Beyond The Tipping Point?
Article published: Friday, September 17th 2010
A new short film produced in Manchester challenges the apocalyptic thought of environmental activists. MULE’s Andy Lockhart spoke to its director, Dr Stefan Skrimshire.
On 15 July, over 60 people settled in to the appropriately ominous surroundings of the Manchester Museum, boxed in by dinosaur skeletons and angry-looking stuffed monkeys, to watch Beyond the Tipping Point?, a half-hour documentary exploring how ideas of environmental ‘tipping points’ – when ecological and life-giving processes become damaged beyond repair – affect our imaginations of the future and how people deal with the prospect of climate catastrophe. It offers an interesting, if incomplete, exploration of the issue.
The film grew out of a three-year research project, ‘Religion and Climate Change’, based at the University of Manchester and was launched prior to the book ‘Future Ethics: Climate Change and Apocalyptic Imagination’, edited by Skrimshire and available from August 12. The director is a rare academic: attempting to discuss and disseminate their work pro-actively with the wider community and those engaged in the issues at the grassroots level. “This is a conversation for everyone, let’s all be involved. I think the language of tipping points and the philosophy of crisis are important and an important idea must go beyond the walls of the academy. I’m really conscious of that,” says Skrimshire.
He believes that there is something “missing” from the work of environmental campaigners, activists and policy-makers. “As an academic and an activist I’ve always had the suspicion that groups don’t give themselves enough time to reflect on their motivations.
“I’ve always been interested in the language of apocalypse, the coming crisis, the end of the world even. These ideas have one foot in religion, one in politics, and affect the way we think and do things.”
A new approach?
The film is refreshing, both as a creative project by academics, and as a take on the climate crisis different from the one-dimensional environmental blockbusters of recent years. Beyond the Tipping Point? features 25 experts, campaigners and others broadly involved in climate change research and activism. Many were interviewed at Copenhagen during the COP-15 Summit in December 2009, where the concept of environmental apocalypse had huge weight both inside and outside the conference – in very different ways.
“I wanted the film to be in that context and to talk to people about this whole concept – asking them: ‘Is all this rhetoric about The Last Chance really what you believe? Why you’re here? What’s going to happen when you go home?’
“I think people polarise their options too easily. They say, ‘I’m completely screwed!’ or ‘There’s a chance I can be saved!’ – and that’s a very religious idea we have inherited”.
This spiritual understanding of apocalypse provides the thrust of the documentary. When interviewees talk about reaching the point of no return, Skrimshire’s narration asks what they mean by such statements: the end for “the human species, civilization, or simply the lifestyles to which we have become accustomed?”
The film is well made, despite its low budget. It is brilliantly shot, with a stirring soundtrack. Yet, while the array of voices heard is vast, for a film designed to spark debate among those active in the politics of climate change there is precious little to provoke critical self-reflection. This was apparent during the post-film discussion, with a panel of five featuring Skrimshire and interviewees from the film. For the assembled ‘Who’s Who’ of the environmental scene in Manchester, there was clearly little engagement with the specific issues the film tries to raise. As panellist Mark Levene, a historian from the University of Southampton, said, the end product was surprisingly “feel-good.”
While the film should not have been depressing – after all, the project is premised on interrogating that kind of thinking – it seems to be missing critical voices. “I regret I didn’t seek out more polarised positions. On the whole it’s not a film that explores all the options – I didn’t go out on the street talking to bankers or random passers-by,” admits Skrimshire.
But the views lacking aren’t from Joe Public or non-believers, but rather those critical perspectives from those who are onside yet feel many environmentalists operate in counterproductive ways, although there are some notable exceptions, such as Ahmed Swapan and Farjana Akter of Voice in Bangladesh. Context of historical and theoretical debates are also deficient, together depriving the viewer of nuanced opinions.
Critical voices?
However the critical voices that are heard are poignant. As Greenpeace campaigner Paul Morozzo says, “I think there’s this sort of liberal fantasy that ‘we’ve got to act now or it’s all over.’ One billion people are starving at the moment – for them the tipping point’s gone.” Yet this important theme is under-explored.
Another key topic afforded little time is the idea that approaching climate change too scientifically – concentrating on numbers and CO2 emissions – has significantly narrowed parameters of thought and imagination, and is having political consequences. As Skrimshire says, people know the debate has moved beyond science, “it’s about your awareness of society, economics, politics.”
Searching questions are asked rhetorically in narration rather than in dialogue between contributors. This is partly an issue of time: twenty five people interviewed in just thirty minutes is too many and an unnecessary number of similar and occasionally banal viewpoints are squeezed in. A longer edit, with more ruthless cutting, might allow nuanced positions space to be expressed and challenged.
These problems do, however, reflect the complexity of the subject matter the film tries to wrestle with. The psychological and emotional issues engendered by potentially catastrophic climate change are incredibly hard to understand and deal with, and interviewees showed this. The film’s deficiencies are representative of an area of activism, popular politics and academia that has only recently opened up to debate and where the lines are constantly being redrawn.
The project also demonstrates the difficulties in transferring academic research into media useful for collective conversation, with limited resources. Few attempt such challenging work, and Skrimshire and his team should be congratulated. Within a week of premièring, Beyond the Tipping Point? had 80 requests for screenings in 10 different countries. The DVD is also available free to groups and communities. Though the film is perhaps not as provocative as it could have been, its challenge to apocalyptic thinking is thoughtful and necessary. It can be a stepping stone for similarly ambitious work.
Copies of the film can be ordered from beyondthetippingpoint.com
Comments
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Youtube response to this dreadful film – “Beyond the Banality Point”
Comment by Dwight Towers on October 6, 2010 at 11:57 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bHivUN2tlSs
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