I often tune into documentaries, radio programmes etc while at work. I work in 3D graphics, which often involves almost mechanical tasks, like checking and converting endless iterations of data sets as assets for crating 3D environments. They are mind-numbingly simple and should be automated, only, I’m not a good script writer, and secondly, until a script can handle the info in the required way for a one-off project, you’re better off doing it by hand. Anyway, I need to entertain my mind, and listening to info porn documentaries has become my latest obsession.
One of the first hits for the search term “documentary” on youtube brings up a wealth of entrainment, and no – this is not meant in an educational way. Take “New Swirled Order” as an example, a 2009 “crop circle documentary”. I doubt you sue your company for “injuries sustained at work” due to “falling of your chair laughing” , because the corporate firewall didn’t prohibit you from watching it.
Anyway enter the genre of environmental documentaries.
There are quite a few, a lot of them interesting and system-shocking and wake-up-sad.
- Take FLOW (For the Love Of Water) as an example. some things we should know about the politics of water, and don’t blame me if you get a chilling effect of deja-vu.
- Or take End of the Line, a documentary that despite its “action buster” musical score leaves you very concerned about that state of our oceans. Never mind the politics of food in general.
But amongst gems and jokes, where a few films that caught my attention. And they involved the subject of Peak Oil. I had (I’ll freely admit) no idea what the term meant, but it immediately suggests the notion that all fossil fuels are a finite resource, and that they will run out at some point. (You have to bear in mind how long it takes to make a fresh batch, vs. the current consumption). So films about this subject should make interesting watching (listening in my case).
The first candidate (Understanding Peak Oil) indeed held up to expectations, rapid cuts between snippets of interviews of honourably looking gentlemen, overlaid historic footage, plenty of repetition to fill an hour of program without dropping below the attention threshold, a few facts and numbers thrown in between to beef up the claims and keep any notion of critical approach firmly locked out.
The second one , Oil Smoke and Mirrors , was far worse. Pretty much a one to one clone of “Understanding Peak Oil” the experts that gave testimony to the camera crew waited until the middle of the film before systematically dismantling any of their white lab coat authority as they buried their arguments deep in the excavation pits of NY’s ground zero. In its defence, if I had known that the film’s tagline is ” There is no war on terror ” I wouldn’t have bothered with watching it in the first place.
Now is the time to invest in micro-solar equipment:
From these two films I was intrigued as to how big the BS factor in these films really is, or if I’m the last person understand the problem. A quick search on google for “peak oil” throws up an unsurprising amount of hits, but domain names such as “lifeaftertheoilcrash.net”, “peakoil.com/net/org” and “oildecline.com” and “peak-oil-crisis.com” give the whole argument new interest. Naturally I followed “www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net”, goolge teased me with the meta extract “Examines the impact of the depletion of the world’s oil reserves and its consequences for the world economy and population”. Irresistible.
What greets you on the far side of the click is a heaven of subtlety, style and bulletproof research. The internetz is not made of tubes, it’s made of 1980’s home improvement catalogues. Read the Pulitzer Prize attracting introduction:
“Dear Reader,
Civilization as we know it is coming to an end soon. This is not the wacky proclamation of a doomsday cult, apocalypse bible prophecy sect, or conspiracy theory society. Rather, it is the scientific conclusion of the best paid, most widely-respected geologists physicists, bankers, and investors in the world.”
followed on the side panel by:
Now is the time to invest in micro-solar equipment
It would be far stretched to accuse the owner of the website web-shop of hypocrisy or scaremongering selling an array of post-apocalyptic survival tools such as “made from petroleum” solar ovens, torches, ponchos, photovoltaic devices, walkie-talkies, and a collection of grow your own veggies books. Scout essentials such as the “US Army Survival Handbook” can’t be missing in this collection either.
The Freeze dried annual supply of dodgy food can’t be left out by those who take their survival seriously. Because even if oil runs out, and all supplies fail as lorries railways and merchant ships run out of fuel, you, your children and grandchildren can easily stave off any long term problems by opening up another can.
Well then, what’s the fuss all about?
