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?

This was the big one. Everyone and their mother is talking about the oil industry today with the rising costs, environmental problems and political fallout. But it was the story of how the situation got to where it was today that I loved. I read ‘Who Won the Oil Wars?’ by Louis Gale which gave me a fascinating (and highly critical) step by step history of the oil industry from inception to Iraq.

Economic addictions are something I am very eager to explore. All societies become dependant on certain resources. These addictions become their reality. It is hard for them to imagine their society functioning without them. This is ‘how the world works’. My use of economic addiction here can easily refer to wheat or steel, but oil is a dangerous one in today’s climate because of the massive ‘serve’ and ‘cost’ elements involved.

What is important to remember is that these addictions, and the systems that rely on them, are created over time and are evolutionary. It is impossible today to imagine a world without oil. That is the reality. But that is what many societies throughout the human experience have said about slavery. What is doubly important to remember is that it is the very people who live within that reality that have the power to change it.

It is an extremely important lesson to learn. It teaches us how the world actually works, how ways of live evolve over time, and how our way of life is no different.

As far as the structure of the series goes, I Googled addiction and thought the definitions from start to finish would give an excellent insight into our own economic addiction. I also think it offers a lot of hope for the future.

Full Synopsis here.

Who knows if my man will get in. Ill have to tuck into my news feeds here to see how the election is going. Regardless it is great to see someone who people respect so much talking sense about the earth, wherever he ends up.

I am not happy with a few of the ideas or ideals behind his thinking.

He talks about the threat of global warming as though it is the main global impetus for what needs to be done. Too many people do. It is the most immediate no doubt. But I would prefer if people were inspired by solid values rather than fear. Fear works. No doubt about it. And if the threat is real in any situation people will get to work and do what has to be done.

But the argument gets bogged down in the whole global warming debate, something that unfortunately is taking centre stage in the journey that needs to be made. People get bogged down in the proving and disproving of facts about rising temperatures and the ’snows of Mount Kilimanjaro’. It’s like listening (while smoking 40 cigarettes a day) to both sides of a debate on whether cigarettes will in fact most definitely and absolutely kill you in the end. The simple fact is that they are not good for your body. If you respect your body, if you value your body and your health, you should quit.

We need to kill our addiction to practices that disrespect the earth because we were borne from the earth, we value the earth, and we should live our daily lives in respect of it. We just want to get this problem out of the way and move on; breathe easy. To not do this is a loss to ourselves. I also believe that the process would be a much speedier one world wide if this were the case; if these values were in place.

Fingers crossed that this man takes up residence on Pennsylvania Avenue before the snow falls.