The Age of Stupid
I'm for just about anything that helps to get the message of global climate change out there; and, despite some technical glitches, the global premier of the documentary "The Age of Stupid" Monday evening, using satellite hook-ups in over 700 theaters to create a "one world" feel to the proceedings, definitely added to the immediacy and sense of urgency around the issue.
Unfortunately, the theater here in Los Angeles where I attended the screening was only about a quarter to a third full, and the crowd tended to thin out as the discussion at the end of the film proceeded. There were some interesting sparks flying between the film's combative director, Franny Armstrong, and a high level British government minister over Britain's "weak tea" proposals to the upcoming climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December, but generally, the parade of celebrities didn't contribute a whole lot to the evening, except perhaps to raise its profile somewhat.
As for the film, I found it to be a bit of a mixed bag. While its message was clear, its combination of documentary storylines (intercutting between an oil engineer's Katrina ordeal; the efforts of a wind turbine advocate in England; the lament of an old mountain guide, witnessing the disappearance of the glaciers in Chamonix; the quest of a young Nigerian woman to become a doctor amid the desolation the oil industry has wrought in her country; and the efforts of a wealthy entrepreneur hoping to eliminate poverty in India by opening a cheap domestic jet service) was fragmented, the remains of an earlier incarnation of the film modeled on Steven Soderbergh's "Traffic". The resulting movie, with its (kind of cheesy CG) post-apocalyptic interstitials, felt like a compromise "fix" - a justification for showing us these stories in bits and pieces, and mixing them up with animated presentations of, for example, the history of resource wars (which you can see online here: http://vimeo.com/5915882).
In short, the film has an important message: we've got roughly six years in which to bring the rate of greenhouse gas emissions to a standstill and start them on a decline by weaning industrial society off fossil fuel use, or we risk passing temperature tipping points that may end the project of civilization and the lives of many other species in the bargain. The upcoming negotiations in Copenhagen represent a "do or die" moment; we almost certainly will not get another chance to make the changes necessary before what scientists are targeting as a 2015 deadline. And the likelihood of a truly effective agreement happening in December isn't looking all that good at the moment.
There are a couple of organizations that were promoted at the screening, and they're worth checking out online. The campaign most clearly associated with the film itself can be joined at http://www.notstupid.org/ They will help you organize your own screenings of the movie.
You can also join their 10:10 campaign (a pledge to cut 10% of your carbon emissions in 2010) here: http://www.1010uk.org/
You can add your name to a petition urging delegates to the Copenhagen negotiations to get serious, conducted under the banner of an organization called "tcktcktck" here: http://tcktcktck.org/people/i-am-ready
And you can sign up to participate in (or organize) one of hundreds of demonstrations that will be occurring on October 24 under the aegis of Bill McKibben's 350.org here: http://www.350.org/
Unfortunately, the theater here in Los Angeles where I attended the screening was only about a quarter to a third full, and the crowd tended to thin out as the discussion at the end of the film proceeded. There were some interesting sparks flying between the film's combative director, Franny Armstrong, and a high level British government minister over Britain's "weak tea" proposals to the upcoming climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December, but generally, the parade of celebrities didn't contribute a whole lot to the evening, except perhaps to raise its profile somewhat.
As for the film, I found it to be a bit of a mixed bag. While its message was clear, its combination of documentary storylines (intercutting between an oil engineer's Katrina ordeal; the efforts of a wind turbine advocate in England; the lament of an old mountain guide, witnessing the disappearance of the glaciers in Chamonix; the quest of a young Nigerian woman to become a doctor amid the desolation the oil industry has wrought in her country; and the efforts of a wealthy entrepreneur hoping to eliminate poverty in India by opening a cheap domestic jet service) was fragmented, the remains of an earlier incarnation of the film modeled on Steven Soderbergh's "Traffic". The resulting movie, with its (kind of cheesy CG) post-apocalyptic interstitials, felt like a compromise "fix" - a justification for showing us these stories in bits and pieces, and mixing them up with animated presentations of, for example, the history of resource wars (which you can see online here: http://vimeo.com/5915882).
In short, the film has an important message: we've got roughly six years in which to bring the rate of greenhouse gas emissions to a standstill and start them on a decline by weaning industrial society off fossil fuel use, or we risk passing temperature tipping points that may end the project of civilization and the lives of many other species in the bargain. The upcoming negotiations in Copenhagen represent a "do or die" moment; we almost certainly will not get another chance to make the changes necessary before what scientists are targeting as a 2015 deadline. And the likelihood of a truly effective agreement happening in December isn't looking all that good at the moment.
There are a couple of organizations that were promoted at the screening, and they're worth checking out online. The campaign most clearly associated with the film itself can be joined at http://www.notstupid.org/ They will help you organize your own screenings of the movie.
You can also join their 10:10 campaign (a pledge to cut 10% of your carbon emissions in 2010) here: http://www.1010uk.org/
You can add your name to a petition urging delegates to the Copenhagen negotiations to get serious, conducted under the banner of an organization called "tcktcktck" here: http://tcktcktck.org/people/i-am-ready
And you can sign up to participate in (or organize) one of hundreds of demonstrations that will be occurring on October 24 under the aegis of Bill McKibben's 350.org here: http://www.350.org/