Running on empty (the New York Times discovers "Peak Oil")

[cthrumatrix]

Running on empty
by Natalie Canavor


If the cost of energy skyrockets, are the suburbs doomed? Would Long Island, already paying among the highest fuel and electricity rates in the country, become an unsustainably expensive place to live?

A way of thinking that says "yes" is circulating, and has assumed tangible form in a video called "The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream." Made in Toronto by the independent producers Gregory Greene and Barry Silverthorn, it explores the idea that the world is running out of cheap petrofuels and predicts the utter ruin of North America's suburbs - and not in the distant future, but somewhere between 5 and 25 years from now.

The video was screened last month at Molloy College in Rockville Centre, under the sponsorship of Long Island Neighborhood Network, an environmental advocacy group, and Vision Long Island, an organization that promotes the "new urbanism" or "smart growth" philosophy, which favors high-density, mixed-use, work-where-you-live downtowns over the classic low-density, home-with-a-yard model of suburbia.

snip

http://www.energybulletin.net/4698.html

[mikelewis]

1. A Republican Congressman asked Rumsfeld about this in the hearing

This was towards the end of the FY 2006 Supplemental. I forget the guys name but he laid out what peak oil was and asked Rummy for some comment on his views for the future. Rummy didn't deny it at all.

Funny thing is, Valerie Plame would have been a great person to confirm this information, too bad she was exposed as a spy. Oh well, business as usual.

I'll look for the transcript and post.

[mikelewis]

3. It was Roscoe Bartlett (R) from Maryland

I'll post the text when I find it.

The video is here

http://www.cspan.org/videoarchives.asp?CatCodePairs=,&ArchiveDays=100
rtsp://video.c-span.org/project/ter/ter031005_house.rm

His comments are about start at about 1 hour 31 minutes into the hearing.

[robertpaulsen]

2. Anyone who hasn't seen this film: GET IT!

It's a great film!

[cthrumatrix]

4. is it like an end times movie or is there hope?

[robertpaulsen]

5. A bit of both.

Certainly listening to Richard Heinberg talking about the neo-con PNAC plan for Peak Oil which is world domination sounds very much like end times. Michael Ruppert is also featured making scary predictions. But the movie actually ends on a note of hope, with Matthew Simmons stating his belief that humanity is very resourceful, and we may look back on Peak Oil and say "Look at all the wonderful things we've invented since then".

But overall, I'd say the movie is definitely a wake-up call. Peak Oil is coming, and this movie does present some ideas on how we can deal with it.

[robertpaulsen]

6. Here's the site I ordered it from.

Great site, I'm sure you've probably come across it in your Peak Oil research:

http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/Purchase.html