[Peakoil] DVD - "Peak Oil: imposed by Nature" free copy

[Alex P]

This video packs a lot in and is a real hoot! Good for sending to friends (I
think):

http://www.jameswjohnson.com/movies/vids/post-oilman_win.htm

Alex
O4O4873828

ACT Peak Oil
http://act-peakoil.org

On Sun, 2 Jul 2006 11:20:21 +1000, Keith Thomas <keith at evfit.com> wrote :

> 
> 
> I was disappointed by this DVD (see my review from this list in August 
> last year), but have heard others speak highly of it. I have not 
> watched it a second time. Seems a pity for it lie dormant if it can be 
> of some use, so if anyone wants it, they can collect it from my place 
> in Ainslie.
> 
> The End of Suburbia is, in my view, far better.
> --------------------------------------------
> Keith Thomas
> www.evfit.com
> --------------------------------------------
> 
> I have just watched the video "Peak Oil: Imposed by Nature" which was
> released in the UK last month.  The title carries with it the main
> message Colin Campbell seems to be making in the documentary: peak oil
> is imposed by nature, so governments should 'come out' and tell us
> that; we can then join together in preparing for the future.  Until
> governments do this, he says there'll be conspiracy theories, with
> those who are aware blaming government and the oil companies.
> 
> I don't have a tv or a DVD player so I went next door to watch it
> (first time I have ever used a DVD in a player).  I tell you this to
> let you know I am not a sophisticated user of the medium.
> 
> In my view the DVD takes 28 minutes to tell us what could have been
> conveyed in about 5 minutes if it wasn't strung out with supposedly
> clever use of images – which I found to be an irritation, especially
> when there was nothing being said. I didn't need a sequence of Campbell
> playing the accordion, or Campbell walking along the clifftops.
> 
> Apart from Campbell's message, the thing I found most useful overall
> was the non-American accents of Campbell and a young English risk
> analyst.  Matt Simmons has a mild American accent (he was interviewed
> in London) and Michael Ruppert appeared too.
> 
> The DVD opens with a strung-out story if Campbell being monitored by
> the CIA to see how close ASPO is to breaking into the public
> consciousness. It claims "vested interests and other forces have
> done their utmost to prevent the information from reaching the public
> consciousness".
> 
> Campbell makes the important point that "we have not been here before".
>    No one can predict what will happen.  The complexity of our economy,
> our society and our environment and their interactions is such that
> there are no experts.  Some people will talk and write about it more
> than others, but no one knows more than anyone else about the future.
> 
> Although the DVD case says "it draws up lines of possible consequences
> for mankind", I found these very light-on – for the reason, no doubt,
> that I have just mentioned.
> 
> Campbell is filmed in Stavanger (the '-anger' rhymes with banger and
> hangar, not danger; the emphasis is on the second syllable) and there
> is some Norwegian language content translated with subtitles. While in
> Norway, Campbell tracks the arrival at their peak of the North Sea oil
> and gas fields.
> 
> The risk analyst draws on his past experience to say that when an
> isolated incident (like a single refinery going off line for a few days
> or a storm in the Gulf of Mexico disrupting supplies) has a notable
> effect on global prices, it points to the situation approaching a
> crisis point.
> 
> Simmons's first contribution was of limited value; I don't think he
> prepared for it and seems to be in the documentary only because he is
> Matthew Simmons.  For what it's worth he did say "Demand will exceed
> supply, and supply equals use".
> 
> His second contribution was the obvious one that problems – even
> problems as big as this one – don't need to destroy society, but they
> are far more likely to do so if we leave them unattended for long
> enough.
> 
> His third contribution was that if you think climate change scores 3
> out of ten in terms of its impact, then peak oil scores ten out of ten.
> (Which is about what you'd expect from an American suit.)
> 
> A Norwegian-speaking (?) member of Simmons's staff predicts that a
> massive rise in coal consumption will replace oil, especially in China.
>    He is aware of the immense environmental impact this will have.
> 
> Chris Skrebowski looked into the future a bit: "We have to face the
> possibility that we will have to give a much larger role to government"
> and that the government would find itself in an almost wartime
> situation with regard to the need for rationing.  He predicts the
> military and the police would receive priority; but he did not mention
> who would be third – no mention of agriculture!
> 
> Campbell was filmed talking to an almost empty committee room at the
> House of Commons taking to a few MPs.  I think I saw about 6 and
> guessed there might have been 10.  Campbell said later there were
> 20-30.  Perhaps the others didn't want to be recorded in such company!
> Notably no ministers turned up.  Campbell says ministers won't comment
> "for fear of causing the panic which they are working to prevent."
> 
> There's a lovely, if brief, shot of a wheelwright in India putting the
> finishing touches to the steel hoop on a wooden cartwheel.  The message
> is that peak oil will affect most the greatest consumers of oil, not
> the places like India. I predict we'll be enticing Indian wheelwrights
> to Australia in the future, not Indian computer programmers.
> 
> The documentary finishes with the statement that "Colin Campbell and
> Matthew Simmons are probably the most important whistleblowers of our
> time. If now only those in power and our politicians might show a
> similar civil courage ... we have zero time!"
> 
> The credits say that it was produced with support of "Freedom of
> Expression Federation, Oslo and the Norwegian Film Fund"
>