The film mentions a number of problems. Population is one of them, since the boom of the last century has only been possible through the increased yields of mechanized agriculture. This presents us with a potential food crisis as oil prices rise, and we had a little foretaste of that in 2008. We currently use 10 calories worth of fossil fuels to produce one calorie of food. “For any other species,” says Heinberg, “this would spell extinction.”
By way of solutions to problems like these, the film gives only a brief summary. See The Power of Community – How Cuba Survived Peak Oil for a longer exploration. Here, the makers of Crude Impact encourage us to eat seasonal food, change to energy saving light bulbs, and find our political voice. I was actually a little stunned – they mentioned the light bulbs, and how changing just one would be equivalent to a million cars off the roads, or whatever it was. But this is a film about oil — why aren’t they talking about cars off the roads directly? Light bulbs and oil use are only vaguely related. There could have been a whole section here on new urbanism, public transport, cycling, any of those things, but light bulbs? That would come very low on my list of responses to peak oil.
Still, if you haven’t started thinking about peak oil and what you’re going to do about it, I’d recommend Crude Impact as a useful starting point. Just don’t stop there.
See the film's official website for more.
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