Earlier this week we screened climate change film the Age of Stupid, around 90 local people turned out to see it which is great!
Below is the review I wrote for my weekly column in the Evening Telegraph, Shades of Green...(it's in the ET every Saturday in the Life section).
This week Peterborough Environment City Trust screened climate change film the Age of Stupid as part of the Green Festival. It stars Pete Postlethwaite as a man living alone in the devastated future world of 2055, looking at old footage of 2008 and asking: why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance? The film follows the stories of six people around the world and reveals how the effects of climate link them all.
A pitifully poor Nigerian woman is juxtaposed with a fifty year old American man enjoying the benefits of a gluttonous oil company salary: early retirement. She is shown fishing, working to pay for the medical degree she so desperately wants. Her meagre catch (two under-sized fish) is the effect of oil spilt in the river. An ongoing problem which Shell hasn’t bothered to sort out despite enjoying billion dollar profits from Nigerian oil. Meanwhile our cheerful early retiree relaxes in his boat with a beer, catching an abundance of large fish which he releases back into the water; his freezer is fully stocked with supermarket bought fish.
Oil is a finite resource which will only last for around 40 more years. Nevertheless, the oil business is set to gain enormously if we keep consuming rapidly rather than looking for alternative ways to power our world. You can’t help but cringe when the camera catches one Shell employee describing the moment you strike oil, “you can smell it straight away and it smells so much like money it’s delicious.”
The film highlights the vested interest that world leaders (particularly in America) have in oil. Why are American cities designed so it’s impossible to get around without a car? Why was investment in electric cars scrapped? Why where railway lines across the US torn up?
My favourite bit of the film was annoying wind farm woman. So determined not to have a wind-farm built where it might spoil her view that she rallied a team of equally annoying cohorts to oppose the turbines. When asked why she didn’t want the wind-farm she responded ‘this is one of the least windy parts of the country’. Cue film-makers gleefully cutting to an earlier scene where she raises concerns that it will be too windy to put up their protest air balloon.
After the wind-farm is rejected by the local council she is asked whether she thinks climate change is an important issue, “Yes of course it is; it has to be the most important issue we face. I try to do my bit.”
The film left me feeling awed by how huge the problem we face is. But also inspired that my efforts to be green do make a difference. It’s frustrating that whilst less than 1% of scientists doubt that climate change is a result of human activity, 60% of the general public STILL think climate change could just be a big myth. It’s time we all worked together, many hands make light work.
A pitifully poor Nigerian woman is juxtaposed with a fifty year old American man enjoying the benefits of a gluttonous oil company salary: early retirement. She is shown fishing, working to pay for the medical degree she so desperately wants. Her meagre catch (two under-sized fish) is the effect of oil spilt in the river. An ongoing problem which Shell hasn’t bothered to sort out despite enjoying billion dollar profits from Nigerian oil. Meanwhile our cheerful early retiree relaxes in his boat with a beer, catching an abundance of large fish which he releases back into the water; his freezer is fully stocked with supermarket bought fish.
Oil is a finite resource which will only last for around 40 more years. Nevertheless, the oil business is set to gain enormously if we keep consuming rapidly rather than looking for alternative ways to power our world. You can’t help but cringe when the camera catches one Shell employee describing the moment you strike oil, “you can smell it straight away and it smells so much like money it’s delicious.”
The film highlights the vested interest that world leaders (particularly in America) have in oil. Why are American cities designed so it’s impossible to get around without a car? Why was investment in electric cars scrapped? Why where railway lines across the US torn up?
My favourite bit of the film was annoying wind farm woman. So determined not to have a wind-farm built where it might spoil her view that she rallied a team of equally annoying cohorts to oppose the turbines. When asked why she didn’t want the wind-farm she responded ‘this is one of the least windy parts of the country’. Cue film-makers gleefully cutting to an earlier scene where she raises concerns that it will be too windy to put up their protest air balloon.
After the wind-farm is rejected by the local council she is asked whether she thinks climate change is an important issue, “Yes of course it is; it has to be the most important issue we face. I try to do my bit.”
The film left me feeling awed by how huge the problem we face is. But also inspired that my efforts to be green do make a difference. It’s frustrating that whilst less than 1% of scientists doubt that climate change is a result of human activity, 60% of the general public STILL think climate change could just be a big myth. It’s time we all worked together, many hands make light work.
Find out more about the film...
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