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Alexander Skarsgard Explains the Answer to Everything. (It Involves Doing Some Math.)

Partha Dasgupta is a Cambridge University economist who in 2021 prepared a more than 600-page report for the British government about the financial value of nature.

Not your average bedtime reading.

But believe us when we say his report, the culmination of decades of scholarship, is incredibly important. Or at least believe the United Nations, which awarded him the title Champion of the Earth for his work. Or King Charles III, who this year made Mr. Dasgupta a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the British Empire — an extremely rare honor — for his services to economics and the natural environment.

Mr. Dasgupta’s voluminous study is so important, that we decided to publish a short film about it, the Opinion video above. To make his complex review digestible, the film employs old-timey cartoons, some cursing, a clip of Boris Johnson in a hard hat while dangling from a cable, a very apt soccer metaphor, a bit of Strauss and a title that could be viewed as an exaggeration.

We even hired the Swedish actor Alexander Skarsgard to help simplify its concepts and convey why the report is, if not required reading for everyone, at least something everyone should know about.

Nathan Grossman (@nathangrossman) Tom Mustill (@tommustill) and Cecilia Nessen are filmmakers.

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