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Excellent Kiwi blog decrying the negative impact of horror documentaries about climate change and praising the positive messages that are transforming narrow climate change protests into a global movement.
We dread the horror documentaries on climate change. “This is what is happening. If we don’t do something about it, these are the consequences.” It has the effect of stunning us. It’s better to put our head 
under a rock. It’s better to believe that the big powerful interests actually care about our future. Let’s move on to other things and just have faith.
Naomi Klein’s documentary This Changes Everything, played a completely different tune. It was a film of hope: “What if Global Warming isn’t just a crisis. What if it is the best chance yet to build a better world. Change, or be changed.”
We can make a difference. And no, we cannot trust the powerful interests, because they think in the blind alleys where short-term finance mugs wisdom.
Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth was of the horror variety. It went into what was happening…
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Al Gore???? Really???
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He’s making the point that Al Gore’s films are horror documentaries and unhelpful because they stun people and make them apathetic and passive – at least that’s what I get out of the article. This definitely coincides with my experience with peoples’ reaction to these alarmist messages. After awhile people want absolutely nothing to do with fighting government policy on global warming.
Another really negative aspect of Gore’s messaging that Perley doesn’t mention is they encourage people to change their lightbulbs and personal behavior – instead of stressing the need to build a mass government to pressure government to adopt real policy changes (such as ending fossil fuel subsidies – according to the IMF they amount to $5.3 trillion annually).
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I don’t agree with Chris Perley’s conclusion that “the Earth will change us.” It’s the forces of Nature that we have already set into motion that will change us. We are the cause and the effect.
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Good point, Rosaliene. I tend to agree with you.
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“A film of hope” – I like this!
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I agree, Aunty. At the moment demoralization and apathy seem to be the biggest obstacle to change.
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