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.

clear as bull pucky

Here's a transcript of a recent BP tv commercial.

bp: What would you ask an oil company?
2w (2 women in front of a flower shop): Do you think that oil will never run out, or is it a resource that will be depleted? What's next? What will our kids be driving then?
bp: BP is the biggest investor in new U.S. energy development. We're investing $15 billion over a decade to find and produce new energy supplies in the Gulf of Mexico. It's a start.

At least the 2 women got the question right. Further questions: how much is there left to be found in the Gulf? Would it make a dent in our consumption, even if instantly available? If it's just a start, what then? Why the ads, to soften current and future windfall profits?


On BP's web site and another more recent tv ad, BP focuses on reducing carbon dioxide emissions through alternative energy. Like the recent Montreal climate conference, this is a distraction to the much more pressing problem of oil depletion.

This is how bp defines sustainability:

Sustainability for BP means the capacity to endure as a group, by renewing assets, creating and delivering better products and services that meet the evolving needs of society, delivering returns to our shareholders, attracting successive generations of employees, contributing to a flourishing environment and retaining the trust and support of our customers and the communities in which we operate. Sustainability, therefore, is a journey. We are committed to being open and transparent in our dealings with the outside world as we move in this direction.

But oil is finite and non-renewable, keenly so given our rate of extraction. What then is 'beyond petroleum'?

Here is Caltech physicist David Goodstein's concise analysis of the problem. At a 2004 conference, here's what Prof. Goodstein had to say:

We have created a trap for ourselves.
The United States has so far avoided serious consequences from the trap by relying on imports. The country uses about 7 billion of the 30 billion barrels of oil produced annually around the globe. And it makes us rich. Oil consumption equals standard of living,

A fellow physicist and former Caltech provost Steve Koonin, took a leave of absence from Caltech to become chief scientist at BP, for what that's worth.

The Tragedy of the Commons

Back in 1968, Garrett Hardin wrote this scholarly essay about the tragedy ahead; the site, DieOff, for a further exploration of this theme.