Last Decade is a new short film led and voiced by 18–24-year-olds, that – via the prism of human hope – begins with the story of growing through adolescence to the backdrop of climate emergency, ever loudening warnings, & political failure.
Passing a lost decade of inaction into the last decade to avoid catastrophe (according to IPCC scientists), the storytellers explore policy failures in the spheres of energy, transport, and food – asking salient questions of the motivation of government in squandering rich, sustainable opportunities to decarbonise faster.
Reaching their political coming of age, the attainment of political agency and a sense of profound opportunity, the storytellers find that their access to electoral democracy is blocked, and their right to peaceful protest is severely curtailed by a political elite prepared to “ignore you in the present, and gamble with your future.”
In the final sequence of the film, the five are revealed as activists who (despite their youth) have already served multiple prison sentences for peaceful protest or traversed two hemispheres in their commitment to climate action.
The film concludes with a personal, powerful declaration of the next general election as the most important political event of their generation’s lifetimes, and a vivid, graphic appeal to the 18-24 demographic to register to vote and acquire the ID now required to do so.
Anita Okunde (First time voter & climate activist) “This film has come out at a crucial time in our country’s history. To ensure a better quality of life for young people now and our future generations, young people need to gather together and use their voices in a way that matters – through their vote.”
Dale Vince (Author of “MANIFESTO” – Penguin Books) “If you are alive today, the next election will be the most important of your lifetime. Bythetimethis election comes we will have wasted the first half of the vital last decade the UN said we had within which to act – to avoid the worst of the climate crisis. Nearly 3 million first time voters face unprecedented obstacles between them and simply voting, deliberately placed in their way by this conservative government. The voices of young people speak clearly in this film, their voices need to be heard at the ballot box too.
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