I watched ‘The Age of Stupid’the other day and it didn’t quite do for me. It seems like there’s a limit to the amount of clips predicting our imminent destruction that I can happily watch. That limit’s about fourteen, by the way.
If you scream ‘THE BUILDING’S ON FIRE’ continually for ninety-minutes there comes a point when someone’s going to ask where the fire exits are. I only really counted one. It was a clip of George Monbiot talking about the need for massive civil action. Remember the fight against apartheid? The Civil Rights movement? The suffragettes? These are the blueprints that we have for turning back egregious problems. These are the footprints we must follow, marching in crowds of millions, forcing regime change, being ready to die.
And that’s the problem. There may be plenty of people dying as a result of climate change already, but is anyone up for becoming a martyr for the cause? Will anyone lay down their life for 2 degrees? Would any of us go to the grave for the right to have the luxury of our consumerist lifestyles utterly depleted?
No. I didn’t think so. Not yet, at least.
nothing is written 