The archive · Content & Film · Marketing decision · 2023–2024
UN Global Compact revives Carl Sagan's 1980s warning via tape-driven animal automatons
A UN Global Compact film gives Carl Sagan's 40-year-old global-warming warning a new life, with animal automatons driven by his original voice on magnetic tape.
United Nations Global Compact
What it had to solve
In the mid-1980s Carl Sagan warned of global warming's risks; forty years on, the warning had not been heeded, and UN Global Compact — more than 20,000 members across 64 countries — wanted to prompt reflection on an urgent issue among global decision-makers.
How it works
In the mid-1980s Carl Sagan warned of global warming's risks. Forty years later the warning still needed to be heard, and the United Nations Global Compact — more than 20,000 members across 64 countries — wanted to prompt reflection on an issue that had only become more urgent.
The film is guided by Sagan's original voiceover, the authenticity no actor could replace. To give the words a body, it depicts wild animals as automatons driven by an old recorder's magnetic tape — the message itself rendered as a machine still running on its original medium.
UN Global Compact promoted the film online and featured it at events, notably during the United Nations General Assembly and at COP28, in front of 500+ global executives.
Carl Sagan Message made a decades-old warning physically move again, and the work is held in the D&AD awards archive.
Why it lands
- Sagan's mid-1980s warning proved prescient, which makes replaying his own words more powerful than any new script.
- Using his original voiceover gives the film authenticity and a direct link to the moment the warning was first made.
- Automatons driven by magnetic tape make the age of the message visible: the warning is literally still running on its original medium.
- Screening at UNGA and COP28 put the film in front of the global executives whose decisions the warning was about.
What it did
The film carried a 40-year-old scientific warning back into the rooms where it mattered: it featured at UN General Assembly and COP28 events attended by 500+ global executives, and the work is preserved in the D&AD awards archive.
What you can take
An old warning needs a new body: making Sagan's message move again through the obsolete machines of his own era turned datedness itself into the argument.
Since then
Carl Sagan Message gave the UN Global Compact a way to make a forty-year-old climate warning move again — literally, through automatons powered by Sagan's original recordings on magnetic tape. Promoted online and screened at UN General Assembly and COP28 events with 500+ global executives present, the film is preserved in the D&AD awards archive.
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