Movie Time: The Age of Stupid

[biffvernon]

Things have to change before the December Copenhagen conference. We have eight months to convince the governments that they will not be voted out of office if they do the right things in December. Action culminates in the London march on December 5th, but we need to be mindful of the lack of notice taken by our government of the pre-Iraq War march. Getting two million on the streets is not enough. We have to be Not Stupid.
Point illustarted

 

[Flyfisher]

We have eight months to convince the governments that they will not be voted out of office if they do the right things in December.

Surely it's the voters who have to be convinced, otherwise who will vote out the governments?

From one of those links:

Travelling to Paris by train is Not Stupid

Paris remains the top destination from Heathrow airport, despite the fact that we built a tunnel under the sea to get there.

Where were the "Stupid" campaigners when the tunnel was actually built? I'd like to see some numbers regarding the (environmental) cost of all that tunnel engineering, massive associated infrastructure and huge annual running and maintenance costs compared with flights between two existing airports. We already know that cement alone is responsible for about 7% global carbon emissions - about twice that of all transport and shipping combined - and imagine how much was used to build the tunnel and its associated railway infrastructure. Even if the airports were not pre-existing, the environmental cost of two strips of tarmac would be massively less than building a completely new railway system, not to mention that the railway is only point-to-point and therefore very inflexible. The environmental cost (per passenger) of an individual Eurostar trip might be less than an equivalent flight (although think of all that coal-fired electricity), but that's not really the whole story is it?

I'm beginning to think that the railway industry employs the same PR people as the uPVC window industry.

Perhaps it would be Not Stupid to discourage international travel altogether - but what are the chances of that succeeding?

 

[skier-hughes]

........ the environmental cost of two strips of tarmac would be massively less than building a completely new railway system,

A little simplistic, I should imagine that there is possibly some concrete under the tarmac?

 

[CHRIS]

........ the environmental cost of two strips of tarmac would be massively less than building a completely new railway system,

A little simplistic, I should imagine that there is possibly some concrete under the tarmac?

They dont use Tarmac on runways they Slipform Concrete.

http://www.britpave.org.uk/assets/pdfs/techdata/airfield/tgs_a1.pdf

http://www.leica-geosystems.com/media/new/product_solution/rep_eng_heathrow_en.pdf

This was how it was done on the new apron at T5, this is a much quicker way as the setting out is fully automated and is less prone to weather problems.

 

[Flyfisher]

Apologies, I was using 'tarmac' in its colloquial sense; I realise tarmac alone would not be strong enough.

But whatever they use, they only need about 2 miles at each airport compared with a 300 mile rail link plus a 22 mile concrete tunnel, plus all those other bridges, tunnels and cuttings etc.

 

[biffvernon]

You'er making the mistake of not starting from where we are. The tunnel is there. The runways are there. Any embodied energies and CO2 emissions are water under the bridge and must be disregarded when deciding tomorrow's trip to Paris.

(Why go to Paris at all?)

 

[Pford75]

(Why go to Paris at all?)

Well, Paris in the Spring is a wonderful city in my opinion. Some marvellous architecture, fantastic art, culture and museums. The Louvre, sandwich jambon on the banks of the Seine, le Sacre Coeur, Opera Garnier, les tuileries, The Picasso museum, Pompidou centre, Notre Dame, The Rodin museum....and many, many more.

Sure, we could all sit at home..go nowhere, experience nothing of the fantastic culture on offer around the world, but this is hardly living in my opinion.

I've had the good fortune to travel a lot with my work, but nothing comes close to a sunny Spring day in Paris

 

[biffvernon]

Excellent. Let's all go to Paris.

Thinking Allowed started with a piece from The Age of Stupid this afternon: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/thinkingallowed/

 

[CHRIS]

plus a 22 mile concrete tunnel, plus all those other bridges, tunnels and cuttings etc.

Which much has to replaced and fixed due to the fire last year.

Yes but how cool is the tunnel compared to Heathrow - Just the whole experience is better. I had the joy of using T5 at Christmas and it was soul destroying.

 

[Flyfisher]

You'er making the mistake of not starting from where we are. The tunnel is there. The runways are there. Any embodied energies and CO2 emissions are water under the bridge and must be disregarded when deciding tomorrow's trip to Paris.

Fair point, but it doesn't seem to stop us building new rail infrastructure and, of course, the airports were all there before the tunnel was built and I don't remember any anti-tunnel campaign.

Why go to Paris? Good question. As Pford75 rightly says, it's a great place to visit, but then so are many other places, many beyond the scope of a practical rail journey. And that's surely part of the problem; the world really is a small place these days and air travel is eminently affordable for billions of people. Never before have so many people been so able to travel around the globe and so, naturally, they do. I can't see that particular genie being voluntarily coaxed back into its bottle.

