Bear Grylls scores a ‘guesting coup’
BEAR Grylls with US President Barack Obama
When Bear Grylls first announced that his next celebrity guest and coadventurer on his next “Running Wild” telecast would be no less than US President Barack Obama, we thought it was just wishful thinking on his part.
After all, we had watched, with open mouths, his previous nature treks and tests on TV, where stars like Zac Efron and Kate Winslet had to surmount “impossible” challenges that pushed them past the brink of utter exhaustion and extreme danger. Why would Obama ever agree to subject himself to that?!
Well, when we finally caught “Running Wild” last month, it turned out that Grylls’ proud announcement was no hollow boast—Obama did do the show with him—but, in deference to his coadventurer’s age, stature and safety, the “extreme” program host didn’t force the Prez to “kill” himself in an effort to triumph over and “conquer” nature at its steepest, rawest and harshest!
For his part, the US Chief Executive agreed to do the show not to prove that he was still tough and macho despite the fast-greying hair, but to use it to “push” his key agenda involving the environment, global warming and other key advocacies.
The “exchange deal” enabled Grylls to obtain the unusually strong TV ratings he wanted, while Obama got the opportunity to share his concern about our planet’s threatened future with millions of
viewers.
Yes, he could have just gone on global television on his own, but “Running Wild’s” more visual and “challenge”-oriented format enabled him to make his points much more dynamically—and convincingly.
In the process, Obama did get to be more active than usual in the great outdoors and gave his advocacies involving the environment a persuasively human face!
And his willingness to figuratively and literally go out on a relatively more risky limb showed how important it was for him to convince many viewers to act against the threatening scourge of global warming—while there’s still time!
The US Prez also disarmed viewers and delighted Grylls by “cooking” him a meal in the wild, grilling a salmon that had been slapped out of a river and half-eaten by a bear!
For “dessert,” the impromptu outdoor cook even whipped up a tasty if soot-coated confection involving grilled marshmallows!
Turning more serious, Obama shared that, in the course of his two-term presidency, he had tackled a lot of weighty national and global problems, but most of them paled in importance and urgency to the world’s worsening environmental issues.
To illustrate the critical turn that the problem has taken, the trek ended at the foot of a once-gigantic glacier that has been receding at a shocking rate due to our planet’s rising temperature!
With this stark evidence and proof for a convincing visual background, the telecast urged viewers to act collectively and individually to prevent the world from heating up further.
We trust that the viewing public was effectively and successfully convinced and will from now on give the worsening crisis the attention and action it deserves!
