State of Separation - Production Diary 6

THE FINAL ONE PAGER

Logline

Follow our intrepid reporter as he struggles to ‘go green’ while he investigates the contemporary physical and philosophical relationship between Irish people and the earth and attempts to understand how that relationship has evolved over time.

Synopsis

We find ourselves on the eve of a potentially new and exciting industrial revolution. It is a revolution that will require the involvement of every man woman and child on this great living rock of ours for it to become a reality. Without it, we face an unfortunate and unpredictable future. With it, the human race could take its greatest step forward since it walked across the plains of Africa and out into the world all those years ago.

But what are the Irish people doing about it? How much damage has been done? What is the reality of the problem facing us? How did we get to this point? What barriers are standing in the way of us achieving the ideal? In short, how separated are we from the reality around us?

In answering these questions, our reporter intends to show how hard it is for the average person living in contemporary Western society to live in respect of the earth. He will meet those on the front line of this fight to rid the country (and the world) of economic addictions that are by their nature designed to exploit and pollute the earth.

He meets and follows individuals from different backgrounds and ideals whose lives are affected by, and are affecting, the problems we all now face. He hangs out with the old gardeners and the young shoppers, the yummy mummy’s and the down and outs, the champagne environmentalists and the average Joe’s who don’t have the time or the money to give a damn. He lets their voices reveal the heart (and the harsh realities) of the issue.

He sees all the warning signs and the attempts to provide both quick fixes and long term solutions. He accepts how ‘in vogue’ green issues have become among certain sections of our global community. But he questions how much the ordinary people on the street understand the real issues and the problems we face. He searches (in vain?) for a people who have the time or the inclination to do something about them.

He ponders the elements needed to allow for this new industrial revolution, and wonders whether any of them are indeed in place. He asks, ‘what does it mean to live in respect of the earth?’ He worries about how the issue is being used to fuel existing prejudices and power struggles. He tries to understand the views of the new ‘holocaust deniers’. He regrets that our ‘Celtic Tiger’ may not have prepared us enough for the inevitable.

Do we value the earth in any philosophical way? What has led us to this point? How separated are we in Ireland from the earth? And taking into account the global moral and environmental challenges that faces us, are we doing enough to kill our economic addictions.

Do we have what it takes?