May as well scream

Franny's old pal George Marshall has been investigating the psychology of climate change denial for a few years, so we came to Oxford to pick his brains on the character of our old man in the future. We've been thinking perhaps he should be a do-gooder now: someone who recycles fastidiously but then flies five times a year on holiday.

George was bursting full of good ideas and insights. He thought we should go for a "Winner" personality - someone who's always succeeded in life and doesn't see why other people can't succeed if they try hard enough - as it would take a strong personality to set up The Archive. Also then the transformation from a business leader and carbon guzzler to an old man reflecting on his role in the climate disaster would be more interesting than a wimpy dogooder.

George also suggested filming interviews with business men who might be similar to our Old Man and who might provide some ideas for language.

Now we're thinking that, in a similar way to the Fog of War doc, where Robert McNamara talks about his role in the Vietnam War, our Old Man should never completely accept his own culpability. Brushing away any personally uncomfortable thoughts with lines like "In hindsight I may have done it differently", or "If I had all the information I perhaps wouldn't have acted in the way I did".

After our fascinating character discussion we tagged along to the launch of George's new book, Carbon Detox. He does a 'carbon detox show' which sounds bizarre but works brilliantly. He emphasised that we're on the roller coaster of climate change already - there's nothing we can do to stop it but we CAN minimise the height of each rise and turn the roller coaster takes. Another excellent point was that if we really want to cut carbon we should focus on the big ticket items (heating, flying, commuting) and stop worrying about the little things (plastic bags, recycling).