An Alarm From 2055: Act Now to Save the Earth (NY Times - 7/17/2009)

An Alarm From 2055: Act Now to Save the Earth

This article was a review of the movie "The Age of Stupid." The movie foretells the doom of the world if humanity continues its "age of stupidity" and continues to effect climate change with our evil ways, complete with terrifying scenes of destruction! The review explains the featured interviewees and supports the movie's warnings with vivid figurative language and lauding character descriptions. I thought this movie touched on the generational thinking we mentioned in class, in fact giving another name to our generation, and discreetly highlighted the rhetorical strategy that we'd be more likely to support the point of view of faces of authority (because who could disagree with the aged - surely wise! - "craggy-faced British actor Pete Postlethwaite"?). To me however, the movie's format seemed too much a dooms-day prophet's theatrical attempt to horrify and despair rather than a useful tool of education. While the review lists various learned people who appear with climate change messages, the messages are tainted with the idea that it might be "too late to act." However, its use of rhetoric to convey its message is admireable.