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DESCRIPTION:Film evenings begin with potluck refreshments and social hour at  6:30 
 pm,\nfollowed by the film at  7:30 pm, followed by a discussion after the 
 film.\n\nA Crude Awakening:  The Oil Crash\nby Basil Gelpke and Ray 
 McCormack\n\nAll of the major energy experts including M. King Hubbert are 
 interviewed in this film.  Just about every conceivable concept related to 
 the world’s energy use, past, present, and future, along with great 
 comments regarding the various alternative possibilities (solar, wind, 
 nuclear, hydrogen, etc.), are illustrated in this film.  Oil is depicted as 
 a “miracle elixir”  –  an incredibly efficient energy source so cheap 
 it has transformed human civilization and makes it possible for us to 
 sustain a global population of nearly 7 billion people (and projected to 
 reach ten billion this century).\n\nYet in the big picture the “oil 
 age” will be remembered as a mere 200-300 year “blip” in human 
 history  –  a brief orgy of cheap energy.  This is a limited commodity 
 and when gone we are unlikely to have a good replacement.  Alternate energy 
 sources lack oil’s cheap abundance and efficiency.   If we convert to 
 nuclear on a global scale, in addition to hazards of waste disposal, we 
 will shortly deplete the earth’s uranium.  Solar and wind power are 
 simply inadequate to the task of replacing petroleum.   Hydrogen and 
 ethanol are expensive and require petroleum to produce.  Much is made of 
 discovering more reserves and expanded production, but these are being 
 absorbed by huge new markets in Asia and Africa and so they merely 
 accelerate our dash toward depletion.  The U.S. alone uses nearly 21 
 million barrels of oil per day.   This volume is equal to the flow of water 
 over the Niagara Falls in 19 minutes.  This kind of volume is obviously 
 unsustainable for very long, as is our human population now in overshoot.  
 We must do what we can to ward off a cataclysmic implosion of the world’s 
 seven to ten billion human population.\n\nMost people today are 
 concentrated in vast urban areas which produce no food and little water.  
 Food must be shipped into cities 24/7 via truck, rail, and air on a massive 
 scale.  When that becomes economically unfeasible, a few local farmer’s 
 markets will not fix it.   Starvation, disease, and local militias could 
 run rampant until populations are reduced to economically sustainable local 
 levels.  Already catastrophes related to oil have gone down  –  the 
 megadeath in Iraq, the propping up of dictators, the oil production waste 
 sites in Nigeria and Ecuador, and so on.  We must discover our power as 
 consumers, investors, citizen advocates, conservationists, activists, 
 socially responsible entrepreneurs, organic farmers and gardeners, and so 
 forth, and make our way towards a world that would be not only sustainable, 
 but a lot more fun.\n\nThis alarming film shows just how oil permeates so 
 much of our lives in the products we buy and the way we live.  Our lives 
 depend on oil not only for energy.  All the plastic is made from oil.  The 
 food we eat depends on oil for fertilizers, pesticides, and of course for 
 the fuel to drive tractors, etc.  In fact the “green revolution” that 
 made it possible to feed billions more on the same (or comparable) arable 
 surface as in the 1950′s depends on the availability of cheap oil.   
 There is still no energy source as cheap or as compact as oil (in terms of 
 energy per gallon — for instance it takes 50% more ethanol than gasoline, 
 by volume, to run a car).  We will soon begin to produce less oil, helpless 
 to meet demand.  Cover-ups of reserve declines by many oil producing 
 nations, a lack of viable alternatives, and a lack of time to make an 
 effective transition ring the alarm bell loudly.  But there is a positive 
 side to oil depletion that this film does not mention:  a new oil-free 
 world should help with the global warming.\n\nWheelchair accessible around 
 the corner at  411  28th  Street\n\n$5 donations are accepted\n\n\n\n\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/02/26/18673122.php
SUMMARY:A Crude Awakening
LOCATION:Humanist Hall\n390  27th  Street\nuptown Oakland, between Telegraph and 
 Broadway\nhttp://www.HumanistHall.org
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/02/26/18673122.php
DTSTART:20110317T023000Z
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