New video out from Plane Stupid. What do you think?
Warning: it's a little bit graphic.
Polar Bear from Plane Stupid on Vimeo.
It's very well made, although I'm not a great fan of polar bears as the defining icon of climate change. Perhaps a video with African children falling out of the sky is too strong even for this lot, which is fair enough.
Annie Leonard and co. (
Adrienne Mayor (
Ed Howker and Shiv Malik
Floella Benjamin (
Mark Watson (
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Clive Lord (
Nickie Roberts
4 comments:
If it's meant for the general public I think it's really obscure. Who knows what 400kg of greenhouse gases is, and why exactly that would kill polar bears?
Also, as you say, very graphic; polars bears are a bit of an old and odd icon; and it's all quite detached from everyday considerations.
I have seen a lot of positive comments about this video but I don't think it's going to convince many people and achieve much.
Nobody gives a shit about polar bears. Maybe I do, maybe you do, but until people start seeing environmental issues as human issues that will directly affect them. Even African children probably wouldn't do it for some people.
I'm gonna write a blog post about this very soon because it's vital.
I feel mean being critical of it because it is well made and certainly well intentioned but I can't help but agree with the comments.
The weight of the CO2 is a particularly good point and we should think about that in other contexts too - I tend to talk about more/less emissions rather than specific numbers partly because I think it's hard to relate to a tonne of something in the atmosphere and partly because I just think the main point is the need to reduce carbon emissions rather than the specific numbers (unless you're a scientist obviously).
I think Simon's point is particularly telling in the week when we've had the UK subjected to record rainfall destroying the infrastructure of Cumbria and leaving a number of people dead - and they're pulling the issues back to polar bears.
I guess my main worry is what is this intended to achieve? Is it for the unconvinced - that seems unlikely. Is it for the already converted so they take action on their convictions - if that's the case, what action?
It is a very clever, well made video - but perhaps they've not thought about the concrete outcomes they are trying to achieve and have just done what they wanted to do - which ultimately may make themselves feel good about themselves but little else.
Anyway, I hope the next one is as well produced, but with more thought behind how it can be effective.
As promised... http://simonchilds.blogspot.com/2009/12/nobody-cares-about-climate-change.html
Better late than never, eh?
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