Is Humanity Suicidal? A review of The Age of Stupid

by Heidi Stevenson

See the trailer for The Age of Stupid.

A man has lost all his possessions to Hurricane Katrina, revs up his jet boat—and says he's an enviromentalist and ecologist. An African woman whose life has been devastated by an American oil company wants, more than anything, to move to the U.S. and be just like Americans. A wealthy man in India, who is building a low-cost airline, the greatest carbon polluting industry, says his life goal is to eradicate poverty. A woman self-righteously fights against wind power, then claims she cares about global warming. This is The Age of Stupid.

Coming back from the premier of The Age of Stupid, I was all fired up. And that's the point of the movie. We cannot afford to wear blinders or be apathetic. There simply isn't any time left for shillyshallying, for boondoggles, for apathy. We must act. Now! It isn't optional. We cannot wait for our politicians or rescue by technology. Apathy isn't an option—unless you don't care whether there's a future for you, your children, or your grandchildren. Or the rest of Gaia's life.

As my reaction demonstrates, The Age of Stupid is brilliant, a powerful and compelling testimony to the reality and effects of climate change. Literally opening with The Big Bang, a very brief history of the universe, the earth, life, and humanity in roughly accurate relative time to 2055, you are swept along, taken into images of an already devastated planet, leading to the inescapable conclusion that we're plunging headlong into mass suicide. It doesn't, though, leave you feeling helpless. Rather, you're empowered. If humanity can do the great things that have been accomplished, if we can go to the moon, then we can solve this. But there's no time to waste. We need to be cognizant of our own involvement and power. We. Are. Not. Helpless.

After the film, a short and casual program was organized by the director, Franny Armstrong, and producer, Lizzie Gilbert. Pete Postlethwaite, who played the only acting role of The Archivist, kicked off a new campaign, Not Stupid. His choked-up voice proclaimed that, if the British government does not do the right thing at the upcoming world climate conference in Copenhagen, he will return his Order of the British Empire to the queen and will never again vote for Labour. The Labour Party's Ed Miliband, given an opportunity to rally support for dealing with climate change, made an utter fool of himself by advocating the fraud of "clean" coal, nuclear power and claiming that continued economic growth is necessary. The audience was gracious, but Miliband knew that he'd bombed.

The president of The Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed, spoke via video of his country's intent to "be the first carbon-neutral country in the world...If the world can't save countries such as The Maldives today, we won't be able to save places such as London, New York, Hong Kong tomorrow." He said we must, "decarbonize the entire world economy." In the end, he declared, "Please don't be stupid." You can view that video here.

This was the kickoff of the Not Stupid campaign, which helps people learn how to be active, urging nonviolent actions and marching. The critical importance of the Copenhagen summit was made clear: If an effective agreement is not reached, the last opportunity to stop the temperature from rising out of control will likely be lost.

How long do we have before climate change accelerates completely out of control? We are, at most, 100 months away from the drop-dead date for turning it around. As the movie makes clear, we won't see the results quickly. It takes 30-40 years for today's actions to be seen in the climate. Yes, that means it's going to continue to warm up, no matter what we do. However, we can prevent an increase of 2 degrees Celsius over the world temperature prior to the Industrial Revolution. Although we will see more droughts, more flooding, more hurricanes, and more natural disasters no matter what we do, it is within our control to prevent uncontrollable temperature acceleration, which would rapidly lead to utter disaster—the extinction of humans and most, if not all, life on earth.

We have the power to bring Gaia back to health. Won't you be part of the solution? Go to the Not Stupid site and sign up for their newsletter. Pick at least one of the active climate change organizations, sign up, and start doing things. Vote politicians who won't place going carbon neutral at the top of their priorities out of office. Write letters. March in the streets. If you're involved in any green group, make sure that climate change becomes a major focus.

Franny Armstrong has succeeded brilliantly with The Age of Stupid. It presents the global warming issue in a compelling and entertaining manner. More importantly, it has made the case for both the critical need for action by massive numbers of people now and believability in our ability to succeed. Please, see this film at the earliest opportunity, and get busy. There's no time to waste.