Movie Review Crude Awakening.

By Jim Reiher

“Oil is the excrement of the devil”. So began the documentary that looks at the world’s dwindling oil supplies, the nature of modern warfare, and the future for a world that has an insatiable appetite for more and more oil, and a declining supply of the same.

As the documentary opened, there was no fancy graphics or music.. no slick (excuse the pun) cinematography… it just got straight into discussing the current situation of the world’s oil supplies. And it was a sobering experience. It was not overly emotional. It was not particularly sensational. At moments I thought it could have gone further in its discussion (especially when looking at alternatives like wind and solar). But at least no one can say it is a piece of polemic or propaganda, (as was labeled Michael Moore’s films of a few years ago).

It was a sober experience. When it came to an end the small audience was silent. There was no clapping. No laughing. No cheering. No feelings of smugness or “I told you so”. Just a sense of tragedy. The world is facing a crisis and we really aren’t doing anything significant about it.

When a spokesperson said “Oil is our God: I don’t care if people say they worship Jesus or Buddha or whoever – we really worship oil” I sat a bit more attentively in my seat. As a Christian that was somewhat challenging. We live materialistic lives based on oil (the whole documentary shows that). We go to war for oil. We, as whole modern communities, will do almost anything for more oil. That statement (“Oil is our God”) might just be right.

And of course we go to war for oil. Sadam Hussein did just that when he attacked Kuwait (leading to the first Gulf war). And our side did it in the 2nd Gulf War. We have really got to stop pretending that oil was not one of the main motives behind the invasion of Iraq. Our side ousted the dictator, but did not hand back power to the Iraqi people. We are entrenched there. Our side militarily protects the oil fields and we make sure we are the beneficiaries of the Iraqi oil.

58 countries today produce less oil than they use to (including the USA, the UK and Australia). 2/3rds of the remaining oil of the world is in the Middle East. Some of the countries there have peaked in their production too (like Iran and Kuwait).

Despite the oil supplies of the world beginning to decline, the demand for them is bigger than ever and growing every year. In the 1970’s half the globe did not significantly want oil (Africa, India, China…) Now they all want to be just like the west. Instead of push bikes in China, everyone wants cars. China is the number 2 importer of oil in the world with a 10% economic growth rate a year (and pollution to match). America with 2% of the world’s oil supply, still consumes 25% of the world’s oil. It just can’t continue.

The future is not all that nice: our lifestyles can not be maintained. Our unborn grandchildren, probably will never fly in a plane. Unless we accept permanent intergenerational warfare, things really have to change. But sadly, the documentary concludes that the world does not have the political will to do anything about it. Vested interests are huge. Politicians will not make the hard decisions that cost them votes, until a crisis forces their hand (because if they respond to a crisis, they might not lose as many votes).

Personally I am not as pessimistic. I believe that we can combine alternative energy sources and they, as a package of options, will supply our needs in the future. Wind, solar and tidal… and probably clean coal and even (I shudder as I say it) some nuclear… will all be used in the future.

I just wonder how much war and how much crisis we must go through first to get us onto a better path.