Lessons in stupidity
Liverpool pupils will be getting to grips with climate change thanks to a British film which won international praise.
The Age of Stupid, which received critical acclaim when it was released in 2009, is to become part of lessons in Liverpool's schools to highlight the important issue of global warming.
Every secondary school in Liverpool will get a special pack containing a copy of the DVD, a DVD-Rom and lesson plans to encourage pupils to learn more about the environment by debating how people can reduce their carbon footprint and what world leaders need to do to reduce CO2.
Liverpool city council's executive member for the environment, Councillor Berni Turner, said: "We first screened Age of Stupid last year as part of Year of the Environment's successful Four Corners project and it had and amazing, hard hitting effect on the audience.
"It's our priority to make sure future generations are aware of the impact our actions have on the environment and introducing this film as part of the curriculum makes perfect sense.
"The DVD is a creative and educational way of getting pupils to talk about climate change and hopefully the actions of future generations will prevent the devastation portrayed on the screen."
The film stars Pete Postlethwaite as a man living alone in the devastated future world of 2055. He is looking back at old footage of 2008 and questioning why we didn't stop climate change when we had the chance.
The educational activity book contains ten lesson ideas, including pupils making a film about what they do to protect the environment and hosting a debate, arguing the pros and cons of wind farms.
The Times described the film as "bold, supremely provocative and hugely important" and the New York Times said "the film is a scorching appeal for humans to avoid knowingly up-ending the earth's climate".
