Age of Stupid Review

The Age of Stupid is a documentary film that also shows what will happen if nothing is done about global warming. The images of famous sites that I have show have been created with the data of mainstream scientists to show what will happen if there are no changes made. Set in 2055 Pete Postlethwaite is an archiver that is looking back on footage up to 2009(the year it was released). This footage includes a man trying to set up a wind farm, a Indian man setting up a new airline, a French Mountain guide that has witnessed changes in Mt Blanc, a hero who has survived hurricane Katrina, a Nigerian community that let shell drill for water and destroy there land, children that have lost there father through the Iraq war after being killed.

When the film starts and shows the famous locations in 2055 it is a very powerful introduction because that image is placed in your head and if you think it is bad with the flooding and bad weather at the moment these images make you think that looks so much worse. With the use of Pete Postlethwaite as an archiver and a narrator as well as the interactive screen it makes the film feel more interactive and you are not just sitting in front of a screen.

The documentary starts with an Indian man trying to set up India’s third low cost airline called goair , this being the equivalent to easy jet. Most of his employees have never been on a plane, don’t know about hijackers and don’t know how to put out a fire. I feel that this part of the film show greed due to the fact that India already has low cost airlines and if the whole world is trying to lower its emissions why do we need more airlines.

Then the documentary moves onto a part about a French guide on Mt Blanc, the guide being 85 he is the oldest still working. He has lived there all his life and the fact is that the glacier has melted 150 metres since 1945, then another 7 to 10 metres in one year. This part shows great sadness within people that have lived close to beautiful landscapes all their life and now just because people are not willing to make changes other people must suffer.

The film then moves onto a man that did not flee from hurricane Katrina but stared her in the eye. The film said you can never directly attach hurricanes to global warming but there are linked through sea temperature. Alvin then rescued over one hundred people and their pets. This part shows that every body can help you just have to cut your emissions to stop more disasters like this.

The film then moves onto Nigeria where the Shell oil company drilled for oil and destroyed the homeland of the native people. This includes making the water filthy therefore fish are dirty when caught making native ill. This part shows greed and sadness because Shell saying they would help the natives then just making there home land even worse.

There is then an interesting animation showing how over time substances have been fought for until oil was discovered. Then that was the substance to have and it leads on to say that that is what the Iraq war is over. This leads onto a pair of children that have had their father killed through the war, and to survive they repair broken shoes and sell them on. I find that this is another part that shoes greed due to who own the oil.

The last feature of the film is that of a wind farm being set up in Bedfordshire with 15 turbines. Only locals like the idea of renewable energy just not on their land, stupid comments come out like they will hypnotise people when driving to stop the turbines going up. Facts come out that if all the wind farms that were planned went up it would account for 10% of the UK electricity. This part of the film shows that there is stupidity in the UK because we are all willing to use other sources of energy but as long as it is not in my back yard.

After watching this film it has opened my views on global warming even more. This is because I have been shown what other people are like and what will happen, by using those images at the beginning it make you think is that what it will look like. I also find that the use of figures of cash against time a very powerful move for example …

In 2005 the rate that oil was being sold was …

• £13 billion over the year of 2005
• £1.5 million an hour
• £400 a second

I also found it interesting that the author of six degrees said that if the planet rises by 2 degrees this will happen…

• The warming process will go out of control
• Carbon will start coming out of trees
• Methane will come out of the frost in Siberia

These events combined will speed up the heating process

Also to find out that the Bush administration current or former cabinet members that including George Bush that half of them have now made it big in oil.

What I found most interesting in the documentary that never even comes to my mind was that everything needs oil. Such as products and food for transportation, that was something that never even crossed my mind when thinking about my carbon footprint.

To conclude I think that The Age of Stupid is a film that everybody should see because it is a film that stops you in your tracks and think about your emissions unlike these 3 minuet slots in the news. Also it shows the greed of businessmen and government in our world.