\n<\/p>\n
Nikolaj Coster-Waldau wants people to step away from the abyss when it comes to climate action.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a very difficult balance,\u201d said the Danish actor, who portrayed Jaime Lannister in \u201cGame of Thrones.\u201d \u201cYou want to get people aware, you want to inspire change. But I think we\u2019ve gone overboard by making it into this doomsday.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exhausting for everyone,\u201d he added. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not quite true, actually.\u201d<\/p>\n
In \u201cAn Optimist\u2019s Guide to the Planet,\u201d<\/a> a documentary series from Bloomberg Originals, Coster-Waldau meets with scientists, activists and ordinary folks who have developed ingenious solutions to global issues \u2014 things like sargassum that captures carbon on St. Vincent, worms that eat plastic in Spain and a zero-waste village in Japan.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an insane endeavor, Coster-Waldau said, but he predicts bluer skies ahead.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest resource, and we keep forgetting that, is that we need each other,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat humans can do when we pull together, it\u2019s incredible.\u201d<\/p>\n In a video call from his home north of Copenhagen, Coster-Waldau \u2014 who will play William of Normandy in the upcoming \u201cKing and Conqueror\u201d series \u2014 discussed why George the Poet\u2019s podcast, miniature art and \u201c3 Body Problem\u201d have captured his attention.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n These are edited excerpts from the conversation.<\/p>\n 1<\/p>\n What he\u2019s doing is understanding who we are<\/a> by looking back in time. Now they can actually extract DNA from soil samples, so they picked down in northeast Greenland and were able to go back 2 million years<\/a>. And that means now you can see how this world of ours has changed dramatically many, many times.<\/p>\n 2<\/p>\n It\u2019s an amazing novel that I just revisited about Marstal, a small town in Denmark \u2014 a seafaring town, a fisherman\u2019s town \u2014 and the riders of freight ships from this town. It\u2019s a historical novel, but it\u2019s incredibly well told.<\/p>\n 3<\/p>\n That\u2019s my best friend Joe Derrick\u2019s music so please, to anyone who reads this, check it out. I\u2019ve known him my whole life, so a lot of the songs have so much meaning to me.<\/p>\n 4<\/p>\n I was out with a scientist in an area that was still not open, and we were in these hazmat suits, measuring. I said that to him, \u201cIs it true that no matter what, nature will just be fine if we take humans out of the equation?\u201d He said: \u201cWell, yes, but humans are also part of nature. We\u2019ve been here for so long now, and a lot of animals also depend on us. You take us out of the equation and suddenly we open up the doors for other predators.\u201d I never thought of it like that.<\/p>\n 5<\/p>\n George the Poet<\/a> is of Ugandan descent, living in London. It\u2019s brilliant. It\u2019s poetic. It\u2019s beautiful.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n 6<\/p>\n I do find it interesting that in a world where we absolutely want to have inclusion, we\u2019re creating so many more boxes to put ourselves into. Suddenly it doesn\u2019t seem very free and very open, but very the opposite. Have we taken over what we hate about algorithms in the way that we look at the world? That, without wanting to, we steer our focus toward what will confirm our bias?<\/p>\n 7<\/p>\n I\u2019d been to Africa before, but standing with a Maasai man<\/a>, walking over the Serengeti, then 50 giraffes suddenly come running past and the wildebeest is there and he\u2019s talking about the lions over there, and feeling the whole ground shaking \u2014 it was humbling.<\/p>\n 8<\/p>\n I am insanely excited about this show from two of the guys [Dan Weiss and David Benioff, with Alexander Woo] who did \u201cGame of Thrones.\u201d It\u2019s sci-fi, and this is how I understood it: We know that aliens are coming. They won\u2019t be coming for a long time, but they\u2019re going to come to take over. So how are we going to deal with this?<\/p>\n 9<\/p>\n There are so many incredible storytellers. If you want to watch a movie that will blow your mind, one film that really stood out to me and touched me massively is a Swedish film<\/a> by the Iranian Swedish director Ali Abbasi. I could also recommend his second feature, \u201cHoly Spider<\/a>.\u201d Brilliant.<\/p>\n 10<\/p>\nEske Willerslev and His Genetics Research<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u2018We, the Drowned\u2019 by Carsten Jensen<\/span><\/h3>\n
Them Keitels!<\/span><\/h3>\n
Fukushima, Japan<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u2018Have You Heard George\u2019s Podcast?\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n
Pondering Algorithms<\/span><\/h3>\n
Nashulai Maasai Conservancy in Kenya<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u20183 Body Problem\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n
\u2018Border\u2019<\/span><\/h3>\n
Small Is Beautiful NYC<\/span><\/h3>\n