The film, starring Peter Postlewaite, is set in 2055; when a man, living in a tower (which contains the entire world’s knowledge) sits above the now defrosted Arctic and recounts the path which led the human race to this point.
We then travel back to the current day, the age where we could have changed things, when we had the chance. The narrative style switches to a patchwork documentary where we follow the stories of six people, and their experiences with climate change.
First, there’s an alpine guide in his 80’s that still takes tour groups up and down Mont Blanc. Then there’s a young Nigerian woman whose dream is to become a doctor. There’s an Indian entrepreneur that’s launching a budget airline, attempting to tackle the problem of long travelling times in India. There are the two Iraqi children, that because of the war for Oil at home, they’ve been forced to become refugees in Jordan. There’s a British wind farm developer, who works tirelessly against the forces of stupid in Bedfordshire. And then finally there’s a New Orleans palaeontologist and Katrina survivor who still works for Shell.
As the by-lines of these stories suggest, the film unabashedly tells its story through emotion rather than the ‘An Inconvenient Truth’ lecture style. This shock to change approach is very effective, meaning you can be assured you’ll leave the cinema pissed-off and inspired. Unfortunately though, as the film shows, probably not inspired enough to do anything.
That’s the most concerning thing that comes through the film; the way that people simply do not care. Countless times we hear older generations berate youth as lacking in morals and living a life of carelessness while they sit holding the power to act against climate change, do nothing and then send us to oblivion with their irresponsibility.
A group of international children that spoke from Copenhagen in a video message following the screening put it simply and disarmingly:
“When climate change starts to affect our world in dramatic ways we will be the same age as you are now”.
Unfortunately these eleven year old children are not in charge of our world and the reality is that yes, old and comfortable men and women are holding the conk, they are going to have to go against the conservative and predictable political response of inaction, and start taking up some future accountability.
Another infuriating moment of the film was when Piers Guy, the British Wind Farm Developer, clashes with the residents of Bedfordshire as he applies for council approval to build 12 wind turbines on private land. What then follows will lead the most non-violent person to find feelings of pure anger and the urge to punch an old lady in the face.
As you can imagine, the amazingly affable Piers loses his approval on the grounds that the aesthetics of the area would be compromised. blood pressure rises dramatically. Then we get to see the old-lady-screaming-to-be-punched otherwise known as the leader of the anti-wind-farm-brigade being interviewed outside the hearing, she says:
“Do I care about climate change? *hysterical laugh* (then with complete sincerity) Of course I care about climate change, we all care about climate change”.
The irony of what she’s saying scarcely needs to be pointed out, but what does is that we are doing nothing and if we continue this way, the apocalyptic world of 2055 will be made a reality.
Considering this, what is the next step? Kevin Rudd has stated that he will reduce emissions by 5% and is willing to go higher to say 12%. This is complete rubbish. 12% is 28% short of what we need our targets to be if (if?!) we want emissions to stabilise and then eventually drop to safe levels.
The current government as most of you would know is doing a very good job of green washing, casting out projections as uncertainties. So what could be the motivation for rescinding on pre election promises of Carbon targets? Fear of lobbyist groups, public outcry at potential tweaks in the comfortableness of their lifestyles, a desire to rub bellies with big old Uncle Sam?
As the knowledgeable voice over stated in the film:
“The American Government is not in the pockets of the oil companies, it IS the oil companies”
Is there a solution? Well in the same way we saw secularism infect Europe and bring about a separation of State and Religion, so too now do we need to see another rift come about; the tearing of government and the private sector.
Not too much to ask? In the event that the government isn’t going to provide the solution The next port of call must be the people, and people being able to pressure their governments into action.
This invariably leads us to the all-too familiar global day of action against climate change, and 350.org. The movement encourages full community involvement, as a rallying point for those committed to climate change. Suitably placed before Copenhagen it begs the question whether people still have the ability or care enough to facilitate action.
Unfortunately, probably not going to do much, when you have to contest with the advocates, the lobbyists and the ministers of stupid.
The Age of Stupid premiered in Sydney on Wednesday night and is to be followed with premieres in the US in September. Click View for more information.