That’s the trailer for a new movie called The Age of Stupid, which opens Monday. It stars Pete Postlethwaite, a wonderful British actor who will look familiar if you saw either The Usual Suspects or In the Name of the Father, two fabulous movies. He plays an archivist living in 2055 who looks back at the 2000s and wonders why we didn’t save the world from climate disaster when we had a chance. I haven’t seen the movie but here’s an excerpt from a capsule review in the L.A. Times.
Think “An Inconvenient Truth” but with a personality, numerous ones actually, as Armstrong hops the globe interviewing an intriguing cross section of folks — a Hurricane Katrina victim, a British wind farm developer, an aspiring Nigerian doctor, an elderly French mountain guide, a wealthy Indian entrepreneur and an 8-year-old Iraq war refugee — whose lives have all been affected by some aspect of the global warming phenomenon. Their stories vividly highlight the various tentacles of the climate change problem and, in some cases, its potential solutions.
I had a chance to talk with the director Franny Armstrong about the movie. There’s digital video of our interview, below. It’s not 60 Minutes quality–the q-and-a begins 10 seconds after the video starts rolling, and although our conversation lasted four minutes, the tape rolls on for another two–but it will give you a sense of why she made the movie, how she financed it, and what she’s doing to get people out to their local movie theaters on Monday. You can find out where the film is playing, near you, at the Age of Stupid website. I hope the movie reaches a big audience.
Building more wind farms and more solar projects — and as soon as possible, see Joel Makeower’s “5,000 Days” post from March 2009 — is a huge part of the solution to the climate change problem. However, environmentalists are blocking these projects’ development across the U.S. because a wind turbine might hurt a bird or a solar panel might hurt a desert turtle. Folks, ALL wildlife and humanlife is at risk of survival if we don’t do something TODAY to get more renewable energy up and running and producing the clean energy the planet desperately needs. Environmentalists and public officials are constantly saying, “we support wind and solar development but just not here in (name the county/state/place).” NGOs who are blocking renewable energy project permitting and construction through negative publicity, protests, lawsuits and threats of lawsuits are completely missing the big picture and ensuring our dependence on coal lasts even longer. Environmentalists that block RE projects aren’t looking too smart today and they certainly won’t look any smarter in 2055. Can’t wait to see the movie!
You make a great point. Fortunately, I heard recently that reports about opposition to wind farms are overblown. They are hard to site in New England and Pennsylvania, to be sure, but still welcomed by the midwestern states where wind power makes the most sense.
The real challenge in terms of generating low-carbon energy comes when we think about nuclear power. If climate change is the greatest challenge of our time, shouldn’t we as a society find a way to make nuclear power work–by managing the admittedly difficult issues of cost, proliferation and waste disposal?
It will be interesting to see whether this film reflects on the (tempted to write “stupidity” here, but will be kind) folly of our current certainty that we can continue growing our economy and increasing our population as long as we just power it with renewable energy.
Dave Gardner
Producing the documentary
Hooked on Growth: Our Misguided Quest for Prosperity
I’m looking forward to seeing the movie tonight!
Stupid is a mean word.. but the reality is really stupid
Saw the film last night and was seriously impressed with the edgy quality and BIG yank on heartstrings and wallets. The connection between climate change and consumerism is clear and correct.