Meeting your mates in the wrong place for a film - stupid. Not getting to the cinema early enough to get the best seat in the cinema (we all have a favourite) - stupid. Not going to the toilet before the film - very stupid, but it was fitting for the film I was going to see - The Age of Stupid. No, not a Jackass style film but instead an inspirational and who knows, maybe even world altering piece of cinema - starring Pete Postlethwaite as a man in 2055 looking back and asking a simple but devastating question: Why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?
Ushered into the screening at the Light in Leeds it wasn't the run of the mill 30 minutes of trailers before the film eventually starts. Instead, (through video link showing the premiere/press conference of the film in Leicester Square in London) it was the chance to be part of an event that has made it into the Guinness book of records for being the largest simultaneous film premiere ever. The film itself is a fascinating 89 minute-long piece that lets you take a step back on the last few years and see what has been 'staring us in the face' about climate change. I won't go in to too much detail, I don't think I could do it justice and it will be far more powerful if you go and see it for yourself.
The exciting thing about the premiere is it didn't finish when the film did. There was something special about seeing a politician being grilled (not literally) about the issues in the film he and everyone else had just seen. Even more so when another politician (President Mohamed Nasheed) had just stepped up to the plate and made the courageous promise that his country (the Maldives) would become carbon neutral in 10 years. I can't recall the last time I saw a politician squirming more than Ed Miliband was when asked the question - when will the UK become carbon neutral? You almost felt bad for Mr Miliband (almost), but at least he was there. And maybe the film has made him think a little differently.
The Age of Stupid has made me think about things again; got me fired up to be a part of the solution to the biggest challenge humanity has perhaps ever faced. It has made me question every aspect of my lifestyle. I think the best thing the film does is make the link between climate change and development. Leaving my computer on standby for a few hours could have an impact on someone on the other side of the world who has never used a computer; that is an important leap in thinking to make.
Small changes can make a big difference. I don't mind switching off something rather than leaving it on standby, but there are other things that are harder to change about our lives. Flying is surely one of the biggest lifestyle changes we are faced with. When I was younger we never flew anywhere for family holidays, it was either UK based or a ferry or train across to Western Europe somewhere. Now flights are common place and I've taken many more in the second half of my life than the first. Is it forgoing my moral duty to my fellow humans to continue this pattern? Is it immoral to have a trans-Atlantic relationship requiring flights across the aforementioned ocean when a flight to New York uses at least four and up to 11 times more carbon dioxide (depending on the figures you use), than a person in Bangladesh does in a whole year.
No, I didn't sleep well after The Age of Stupid but maybe that's what the film is setting out to do. Getting us to struggle with reconciling the lifestyle we lead with the lifestyle climate change is requiring us to lead. Get us thinking about the tough questions that need all of us; you, me and Ed Miliband need to step up and face head on. In a time when we want it all maybe the first step in saving the planet is accepting sometimes, we can't have it all.