Anybody else see "A Crude Awakening" or "Collapse?"

[Aelwydd]

Just what the title asks. I watched Chris Martensen's "Crash Course" several months ago, and it's alternatively fascinating and disturbing how much overlay of information and themes are presented in each. But probably, the most disturbing is the premise put forth that it is oil that has produced the population growth (due to powering the green revolution, modern medical terminology, etc.).

 

So, in a post-oil world, what does that mean for us? For our kids? I really hope it's not as drastic as all that, but I don't intend to stick my head in the sand either. What say the Hive? There is large body of evidence for the peak oil folks that is hard for me to dismiss.

 

Sometimes, I want to cry for my ds and the world he will inherit. :(

[VeganCupcake]

I haven't seen them, but I have seen similar documentaries. I also just recently read Hot, Flat, and Crowded by Thomas Friedman and I was totally panicked about the future for my children and their children. The panic has faded a bit with time, but the problem certainly has not gone away and I don't want to get lulled into security by the status quo.

 

We need a clean energy revolution, IMO. More of us need to get solar panels and sell back the excess to the utilities. The utilities need to invest more in clean energy. It's a really complicated situation with a lot of variables, but something drastic needs to change.

[Free]

Humans are an extremely adaptable species. I would like to think that the next revolution will be in the alternate energy sector, that people will find technological solutions to the energy crisis and that this will transform the way people live in a significant way (just as the information technology revolution transformed the way people work and communicate).

 

I have not seen the films you talk about, but I felt the same way when I read "The Road" couple of years back. Since then though I have chosen to view the changes happening now in a more optimistic light. Maybe we will adapt and come out stronger and better after all.

[ralfy]

The bad news is that other sources of energy have low returns or quantity. Given that, the global population will be forced to lower energy and material resource use.

[Matryoshka]

The bad news is that other sources of energy have low returns or quantity. Given that, the global population will be forced to lower energy and material resource use.

 

The other sources of energy work very badly with a centralized model like we have now - power stations that produce huge amounts and distribute it.  Green energy (maybe with the exception of hydroelectric) works much better on a distributed model.  If every single one of us had solar panels on our roof and a turbine to collect as much wind power as possible, that would go a very long way to decreasing the need for large amounts of power to be produced.  I'm also really loving the idea of solar pavers.  But the big power companies don't want us all having our own power.  But I do see a shift with the newer solar panels that are attached to the grid and actually sell power back to the power companies when there's a surplus.  That might be a very good new model, where we all are both consuming power from and producing power for the grid.  And it makes us much less vulnerable when the grid goes down, as we can still produce a reasonable portion of our own power needs.