March 31st, 2009 | Climate Change, Events, International Action, Locals Taking Action
So…How Was It For You?
“The Age of Stupid” came to Ludlow on 31 March, introduced by the man himself, Pete ‘Archivist’ Postlethwaite. We’d like to know what you thought of it. Leave us a comment and/or just vote in our Opinion Poll on the right below.
The film is set in 2055, when the world is in a right old mess, with P.P. (the Archivist) looking back to real news footage from 2008 and asking ‘Why didn’t we do something when we had the chance?’ Why not indeed…
‘Age of Stupid’ sort of topped the rankings in its first week, taking more cash per cinema than any other film - it only showed in 20 cinemas, but it also came 14th overall in terms of total viewing, which is pretty good. The more people who see it in its first couple of weeks, the more chance it has of reaching more of the 476 cinemas that showed “Marley and Me” in the same week; and here’s a rash forecast - we bet ‘The Age of Stupid’ eventually gets seen by more people than ‘M & M’, even if it takes a lot longer to get there…
There’s a 15 minute documentary on the launch itself, with comments by Ed Miliband, Mark Lynas, Alistair Campbell and others. Click here to see it.
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It’s in your face, and it doesn’t pull any punches. For my money, ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ was better, but then I’m old and I prefer a quieter, more leisurely form of argument. This film shouts at you and demands you do something to avert climate chaos, even if it’s only wiping the smile off the faces of those NIMBYs in Berkshire who got a wind farm stopped because it would spoil their view.
The danger is that faced with the evidence in this film, one may be inclined to feel helpless and hopeless. We can’t let that happen.
If you’re a parent get your local school to show it to the kids. It’s scrappy, noisy and gives it to you straight. They’ll get the message. If they don’t, it will become their problem, not mine…
Yes the film does hit you between the eyes but that’s what we need. Comfort zones will be a thing of the past if each and every one of us doesn’t wake up to the fact that we can make a difference and slow Global Warming down. If by 2015 we haven’t got carbon emissions under control there will be very little comfort for third world countries who are already suffering from the effects of climate change and citizens of the U.K. will have a far less comfortable life. Scary stuff, YES but it is reality and even in Shropshire small changes to our climate are beginning to happen.
If every citizen in the U.K. and the other industrialised nation made a real effort, discovered their personal CO2 emissions and took meaningful action to reduce them, then our grand children will not need to ask “why, Grandad / Grandma, when you knew our climate was in trouble and had been told the consequences of inaction, didn’t you do something about it.”
Time to stop talking, time to start doing something positive.
It really isn’t that difficult and citizens in our community are beginning to show the way, cutting chunks off their carbon footprint. The challenge is on to persuade all the others who don’t like their personal comfort zone disturbed to begin to act responsibly as well.
Honestly the film made me want to run away and find some sand to stick my head in.
But I won’t because I do care and I can do something.
I’ll keep doing something because, I’m determined that no one is going to be able to point their finger at me and say “You did this!!!”. Some cliches are true and if you’re not part of the solutions you’re part of the….. I let you fill in the blanks.
I just feel really sorry for the NIMBYs in Bedfordshire and the other nay sayers. It will be their fault if (or even when) it all falls apart and they didn’t do anything.
You try and live with that.
I think the way this film has been produced and marketed speaks volumes about those involved - low budget, participatory, featuring real people. I found it powerful and hard hitting (though last night’s audience were generally the ‘converted’). For me the best bits were the running together of news headlines from the past couple of years and the tour guy describing the changes to ‘his’ glacier over 30 + years.
I suspect the key messages could be condensed into a 30 minute version and shown in every school and college in the country for maximum impact.
I like the fact that it doesn’t tell anyone what to do - just the consequences of doing nothing as the human race faces catastrophe within the next generation.
The film failed to identify that a raft of technoligies were available to combat climate change - not just wind turbines. Although an interesting concept looking back the film failed to identify any achievable goals - therefore no hope.
To inspire action there should have been some positive messages.People have the power to influence government and the ability to adapt to new technologies and lifestyles.
Sacrifies could and should have been made to avoid the disasters depicted in the film. The cost of developing the solutions to mitigate against climate change would have been huge.
The film clearly indicates the result of doing very little but more importantly will it inspire people to act now - I have my doubts.