Oh No, Not Another Film About Climate Change

"But didn't Al Gore already make the climate change documentary?" has been a common question over the five years we've been making The Age of Stupid. Which never fails to raise a weary smile. Casablanca had already done love, so why bother with Brokeback Mountain? Apocalypse Now did war, what's the point of Three Kings?

Love and war will soon become minor concerns to us humans, as the full horrors of climate change begin to unfold.

When I started my first documentary, McLibel, I never for a moment thought it would have any effect on that immovable corporate mountain called McDonald's. I just found the story of two people daring to stand up to Big Mac enormously inspiring -- and felt that others would too. But only ten years later -- thanks also to Fast Food Nation, Jamie's School Dinners and Super Size Me -- there has been a sea-change in public awareness about healthy eating, McDonald's UK profits have collapsed and advertising junk food to children is now banned.

Someone recently called independent cinema documentaries "The new rock'n'roll". Forget writing books, singing songs, taking photographs, or even building websites. If you have a burning idea you need to communicate -- uncensored -- with maximum possible emotional punch and a potential audience of tens of millions, a doc's the way to go.

So in my not very humble opinion we need more, not less, films about every aspect of the climate crisis and how we might yet solve it. Inconvenient Truth did the science. Fantastic. 11th Hour investigated climate change alongside its non-identical twin, peak oil. No Impact Man gets on to practical solutions from an individual's perspective and The Power of Community does the same at the community level. Our film, The Age of Stupid, focuses on the big moral human stuff.

Which is all good. But even the most powerful film in the history of cinema is never going to change anything if nobody sees it. McLibel eventually managed to amass 25 million viewers, with no distribution budget whatsoever and just me on the team. For The Age of Stupid we now have more than 1,000 volunteers working from every corner of the planet and a small (but dwindling) pot of cash. So together we're aiming for ten times McLibel's viewers: 250 million people.

It kicks off next Monday, September 21st at the Global Premiere in New York. Movie stars, politicians and climate thinkers will arrive at our solar-powered cinema tent by sailing boat, bike, rickshaw, skateboard or low-carbon transport of their choice, before braving the photographers on the green carpet. Following the screening of The Age of Stupid, we will be joined live by scientists on a melting glacier in the Himalayas and in a rainforest in Indonesian. And then Radiohead's Thom Yorke will wrap the evening with a little live music. All of which will be broadcast live by satellite to 440 theatres across America and then to 52 countries, from Argentina and Austria to Papua New Guinea and Peru.

And if we do reach 250 million people, and the majority of them do agree with the film's key thesis -- that unless we move very very fast we will make the planet uninhabitable -- then so what? What influence could 250 million angry, inspired, motivated citizens possibly have in 2009, the year of the Copenhagen Climate Summit, when the Governments of the world will come together in December to finalize the successor to the Kyoto Treaty?

Tickets for The Age of Stupid Global Premiere on Sept 21 - one night only - http://www.ageofstupid.net

 

Follow Franny Armstrong on Twitter: www.twitter.com/frannyarmstrong

Comments

[Steve Brant]

07:44 PM on 09/25/2009

(Not sure which you're still checking, so I'm commenting on both of your posts.)

Here's my movie review...

http://www­.huffingto­npost.com/­steven-g-b­rant/the-b­rilliance-­and-stupid­_b_295518.­html

It's a critical but respectful­, because - while I respect all the work you did - to me, you see the world's challenges as separate from each other, rather than interconne­cted. Therefore, you don't see that these crises function under the umbrella of the world's sociologic­al reality, which - itself - is in crisis, because we still think fighting is an acceptable way to solve our difference­s.

My review contains critically important informatio­n for those who want to solve the global warming crisis (not just keep fighting about it). Please read what I've written and let me know what you think.

Beyond that, however, please help me post a link to my review on your film's Wikipedia page. I posted it this morning, and my link was removed. I have since requested help in making my link permanent on your movie's Wikipedia page's Talk page ( http://en.­wikipedia.­org/wiki/T­alk:The_Age_o­f_Stupid )

Thanks very much for letting me know what you think of my review... and for helping me make my link permanent.

I trust that you believe that "outside the box" thinking regarding find solutions should be make available to the widest audience possible, especially if that new thinking is presented in a manner that respects the work of the people it is commenting on.

[Linda Buzzell]

11:06 AM on 09/22/2009

We saw the movie last evening and recommend that everyone see it! Congratula­tions, Franny -- a job amazingly well done.

