“Melting sea ice, glacier loss and rising sea levels. Severe
droughts, wildfires, increasingly severe tornadoes, hurricanes, and flooding, record
heat waves. Climate change is no longer a prediction for the future, but a startling
reality of today. Yet, as evidence of our changing climate mounts and the
scientific consensus proves human causation, there continues to be little
political action to thwart the warming of our planet. “Greedy Lying Bastards”
investigates the reason behind stalled efforts to tackle climate change despite
consensus in the scientific community that it is not only a reality but also a
growing problem placing us on the brink of disaster. The film details the
people and organizations casting doubt on climate science and claims that
greenhouse gases are not affected by human behaviour. From the Koch Brothers to
ExxonMobil, to oil industry front groups, to prominent politicians and
Justices, this provocative exposé unravels the layers of deceit threatening
democracy and the ability for future generations to survive on planet earth”[1].
In conjunction with the Dumfries branch of Friends of the
Earth, the Robert Burns Centre Film Theatre was showing this important American
documentary as part of their Film Club season. Introduced by Ian Gasse who was
joined by Debbie Hamilton contact person for FOTE Dumfries for a discussion
following the screening. Directed, written and narrated by Craig Rosebaugh who
is an activist for political and social justice, and environmental and animal
protection and who has written or contributed to various books on those
subjects.
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| The Villains. |
As you can tell from the films synopsis this feature length
documentary explores the phenomenon of climate change denial. Made over a
period of three years Rosebaugh describes this personnel project as an
undertaking that would uncover the hidden agenda of the oil industry and to
provide answers as to why the richest nation on earth fails to implement clean
energy policies? The movie also questions why effective action has not been
taken on one of the most important and serious matters affecting the 21st
century. Although to be fair the answers pretty obvious in the title of the
film, greedy lying bastards, or as they are known in society ‘capitalist’. People
who run the industries and the astroturf front groups that are financed by them
to promote the lie don’t give a dam about people or their quality of life only
greed and profit.
 |
| The problem. |
How anybody can argue the case for climate change denial is
beyond me? But they do and during the discussion that followed the film there
was a consensus that people are genuinely worried about how the facts tend to
be ignored and how information is given out so the public have the correct
information to make up our own minds. It was agreed that low budget films like Greedy Lying Bastards are essential to
form opinions through the medium of cinema. But unfortunately they are not
normally shown on a wider release. The
only criticism of the documentary was that the UK was not highlighted more, allowing
for a Dumfries audience to relate more to the problem. Make no mistake that this is a very big
problem because of our dependability on oil and the profit involved for the big
corporations. Although there is a conference on climate change at the end of
November 2015 in Paris I would not hold your breath on any substantial changes coming
from it.
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