teachin

featuring Ted Patzek and David Pimentel
teach-in

Cataclysm

Along the same lines as the film, A Crude Awakening (see Earth Day 2007), is a segment of Mega Disasters on the History Channel, Oil Apocalypse:

The oil that runs our world won't last forever. The gap between supply and demand is ever-growing. Even without increasing our current rate of consumption we will empty the Earth's large but finite reservoirs in a relatively short time. Will alternative energy save us or is it already too late? What would happen to the world as we know it when our oil dependent industries come to a grinding halt? A worldwide depression is a certainty but a power struggle for the basic necessities of life would be complete chaos.

Are we looking down the barrel of an OIL APOCALYPSE?

Some of the peak oil experts interviewed in this piece are: Richard Heinberg (The Party is Over), Fadel Gheit (Oppenheimer & Co.), David Goodstein (Out of Gas), Ken Deffeyes (Beyond Oil), Matthew Simmons (Twilight in the Desert) and Michael Economides (The Color of Oil). Update: The segment showed on March 10, '08, and will likely show again this season.

The segment is also available on ITunes and as a bittorent.


Also from the History Channel production is Crude; its study guide states:

It is a substance that touches nearly every aspect of our lives, and yet most of us know virtually nothing about it. From our food to our cars to our clothing, crude oil contributes in some way to the overwhelming majority of the products and vehicles that we rely on each day. It is an energy source unrivaled in its efficiency and power – and is the driving force behind modern industries and economies. Yet some of the most knowledgeable experts predict that we have already passed peak production of this vital natural resource. And while the world is growing increasingly dependent on oil and its byproducts, the supply is becoming more limited each day.

It's a 2 hour program, and the narration is often moronic. Here's another critique of it.

And following up on the book, The World without Us, History Channel presents Life After People and National Geographic presents Aftermath: Population Zero.

ask for whom the bell tolls

Woes mount for Mexico's state oil titan

Output is declining rapidly, ...