The Age of Stupid Page #4

budget for about 3.5 years.

Apparently, other than

setting fire to a forest,

flying is the single worst thing an ordinary

individual can do to cause climate change.

So, it's a bit of a dilemma, because we've

just been invited to go skiing in France.

Then I am flying from Newquay

, which is our nearest airport,

say, 40 minutes from here, to Bergerac,

which is like, you know, an hour and

a half or something, from it.

And literally we could leave here in

the morning that's we leave like in, Cornwall,

we could leave Cornwall in the morning,

and be in Bergerac by sort of,

for lunch, after lunch.

But if you actually think, this is going to cause

the death of people, actually in effect

people are make that direct connection

, then it's a really scary thought.

Obviously, us not flying to France or not flying,

wherever it's hard to guess, will solve the problem.

But it's down to what you think

it's the correct thing to do.

Because everyone else's doing it, I mean,

that is not a good reason to do anything.

You know, to look at the terrible things

in our history that everyone regrets now,

you know, massacres,

the holocaust a lot of that,

was just going a long way what was

the predominant thinking at the time.

I almost jealous at the time,

just jump on a plane with impunity,

I didn't even think about it,it's blissful,

no moral dilemma there, whatsoever.

Needless to say,

they didn't take that flight.

And joining the climate change protest march

may not be everybody's idea

of the 10th wedding anniversary,

but Piers and Lisa have share

ideals from the moment they met.

My friend, we went along

to the party together,

and she just basically took me

straight over to Piers and said,

"Hey, look," you know "Piers

, this is Lisa. " And, dah dah dah

And that was it, that was it. We just...

and spent the whole evening

talking about wind turbines.

Piers has been developing wind farms in Africa,

America, and Britain for over 15 years.

But he knows that they only

help slow the climate crisis

as a small part of a total

reordering of western society.

And there still is an idea that somehow

we have to find the solution,

you know, the silver bullet.

No single renewable source is going to

be the solution, absolutely not.

And Piers doesn't think

much of the other option,

whereby everyone crosses their fingers

and hopes that the miracle

technology will be invented in time.

I'm not saying we shouldn't be developing

other stuff, absolutely, we should be.

We should be throwing everything after it.

But, you've got to make

use of what's available now.

And in the UK, we've

got a great wind resource,

and we just got to bite

the bullet and go for it.

Piers has purposed a new wind farm as airfield farm

at Airfield Farm in Bedfordshire, central England.

He could have 15 turbines installed and generating

Well, the process balloon is now going up, but

while that's happening, I'll just explain where we are.

We all have our thumb down as well.

UK-wise surveys point to about 70 ~ 80%

in favor of wind farm as a concept.

The difficulty is when you

got one on your own doorstep,

and then there is the sort of

"not-in-my-backyard" syndrome.

Jim, what's the problem?

The problem really is that this is one of the

least windy sites in the country.

I hope it's not gonna get too windy tomorrow

and it wraps itself around the church.

Well, I live in Coddington, and we're going to be

absolutely surrounded by these high moss.

They're going to obliterate the view.

What it normally always comes down to

with wind farms is the aesthetics, you know.

Everything else is basically put together

to try and back up the ultimate thing,

the ultimate thing is they

don't want to spoil their view.

But I'm bit concern about

the low level noise as well.

The wind farm site is right next to world

famous Santa Pod drag-racing strip.

Anybody you ask it, nobody's against

wind energy, that's the point,

t's against inappropriate wind energy use.

Hypnotic, you're driving alone, and

you tend to saw this sails revolving,

and you're not concentrating on the driving.

Eurney Braddock will benefit

financially having turbine on his farm,

but now he's in conflict

with his neighbor, Victoria Reeves.

Well, everyone is very unhappy about it,

we're gonna lose the value of our properties,

we are not going to be able to sleep, it will make

a difference, Eurney you have no idea, believe me.

According to Victoria,

they stop to wind farm up in

Scotland on the other estate in Scotland.

Back in the mid-90's

that was a great victory.

"It can't rely on the wind, it can

only deliver ", "It's an additive. "

"Additive? Do you mean additional? Yes, it is additional. "

"It's a economics resources, put it that way. "

"No, Eurney, it doesn't. It's got to, it's got to.

It does nothing of the sort, believe me. "

It's an emotional campaign, it's about fear

mostly based on complete BS, frankly.

But never mind, facts are not

a problem, you know.

"It's a fair fight, and

I hope you lose. ", "Alright. "

This is august 2005, just after

Mumbai's worst ever floods.

And a couple of months

before Jeh's first flight.

Show daddy how good you ride this,

show daddy how fast you can go, come on.

Wooo... No more pushing

, it's battery operated.

"So, I can't finish either.

" "Hey, grandpa... "

Jeh is descended from one of India's richest

and most powerful business dynasties.

They pioneered everything from ship building

from the 18 centuries to internet services in the 21st.

And around about way, his privileged up bringing

sparked the idea for the low cost airline.

What do you want me to do?

I'm going to the airport.

Throughout basically my life, at young age,

I mean, I used to hang out with tons of,

you know, servants' kids. You know, that sort of stuff.

You know, and when you go home,

you say..., you suddenly think,

why do I have so much,

and these guys have nothing.

And that sort of, and

that constantly adding up.

You know, everyone is here for a purpose.

The idea is to realize what your higher purpose is,

and then realize how you gonna fulfill it.

And eventually I realize

what my higher purpose was,

it was to insure that I eradicated poverty.

Jeh volunteers at the charity which helps

villagers lift themselves out of poverty.

But even by private jet and jeep,

it's a 5 hour, 900 kilometers journey.

Hiring a private jet is basically in

terms of costs as much as the village does,

you know, take a village from below

the poverty and put it above the poverty.

So effectively, in terms of it

defeats the purpose.

And therefore I decided to, you know..

try the trains, from Bombay takes about 26 hours.

I said to myself, "wow,

this is incredible. "

You know, people pay good money and

still have to basically put with this rubbish.

trains in India every single day.

Jeh's dream is to get them all off

the trains and into the skies.

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