A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash (Movie Review)
by Warren McLaren, Sydney on 06.11.07
At one point in this movie, a university professor whose name I missed, says something along the lines of “a student came up to me and asked, ‘so will my grandchildren get to ride in an aircraft?’ It was a frightening question, because the answer is most likely not.” The tagline for this feature length documentary on Peak Oil is, “We’re running out and we don’t have a plan.” But let’s back up a bit, in case you’ve been coming up to speed on global warming, and haven’t yet heard about peak oil.
As the movie explains; oil, natural, gas and coal are the product of living matter laid down as sediment, compacted under thousand of metres of mineral deposits and undergone a chemical conversion of its carbon atoms. In very basic terms they're crushed plant matter from the time of dinosaurs. It is not something we can recreate. It is not renewable. But it is precious. Not that one would notice. As the talking heads in this movie note, oil (as petrol) in the US is cheaper than drinking water. So cheap that one could drive a family of 6 and their luggage for 1.5 miles on 20 cents worth of gasoline. They make a the point that a donkey-and-cart or rickshaw driver would not provide transport for the same cost. Our cars, trucks, trains, plains and ships run on oil. Greater than 80% of all extraction goes to produce transport fuel. But the stuff is not infinite. The US was once the world’s largest exporter of the black oozy goo but now only has 2% of the world’s reserve, although it uses 25%. Britain’s North Sea is running dry and they're now back to importing oil. Sure, there is some left globally, but all the easy pickings are gone. Human population and industry have exploded in the 100-150 years, since we uncorked this genie. (In the time this writer has been on the planet, the number of humans has more than doubled to over 6 billion). The supply of crude is already diminishing, at the same time as our demand for its offspring: not only fuel, but plastics, fertiliser, cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, etc, has become increasingly ravenous. And the worlds most populous nations, India and China, have only just begun their love of the stuff.
The point of A Crude Awakening seems to be like that of an alarm clock. It’s function is wake people up. To rouse them from their slumber. If you haven’t encountered this information anywhere else then it will do the trick. It lays out the detail pretty clearly, mostly through interviews with oil industry representatives interspersed with lots of filmwork reminiscent of the Koyaanisqatsi style movies. Statistics are dispensed incessantly by the speakers,who are, for the most part, eloquent in their depiction of the issues. This is an incredibly important movie, though not a great one. There is no Michael Moore or Al Gore fronting the show to provide it a more personal narrative. But it might be that in it’s starkness the message has more impact. While the information was not new to me I still found it fascinating viewing, though my cinema companions did fidget some, indicating the material was not holding them in it’s awe.
It is however vital that as many people see this film as saw An Inconvenient Truth. The problem is more tangible. Not being able to drive or fly is something more of us can readily relate to. Changing seasons and drowning polar bears, is unfortunately for many, a tad too esoteric. As the movie’s many speakers point out politicians and governments are rarely proactive, rather reactive. And currently they aren’t getting phone calls from their voters to act on this crucial issue.
In awaking viewers to a future without oil, A Crude Awakening, is highly effective. What it lacks though is a hero. It kills off most of the contenders for the role, one by one. New oil technologies, hydrogen (”30 to 50 years away”) biomass, ethanol, biodiesel, nuclear, wind, solar (though they hint solar might get the part, if greater investment was forthcoming), and even hybrid vehicles, all get the chop. To paraphase “Even if we could wave a magic wand and hybridised every car on the road today, in five years our economic growth would have us back to the same level of consumption we have today.” The only hero that escapes being shot down, is one quietly introduced as a side character. An Amish gentlemen, in his horse drawn carriage, clip clopping along the road at nine miles an hour. As Matthew Savinar, who trained as a lawyer but now manages the website, lifeaftertheoilcrash.net, points out, “Tell people they'll need to change their lifestyle and go buy a hydrogen vehicle, and they’ll probably say ‘Okay.’ But tell them they have to ride a bicycle and ..... “
The only real solution proffered is mankind’s ingenuity and creativity. (One speaker likens it to the intellectual and practical challenge of putting a man on the moon, while another believes it’s more like putting thousands on Pluto!) But regardless of how clever we are, none of the interviewees believe we will get through the next 10 to 20 years without major, major changes to our accustomed way of life.
See this film. Be forewarned. Be prepared. Be active in pushing for positive change. ::A Crude Awakening, the Movie
For online videos we've mentioned on peak oil see also: Four Corners and Robert Newman.
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
- Peak Oil: “Time is Not On Our Side”, IEA Chief Economist
- Find Green Rainy Day Activities
- How Bad Is Taking a Cab to the Airport, Compared to the Flight Itself?
- How does a master key work?
In a few generations, maybe they'll remake movies to reflect the oil-free future?
"Dude, where's my horse-drawn carriage?"
Sounds like Y2K all over again.
Untill our present President realizes that global warming is for real. That his cronies continue to make a profit on oil nothing real will done. We are at the cusp of an oil crisis, where oil will be gone. we need to change our greed and depency for oil, oil byproducts.
*Points to enormous plastic island floating in the Pacific*
What about mining that and turning it back into oil through thermal depolymerization? There's a whooooole lotta plastic out there...
We are setting on the worlds largest oil deposite that has'nt even began to be tapped in Colorado and Utah I dont think we will run out of oil any time soon!!!
Sorry Dude,
The only know oil reservers in the work that have no reach peak production is in the middle east. Who ever told you that Utah and Colorado had not peaked with badly misguided. I would suggest that you first understand the term "peak oil". Fewer that 1 in 1,000 American have even heard of the word. Until you under that concept you will never understad this conversation. BTW, Bush and cronies do understand it. That's why we are in Iraq now. Nothing more or nothing less. We're try to protect the precious oil.
There is a book out called: Black Gold Stranglehold
There seems to be scientific proof, that is being hidden from the public, that basically says calling oil a fossil fuel is incorrect because it is not a fossil fuel.... only once in a while fossil materials are extracted with the oil. I think this is called abiotic theory.
Here is an excerpt I just found doing a search on google. The site that came up was:
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46888
Corsi and Smith argue that the deep abiotic theory of oil is a more reliable theory than the fossil fuel theory. It rejects the contention that oil was formed from the remains of plant and animal life that died millions of years ago. Instead, they believe in Thomas Gold's argument that oil is abiotic: "a primordial material that the earth forms and exudes on a continual basis" and is "pushed upward toward the earth's surface by the intense pressures of the earth's core and the influence of the centrifugal force that the earth exerted upon the specific gravity of oil as a fluid substance."
Very interesting information.
Eric B
Hey Eric B,
this is simply not true. The abiotic theory is nothing more than a legend. There is no (as in zero) scientific evidence for it. It's wishful thinking concocted by some Russian dude in the 18th century and has had some revival in the late Russian communist era (mostly as Cold War propaganda). You should do some reading before you post misinformation. You could start here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abiotic_oil Oil depletion is a serious matter we should neither ignore nor deny. This is not something like cheering for you favorite sports team. It's pretty clear the writing's on the wall for oil.