Yesterday the global premiere of 'The Age of Stupid' took place in over 700 cities around the world. Among them was Copenhagen, the venue of the COP15 Climate Summit in Decemer 2009. After the end of the thinkaboutit kick-off with our study trip to the Dyssekilde eco-village, I was one of a handful international bloggers who had found their way to the screening at the Copenhagen Planetarium aptly organized by Greenpeace Denmark.

Ever since I saw 'McLibel', I was looking forward to seeing the next work by Franny Armstrong. I wasn't dissappointed. 'The Age of Stupid' is big cinema. It spans the entire history of our planet from the Big Bang to a not too distant point in the middle oft the 21st century, when the world as we know it is devastated by climate change. The custodian of the 'World Archives' who guards the artefacts of an almost extinguished human race zaps through footage from our days that makes climate change evident, but also the failure to address it timely. The focus is on this period - 'The Age of Stupid'.

By showing individuals in different parts of the world and how they are affected by climate change, try to fight it or fail to do so, the film spans the entire planet geographically, too. Ferdinand, the 82-year-old mountain guide in Chamonix, who has witnessed the dramatic melting of the Mer de la Glace, Layefa Malemi in Nigeria, who wants to study medicine, but has to sell Diesel in bottles to come by, or Alwin who drilled for oil all his working life and saw his home being destroyed by Katrina.

Alwin:
"With our use or misuse of resources the last 100 years or so, I’d probably rename this age something like the age of ignorance, the age of stupid." His material loss has seemingly teached him: "Happiness is more than the newest gadget."

This statement reminded me strikingly of our experience in Dyssekilde, expressed in the discussion by Raymond: "We started out talking about climate change and ended up at happiness.". The Film manages to put climate change into perspective. With other global issues as well as with the quest for a good life on an individual level.

The discussion after the screening was mostly about the question, if the film is effective in convincing more people to throw in their weight and voice for a good deal at Copenhagen. Devin's doubt was that the bleak scenario lacks the hope that it's possible to change anything. This reasoning is based on the figure of Peirs Guy, who develops windparks in the UK and can be seen as a 'failure'. His project in Bedford is turned down by the planning commission because of a mob of NIMBY neighbours.

For me, the film worked in this respect also on the emotional level. Personally it made me angry, how ignorance managed to sabotage a step towards sustainability. But I can understand that many would want to see a Søren Hermansen in such a film to foster hope in the success of alternative models, such as the Danish renewable energy showcase island Samsø.

In the light of the until recently ongoing rise of carbon emmissions (remember, this Film was written before the onset of the 'crisis') it is a realistic representation of the situation we're facing. It's summed up by Peirs Guy: "Exactly the opposite is happening of what needs to happen." The conclusion explicitly drawn in the movie is:

"Direct action is essential. Politicians are only going to go as far [in Copenhagen], as the people force them to."

The urgency is underlined by the end a fast-forward tour de force through an apocalyptic scenario of the 45 years to come, if we don't manage to change course. 'The Age of Stupid' is a central element in the joint campaign efforts of several non-governmental organisations to build a strong movement for "a fair, ambitious and binding agreement" at COP15, as Mads Christensen director of Greenpeace Nordic demands it. The platforms notstupid.org and tcktcktck are part of these efforts, undertaken by a number of mostly NGOs. (See list of tcktcktck-Partners and notstupid-Supporters for clarity.) Especially notstupid.org has nifty features designed to draw people into action, by providing them with specific informations on their countries climate record and public figures to address.

The multiplication of activities and new campaigns shortly before Copenhagen was also critically discussed yesterday evening. Let's instead appreciate the cooperation that makes these sizable campaigns possible. Now is definitely a period in time where individual or organizational vanity is un-called for. Translating this idea to our group and small think2-platform, let's try to increase our overall impact by cooperation. We have a Wiki that we can put to common use, eg in technical matters (editing, flip aso) and we should make sharing of rawmaterials for posts such as photos, video-footage or social bookmarks a method to facilitate our common effort.

The Age of Stupid Global Premiere Trailer from Age of Stupid on Vimeo.