So its time not to be stupid! The Maldives, under great threat from climate change,are the first country to pledge carbon neutrality within 10 years. Its the pledge of their sensible president Mohamed Nasheed, but he needs the rest of the world to take heed.
The crowd-source funded film and online campaign The Age of Stupid – a major new climate change film in which a man (Pete Postlethwaite) living alone in the devastated world of 2055 looks at old footage from 2008 and asks why people didn’t stop climate change when they had the chance – premieres this weekend, and should help the world become more aware of the plight of us all if we don’t make headway on climate change.
The cultural sector should be interested in this film for 2 reasons:
1. it crowd-sourced the money for its production – see their webpage about it;
2. it has developed a significant social network via the internet, and their supporters (link to One Climate network below);
3. most importantly, it is doing something about an issue without needing sign off/leadership/sign-off from funders or government. Unlike the Make Poverty History campaign, this will not be supported by government. Government will wait for the people to push them towards making serious pledges and taking action on climate change.
I believe that cultural organisations should get political on this issue: we have the communities and the medium through which to encourage people to think, be challenged, and have experiences that can change their lives.
If you can, watch the film, or join the OneClimate social network to link up with others in your area who are doing something.