As for flying to Paris, I entirely agree with Chris that the tunnel is a far better experience, as long as you live within easy distance of London. Any rail journey under 3 hours or so is better than flying really, given all the hassle at the airports; unless someone else is paying for a business/first class ticket of course. :wink:

 

[yamin]

Would this be a bad time to let you guys know I am flying to New Zealand in a week? I guess I'm villified enough round these parts by some people, so I may as well be hungs for a sheep as a lamb! I have a sister out there I haven't seen for 3 years - does that offset it at all?

 

[Flyfisher]

Haven't you heard of video conferencing? Use Skype and a webcam and save the planet almost single-handed. Or, go by train. :wink:

PS: Have a great trip!

 

[yamin]

:lol: Train, what a great plan! With maybe a rowing boat for the watery bits?

 

[Flyfisher]

Now you're being silly - there are ferries you know. :wink:

 

[yamin]

Never let it be said that I'm not prepared to make the effort!!

 

[biffvernon]

air travel is eminently affordable for billions of people.

Hmmmm....for just how many billions is that acually true? Not the billion that live on a dollar a day. And then the ticket price does not cover the cost of environmental destruction.

(Actually I think rather more attention should be given to burning coal for electricity and cement making, things that are more destructive than air travel.)

 

[yamin]

8) Sneaking in, incognito, to say I agree with you Biff! Wholeheartedly and without rancour or argument. Now theres one for this weeks record books! :wink:

 

[biffvernon]

Never any rancour on this forum. e-mail from the Director:

Morning,


I'm stranded in Dublin. Not, as it turns out, because I forgot to bring my passport - was relatively easy to blag through immigration claiming complete incompetence (hadn't realised my trip from London to Belfast included a whole other country). But because of too much wind cancelling the return ferry. Goddamn low-carbon travel. Add to that a new dongle that was supposed to hook my laptop onto the net wherever we may be - but instead decided to corrupt all my email after I'd just got 4800 messages down to 35. Now I'm back to 6000 messages to sort and no way of knowing which I've already replied to. So an extremely annoying three days.... even though the 35 minute Q&A in Belfast went well...


There's only one film at the top of the UK charts this week and it ain't the lesbians, the slumdogs, the watchmen or the labrador... see for yourself on the UK Film Council's website: http://www.ukfilmcouncil.org.uk/15333


OK, so we're not top as in total tickets sold, but check out the all important "site average" column which takes into account the number of screens a film plays on. On a per-screen average we have trumped all the big-budget releases. Even those in the their first week of release. We took double Duplicity (which stars Julia Roberts!), three times Lesbian Vampire Killers (which has blanket advertising on every bus and every billboard in the land) and twice Il Divo (which got the best reviews). (We had a little help in that the Film Council decided to count the premiere tickets as part of our opening weekend, but we're certainly not complaining.)


After the premiere, 14 additional cinemas immediately booked Stupid for the following weekend, including multiplex sites at Odeon and Vue. We then took 101,752 from our opening weekend (inc the premiere), compared to 64,000 for Inconvenient Truth and 252 for 11th Hour. Four cinemas extended for another week after the opening weekend: Odeon Panton St, Sheffield Showroom, Bristol Watershed and Rich Mix Bethnal Green. And The Gate Notting Hill and Greenwich Picture House moved their bookings forward so as to open the film in its second week and capitalise on the buzz.


We've been travelling round the country speaking at as many cinemas as possible and have been getting amazing feedback. Three cinemas said they'd had their highest ever pre-sales (for any film they've ever programmed). And Bristol said we've rewritten the rules for how an indie film can be released.


I can't think of any explanation for this complete triumph other than pure people power: more than a thousand people have now contributed to the success of the film. The production crew, the investors, the premiere crew, the premiere speakers, the NGOs, the volunteers, the release-week speakers, everyone who has donated a few quid and everyone who packed action packs or handed out flyers.


In other news:
- 23 more speaker events confirmed for the next two weeks: http://www.ageofstupid.net/speakers
- Pictures from Miliband vs Armstrong Pt II. Video coming soon: http://www.ageofstupid.net/news/tricycle_showdown_miliband_vs_armstrong_round_two
- "The Rage of Stupid". Fearsome debate raging after a Guardian blogger laid into the film: http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/filmblog/2009/mar/23/the-age-of-stupid


Gotta to run to see whether the 8.05 ferry is sailing. May or may not make it to Sheffield tonight.


See you,
Franny




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[Schoolmarm]

Ed and Franny;


"Persuasion

Ed is quite insistent that he has to persuade voters to welcome and encourage climate mitigation policies before they can be enacted. Franny wondered about how the smoking ban fitted in with that analysis. Everyone in the audience wondered how the third runway fitted in with that analysis, given the overwhelming public opposition to that particular high-carbon government policy."



Brilliant.

 

[biffvernon]

A poem.

And I know there is probably no God, but Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, is clearly not stupid. Here is the speech he gave yesterday:
http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/2351