I watched ‘The Age of Stupid’ last night on BBC4. Its a film about the possible consequences of runaway climate change – the Age of Stupid refers to us, now – for failing to do enough about it while we have the chance, which in the film leads to disaster for mankind. It was a well made film, and those that know my views, will know I fully agree with its main point. But it was so depressing. Too depressing.  So I wouldnt really recommend it, despite a good performance by Pete Postlethwaite and some very funny (in a tragic sense) scenes of rich people in Bedfordshire pretending to care about climate change while successfully campaigning to stop wind turbines being put up near where they live, because they would have spoiled the view.

Prince Charles made a good point tonight at Copenhagen summit, when he emphasised that a world in which we tackle climate change will be a much safer, healthier, more pleasant world to live in. I do think its important to emphasise the positives of tackling climate change, not just the potential disaster of not doing so.

I also watched the first of Tony Robinson’s  “Man on Earth” series (the Copenhagen summit means the tv schedules are full of man and the climate programmes). It was a fascinating look at how climate has changed in the past and the dramatic impact it has had on people. Most amazing was how the Black Sea was a relatively small inland lake, well below sea level, until it was flooded by the melting of the North American Ice Sheets. This raised global sea levels and enabled the Mediterranean to break through at the Bosphorus. This forced around 100,000 people to flee the rising waters around 8,000 years ago. A tiny foretaste of what will happen all round the world if the temperature rises enough to cause rapid melting of the Greenland or West Antarctic Ice Sheets. Of course back in the stone age there was enough room in the world for people to move to. If it happens in the coming century, it would be a little more tricky to deal with.