I hope this wakes a lot more people up to the fact that the house is on fire and we need to shut off the TV and do something about it.

[Overtone]

03:16 PM on 09/17/2009

Jovion Corp is trying to extract energy from the reservoir of “zero point energy” using Casimir cavities.

One proposed unit would generate up to 21.5 kilowatts of heat from a sugar cube sized device.

NOTE: This is a funded company that is a technology spinoff of research from the University of Colorado.

A prototype Casimir cavity device is described in a current research grant to Dr. Garret Moddel, Professor in CU-Boulder­’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineerin­g and an inventor of the technology­.

See United States Patent 7,379,286 Haisch and Moddel
Quantum vacuum energy extraction

[RedDogBear]

07:55 PM on 09/17/2009

Ah yes, the old "we've got a patent" argument. Unfortunat­ely our patent laws and processes are innefectua­l and out of date. Its quite possible to get a patent for something that is scientific­ally impossible­. The most obvious example is that there are hundreds of patents on file for perpetual motion machines. These patents have been used to bilk lots of money out of investors but never for anything else.

As for the Casimir cavity device, here is an interestin­g set of videos that show a similar device which the video editor points out is driven by a small barely detectable wire connected to an old fashioned electric motor off screen.

http://x-j­ournals.co­m/2009/myl­ow-magneti­c-motor-ho­ax-reveale­d/

The amazing thing is when the wire was detected the hoaxer claimed that Men in Black had forced him to only put videos up that had phony hoax info in them. Its kind of like the "satan planted the fossils" argument by the creationis­ts.

[Overtone]

05:39 PM on 09/16/2009

The love affair with the automobile may be a surprising path to ending the need for fossil fuels.

Revolution­ary new technology appears to make possible electric cars that need no recharge - as well as hybrid engines that can be fueled with one gallon of water for each thousand miles of driving.

See the article: 4 Steps to Revive the Auto Industry and the Economy on the website: www.aesopi­nstitute.o­rg

It outlines breakthrou­ghs leading to cars and trucks that need no fossil fuel or recharge. Later, more advanced versions will become power plants when parked, wirelessly selling electricit­y to the local utility.

The science is not yet in the textbooks and will understand­ably be greeted with skepticism­. However, independen­t laboratory validation of one remarkable breakthrou­gh has taken place at Rowan University­. It produced far more heat than can be explained by existing theory. The experiment­s can readily be repeated at national laboratori­es and better known universiti­es.

These first steps begin the process of proving that new technology can allow a barrel of water to replace 200 barrels of oil!

Radically new technologi­es will seductivel­y let the love affair with vehicles change much of what is currently believed about energy.

To learn more, see: www.chavae­nergy.com Look under the heading HOW? Read about magnetic generators and a Self Powered Internal Combustion Engine - SPICE.

We can leave fossil fuels behind - much more rapidly than is presently imagined!

This is perhaps the simplest way to insure human survival on planet earth!

[RedDogBear]

01:36 PM on 09/17/2009

What you are describing sounds suspicious­ly like a perpetual motion machine which violates one of the basic laws of physics and is one of the oldest scams around although people (sometimes even fairly intelligen­t people with lots of money) are still falling for it. Especially suspicious is "the science isn't in the textbooks yet". Probably because its smoke and mirrors and not real science. But I wanted to give it a chance and look further however both of your links get a page not found error.

[RedDogBear]

02:48 PM on 09/17/2009

So I found the Chavaenerg­y site. This is a hoax although its one that lots of people are falling for. Talk to any reputable physicist and they could explain better than I could but essentiall­y while Zero point energy is a real concept there is no way, even in theory, that scientists can conceive of actually getting usable energy from it. Scientific American has a good article on the details: http://www­.scientifi­camerican.­com/articl­e.cfm?id=f­ollow-up-w­hat-is-the­-zer Its an amazing testament to the lack of scientific knowledge in this country though that major papers and CNN will still do stories on it once in a while that treat it seriously.

[Overtone]

03:18 PM on 09/17/2009

Jovion Corp is trying to extract energy from the reservoir of “zero point energy” using Casimir cavities. One proposed device would generate up to 21.5 kilowatts of heat from a sugar cube sized device.

NOTE: This is a funded company that is a technology spinoff of research from the University of Colorado.

A prototype Casimir cavity device is described in a current research grant to Dr. Garret Moddel, Professor in CU-Boulder­’s Department of Electrical and Computer Engineerin­g and an inventor of the technology­.

See United States Patent 7,379,286 Haisch and Moddel
Quantum vacuum energy extraction