The Age of Stupid (Part 1)
Sunday, 15th March 2009, marked the world premiere of a hard-hitting docu-film called “the Age of Stupid”.
It’s a movie you will hear more and more about and takes our current, corporate, actions to their logical, environmental and social conclusions in 2055.
To find out when and where you can see it, just Google it; there’s lots of info on the net and I won’t waste space here in going into the details.
The occasion was used, among other things, to put Energy & Climate Secretary Ed Miliband on the spot at the end of the presentation - which is what I want to discuss here.
I’m not known for being the greatest proponent of the political incumbents but even I felt somewhat uncomfortable about the way Mr Miliband was pushed into a corner by the producer, a feisty young lady called Franny Armstrong.
This was followed by a session where the star of the film, Peter Postlethwaite, started the pledge process by vowing to return his OBE if the UK government fails to secure urgent and drastic global decarbonisation at Copenhagen and, if Kingsnorth went ahead (the proposed new coal fired power station in Kent which will use carbon capture and storage technology), he declared that he would vote for anyone in the world apart from Labour.
It was political theatre of the kind we have not seen since the John Lennon ‘bed-in’ at the end of the 60’s; the problem with that kind of protest is that speaks only to a small section of the public. Most of us are willing to protest if driven hard enough (and we are obviously not suffering enough yet, since we are hearing a lot… but seeing precious little as far as carbon reduction is concerned).
Not that the movie does not have a serious message; not only are we depleting our natural resources at a rate that will, if left unchecked, result in no more business activity, as we currently recognise it, in +/- 40 years, but the rate at which our carbon burn is raising the mean planet temperature means that life itself as we know it will be dramatically different… I’m just not sure that Mr. Postlethwaite’s threat is the most effective way to solve the problem.
I mean, does he really believe that any other party will really be any more effective? The Tories are noticeable by their silence and the Liberals have yet to prove themselves in this century – in anything. The prospect of a Green party, whether in control or in alliance, making a difference fills most of the business community with dread.
And all this high theatre actually does is to detract attention from the fact that the business community needs to act - and act now.
You should find the time to and see the movie; it will affect you deeply since the majority of the newsreel footage is taken from the recent past and will resonate with anyone who has ever, even cursorily, watched the news over the past few years. The message cannot be denied, but please don’t be put off by the messenger and do nothing. That really would be stupid.
