The Age of Stupid is a 90-minute film about climate chaos, set in the future, which had its world premiere in London on March 15th 2009. Oscar-nominated Pete Postlethwaite (In The Name of the Father, Brassed Off) stars as a man living alone in the devastated world of 2055, looking back at "archive" footage from 2007 and asking: why didn't we stop climate change when we had the chance?
THINKING OF CHEATING ON CLIMATE CHANGE?
or just IGNORING THE ISSUE ALTOGETHER?
Some background here: Sometime in 2006, experts believe, China surpassed the USA as the world's top emitter of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping
gases. China thus attained the dubious distinction of having the leading role in driving climate change. The CCP (Chinese Communist Party) has no plans
to reduce coal-burning, arguing that coal is cheap, and that the nation is entitled to experience the same coal-fired Industrial Revolution phase that
Western nations passed through. China is fast becoming a toxic time bomb: it has some of the world's most polluted cities and rivers due to tonnes of
sulphur dioxide being spewed out from the country's coal-burning factories and coming back as acid rain. In fact, China is home to 20 of the world's 30
most polluted cities.
Tibet is on life support, but Dr Hu doesn't give a toss
Timeline 2050: entire snowcaps have been reduced to bare rock; the Yangtse and the Yellow have been reduced to a trickle, but the ghosts of engineers
carry on building new dams regardless
AVATAR'S PARALLEL WORLD
You may know more about the movie Avatar than you do about mining in Tibet, but the movie offers uncanny parallels to the situation on the
Roof of the World. Tibet is the largest colony in the world. Tibet is under military occupation by Chinese troops. Tibet is being ruthlessly exploited
for its valuable minerals, against the wishes of the inhabitants, who deeply resent what is happening to their land.
In Avatar, the action takes place some 150 years into the future, on a distant moon called Pandora. Here, rapacious foreign CEOs and
military figures seek a mineral of astronomical value called unobtanium. The only thing stopping them in this endeavour is the blue-skinned
Na'vi, who refuse to allow mining on their sacred ground. Tibetans have, throughout their history, prevented mining of their land—which they
regard as sacred. Today, there are many valuable minerals being extracted in Tibet by Chinese and foreign companies. And one alone would qualify for
the status of unobtanium. That's lithium. Lithium is used for making batteries for computers, cellphones and many other gadgets. And lithium
is a very rare mineral, in very short global supply. Tibet is one of the prime sources: lithium is extracted from lakes in some places. In fact, you
probably carry a tiny piece of Tibetan lithium around in the battery of your laptop, iPod, cellphone or other device.
Although Avatar was released in China, the film was quickly pulled from all 2D cinema screens, leaving the 3D version only. Chinese
officials most likely did not care for the subversive political message of Avatar: many Chinese have been kicked out of their homes by
property developers—or to make way for major engineering projects. The film has never been screened in Tibet. It could spark riots there:
Avatar is told from the point-of-view of indigenous people who defy invasion by a colonial power and, against all odds, manage to vanquish them.
