The Age of Stupid, 2009 spanner films, director Franny Armstrong, Producer Lizzie Gillet, editor David G Hill, composer Chris Brierley, exec producer

The Age of Stupid starring Pete Postlethwaite is set in the post apocalyptic year of 2055. He is the only living human left, existing alone in a global archive containing all the worlds art works, pickled animals, films, books, and all of our scientific data. The world has been devastated by the effects of global warming and climate change, the state of which is a result of our actions today. All of this information is based on the scientific facts we have available to us currently, and is a true projection of what the earth will come to if we carry on with the life styles we are leading. The film poses the question “We could have saved ourselves, so why didn’t we?”

Using real news and documentary footage, the film follows the lives of 7 people and the events leading up to the predicted year of critical mass 2015. It shows us the characters contributions to the carbon foot print and the connections between all of them, whilst asking the viewer to reflect on their own.

The first of the individuals is an 82 year old Mont Blanc climbing guide Fernand, who has witnessed the melting of the mountains major glacier formations first hand, dropping by a staggering 150meters since 1945 to date. He says “People in the future will blame us for not thinking, we know how to profit but not to protect,” something I believe we should all think about. At this point the viewer is introduced to Piers and his family, a wind turbine engineer whom Fernand is guiding across the mountain. Piers and his family live in Cornwall England trying to live as a far as possible a self sustaining life style reducing each of their carbon emissions to 1 tonne a year as opposed to the British average of 10. He has campaigned for wind turbine sites only to fight opposition from residence, who “don’t want to spoil their view.” The process can take years and all the time put in goes against exactly what needs to be done; time doesn’t appear to be on our side. If 80% of the proposed sites went ahead without sabotage or opposition they would provide 10% of the Worlds energy!

Next the hurricane hero Alvin, a Shell Oil scientist helping the £400 a second company find new areas of oil. Alvin was a victim of hurricane Katrina the most intense weather system to hit New Orleans at the time, the severity of which was caused by higher levels of surface sea temperature. He went onto rescue over 100 local residences, who otherwise would have received no aid as forces needed for rescues were stationed in Iraq. This leads the viewer onto 2 other paths, One to Nigeria where Shell has made much of its profits, and to the war in Iraq, where the reason for American occupation is largely to do with its conquest for oil.

In Nigeria we meet Layefa, a 21 year woman old who has aspirations of becoming a doctor. She shows the viewer the extent of the exploitation caused by Shell, who promised to donate 13% of profits to the local economy. Out of the million barrels produced no money has been injected into the local economy. In Iraq Adnan and his Sister Jamila talk of their Fathers death as a result ofAmerica’s war over areas of oil. Adnan swears to kill any American he meets to avenge his father’s death.

The last of the characters is Jah, an entrepreneur who is starting an airline in India promising cheap flights (as low as 1 rupee.) He believes flying shouldn’t be an elitist activity and everyone in India should be able to afford to fly. This kind of activity can only be seen as progression, a theme the film picks up on as one of the main issues of our down fall, we always want more. Our greed for a richer life style means consumerism has dominated the world.

Postlethwaite’s character asked “why didn’t we save ourselves when we had the chance? We destroyed ourselves knowingly.” He answers with asking whether deep down as a race, were we unsure we were worth saving? The film doesn’t have the answers but certainly shows us the causes of our future demise. It’s a warning, if we don’t do something now then we are doomed, and it is certainly one of the clearest well presented, and informative warnings on climate change I have seen, and left me asking questions about my own lifestyle, what I can do, and can I enforce deeper realisation through my own practice?