GB News’ Bev Turner Draws Comparisons To “Don’t Look Up”

As the Twitter clip shows, the exchange is almost identical to a scene in Don’t Look Up, the Netflix satire that uses a comet coming to destroy the earth as a metaphor for climate change. In the scene, Jennifer Lawrence’s character goes on the news to warn people that “the entire planet is about to be destroyed.”

“We just keep the bad news light,” the news anchor responds in the movie.

Neither Turner nor GB News immediately responded to a request for comment.

As Hammond forecast, the UK did reach 40 degrees Celsius on Tuesday, which was the hottest day in UK history. The Met Office, or Meteorological Office — the UK’s national weather service — issued a “red extreme” heat warning for the first time ever. It’s too early to know exactly how many deaths to attribute to the high temperatures in the UK, but heat is the deadliest of all weather events. And in addition to heat-related deaths, wildfires fueled by the high temperatures have killed people in other parts of Europe.

Brenda Ekwurzel, a director of climate science with the Union of Concerned Scientists, told BuzzFeed News earlier this week that the heat waves are a result of the climate crisis.

“The climate crisis is a systemic crisis,” she said. “The heat wave is dangerous and terrifying and should be yet another crucial wake-up call for our leaders to finally take charge on climate.”

During the July 14 GB News segment, Turner, the anchor, also questioned whether the current hot weather was actually worse than past heat waves, referencing the summer of 1976, when temperatures reached 35 degrees Celsius in the UK.

That heat wave was, of course, cooler than what’s happening now. Hammond, the meteorologist, also explained that in the past, high temperatures were a “freak event.” Today, heat waves are becoming more extreme, and they’re happening more regularly.

Though Turner didn’t respond to questions from BuzzFeed News, she tweeted Wednesday that she still considers the record-breaking, life-threatening temperatures to be “hyperbole.”