Film Review: The Age of Stupid

 

 
RIGHT NOW, WE ARE IN


 

           “We could have saved ourselves. But we didn’t.” Why not? That’s because we are living in an “Age of Stupid”. We know about melting Arctic, rising sea levels, and various climate changes. However, what do we, people proud of the developed technology, do about them? Simply, nothing. We are aware of global warming, but we aren’t at the same time. It’s a paradox. The film, “The Age of Stupid”, gives us the answer for what we should do NOW. Looking from 2055, in the Global Archive, the answer seems very simple. We should take our chance, maybe the last chance, to stop the global warming.

         

        The film was astonishing in various ways.

          Firstly, countries are having ‘war for resources’. To full their greed, humans kill each other, and try to dominate other territories. In the past, European countries colonized over many continents to get natural and human resources. However, the trend has changed recently. Now, people are fighting for oil. There’s great conspiracy that the Iraq War happened because of oil companies who wanted to pursue their profit. (By the way, Iraq has a large amount of oil). As these rich countries get control of oil industry in the developing countries, they cause another environmental pollution there. Barrels of oil are produced each day, “But instead of we (developing countries) being rich…we are getting more poorer.” (0:22:33)

                            "War for Resources" -from "The Age of Stupid"

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This leads to another point that I found shocking, which is about unfair distribution of resources. The countries are racing to the bottom. The countries are so much focused on economic development rather than the environment. The rich countries are very selfish, and the fact that the United States didn’t sign the Kyoto Protocol well explains it. When these countries keep using the energy and keep polluting the earth, the situation will not get any better. The allocation of the natural resources are very unfair since the US and many other European countries are taking more than majority of them, leaving little drops for African and other developing countries to use. When the film showed about dividing the cake, I realized that the status quo is quite serious than it seems.

                              Neighbors against the Wind Spin -from "The Age of Stupid"

  In addition, I was shocked by the unawareness of the people. A man named Piers Guy appears in the film “The Age of Stupid”. He supports the wind farm, and also develops the wind turbines himself. Piers Guy promotes the windmill project in Central England, but he cannot overcome the severe opposition by other people in the town. The people know the seriousness of global warming, but they simply don’t want that because it will destroy the view. Then, why aren’t people not being active to develop a new alternative energy and hence prevent the global warming? According to Mark Lynas, it is not that we are not aware, but that we just don’t do. Our efforts to save the environment do not show up in a short term. Rather, it usually takes about 40 to 50 years. It is now time to wake people up from their dull attitude toward the environment.

           I think what this film tried to show us was very clear: we need to take our chance to save ourselves from the global warming. It is such an inconvenient truth to find out that seven to ten meters of ice on Mon Blanc are melting every year, and climate changes occurring. A family visits Mon Blanc, and finds endless ladders to the bottom. Fernand Pareau is a living witness of the melting glaciers, and the ice is melting in an astonishing rate. Also, climate changes are occurring, and Hurricane Katrina is a good example. It was such a catastrophe to the USA, and the main reason for the climate changes is global warming. More ice will melt, and more climate changes will happen if we just let everything be.

          We need to choose. Should we keep developing our  technology, or should we now start preventing global warming? We seriously have to care about global warming. Countries are racing to the bottom, and people living daily life are doing nothing to prevent the global warming. We need to be more alert, and save the earth. We don't want our Earth to melt. We don’t want to make a big storage in 2055. Then, another question appears. What should we do to stop global warming? The answer is simple. Do ACT.