“The Age of Stupid”

By Britt Perkins

The Age of Stupid posits that the world as we know it is over by 2055 due to climate change and asks the question “Why?”. Why did we not change when we had the chance?

One of the main merits of this documentary is the “sexy factor.” No, I’m not referring to the primary character, Pete Postlethwaite, though he is quite talented.

Just the sleekness of the film itself. It’s not a jumpy, Blair Witch piece. It’s got CGI, baby.

But it also has tremendous value in its stories. The narratives feature diversity, focusing on a wealthy Indian businessman, a charming French glacier guide, young Iraqi refugees and a Katrina survivor/Shell employee among others.

It tugs at your heartstrings. It also gives first-person accounts from across the globe that need to be heard.

Listening to statistics and seeing diagrams about the impact flying has on the environment, I start to feel guilty about planning a visit Asia.

But it’s this overwhelming sense of guilt, yet a nagging feeling I’m still missing something that makes “The Age of Stupid” incomplete.

It provides a lot of information and insight, no doubt. It also has the possibility to galvanize. But listening to feedback in the panels afterward makes me wonder if it’s not stimulating apathy more than action.

One attendee responded that if we only have until 2012 or 2015 to change the way we’ve been living for the past century, we don’t have a chance. Is it even worth trying? A chorus of voices said that the point is not to give up but to keep moving in the right direction.

But we are not shown in this film how the positives add up. Instead we are crushed with the various ways we commit suicide every day.

The filmmaker, Franny Armstrong, clearly intended to give people a shocking wake-up call. It’s clear she also intended for people to feel like they can do something about climate change, hence the campaign 10:10 which aims to reduce individual emissions by 10 percent in 2010.

So don’t succumb to the gripping paranoia you might feel as you flush. In the end, this should open the door to better educating oneself and changing behavior