Age of Stupid
Reviews:
Stephen Schneider
Michael Wehner
Film Synopsis 1 2
Recommendations by
ClimateChangeEdu.Org
North American Theater Premier:
May 2009,
San Francisco
Who Was There
Photos 1 2
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Recommendations -- by Climate Change Education.Org
Based on several film screenings, discussion with the film director,
plus conversations among scientists, educators, artists and students:
For Teachers/Educators For Artists & Filmmakers
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Recommendations for Teachers / Educators:
The Age of Stupid powerfully brings together stories deserving of a wide audience.
We were quite eager to screen this film, given its promise. Motion pictures have the ability to take the audience into the future, to experience the Earth as it could be, to compel one to confront the choices one makes, knowing their effect on the planet as it soon will be.
Regrettably, this movie comes with a very serious flaw -- especially in how it has been marketed. The director has repeatedly made statements that it is likely that climate change will bring about the extinction of the human species by the year 2055. Further, it is claimed that this is a projection made by the mainstream science community.
Carefully developed climate models, based on evidence, are already quite alarming -- there is no need to resort to such exaggeration. We do not take issue with an artist describing their own vision -- perhaps of a world where problems compound, leading to a planet even more damaged than climate scientists project.
It is false science, however, to attribute to scientists projections that they have not made.
Much in the film aligns well with science models, but science is sacrificed for salesmanship with this prominent we're-all-gonna-die pitch.
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For university level students and the general (adult) audience, we recommend that this flaw be pointed out, and criticized. Yet, one might note that there are strengths to this film which make it nevertheless worthwhile. We feel Dr. Schneider's comments are very wise.
For K-12 schools, however, we cannot recommend The Age of Stupid. Our standards must be high. A movie that promotes such false scientific claims is best avoided.
Fortunately, there are a number of excellent motion pictures and television shows that are well suited for the schools on climate change -- including several that accurately depict an Earth transformed by global warming, as actually projected by scientists.
Television On DVD, VHS, Blue ray
-- ClimateChangeEducation.Org
Recommendations for Artists & Filmmakers
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Two films on climate change, co-presented by
SFIFF and Climate Change Education .Org,
in
May of 2009:
Age of Stupid [North American Premier]
A Sea Change [West Coast Debut]
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