A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash

I watched a very compelling movie today: A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash.* You may have heard some alarming discussion on this topic from websites like peakoil.com or lifeaftertheoilcrash.net that predict world wars and civil unrest unseen in human history. I've browsed these sites with some interest over the past several years, but with uncertainty as to their credibility. Could it really be that bad? Is this another ploy at our fears? After all, I am no expert on economics, world politics, or geology and how seriously am I supposed to take a website that starts out with "Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon." (from lifeaftertheoilcrash.net). Its always been hard to determine how much credence to give to the peak oil crowd, especially when they occasionally resemble alarmist conspiracy-theorists! While it is unclear exactly how the transition from oil to alternative energy will happen, A Crude Awakening explains in no uncertain terms that it must happen. And very, very soon. It further explains that the better and sooner we plan for that transition, the smoother it will be.

After the September 11, 2001 attacks, I became obsessed with trying to make ANY kind of sense out of what had happened on that day. I wanted to learn how groups like Al Qaeda could so effectively develop an underground, quasi-institutional hatred of the United States and the West. What could stir that unimagineable level of anger and hatred? My amatuer inquiries quickly led me to catch up on Saudi Arabian culture/politics and the last hundred years of oil/energy history. What it also led me to learn about was the topic of this movie: the horrible mismatch between world oil supply and world oil demand.

I went into this movie with a skeptic's eye. I was anticipating a lot of hype and speculation about doomsday scenarios that might come when we hit the decline years in oil production. What the movie delivered instead was a compelling case by many top-notch professors, economists, and geologists that our world oil supply is coming to an end in the near future. The film explains bluntly that the oil on the planet is limited and that we are at or near the peak of production. What will happen when the world passes that peak is unknown, but it is clear that it is time to start planning for our life on earth without oil. Given our seemingly insatiable appetite for it, we need to shift gears immediately. With new demands on world oil supply coming from India and China, we are likely to use up the remaining oil at a previously unimagined pace.

This movie offers important food for thought for every human on the planet. After all, our lives are tightly intertwined with oil and we need to begin unravelling the knot in which we've tied ourselves.

*NOTE: For you Netflix uses out there, this film is available for instant viewing on your computer!