave Hammond props for his resolute reporting in the face of blissful ignorance.
\u201cHeroic job from @hammondweather communicating the very real threat that extreme heat poses, especially when faced with questions like \u201chaven\u2019t we always had hot weather?\u201d \ud83d\udc4f \ud83d\udc4f\u201d— Dr Simon Lee (@Dr Simon Lee) 1657808509
The controversial GB News has been criticized for its lack of credible news reporting since its launch in June 2021.
After eight shows, GB News presenter and chairman Andrew Neil left the network.
Two days after its launch, Judith Woods from The Telegraph said the far-right channel was "unutterably awful; boring, repetitive and cheapskate."
Jemima Kelly also denounced the free-to-air news channel in the Financial Times, writing:
"GB News is so tedious, so lacking in nuance, so whiny and frankly so low-quality, it is actually making me more sympathetic to the cause of those they deem 'woke'."
GB News is frequently compared to Fox News, Newsmax and OAN in the United States.
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