"Oil Storm" (on FX, Sun. at 8) and “Asleep in America”, films on peak oil

[hadrons]

There's an "original" movie airing on FX on Sunday (8 pm EST) called "Oil Storm" and what the FX website had to say:

"Oil Storm will look at a series of natural and man-made disasters which interrupt the flow of oil to the United States, creating a huge set of crises and dramatically changing our way of life. Oil Storm changes the form of the traditional disaster movie, as it will be designed to be an accurate, thought-provoking and serious portrayal of what would potentially happen in the event of if oil production to America was halted."


Also, a new documentary is in the works called “Asleep in America”, how it differs from "End of Suburbia" I don't know, but from the website:

The project “Asleep in America” is a documentary that explores the topic of Peak Oil. Peak Oil happens when global demand for fossil fuels surpasses supply. Experts agree that Global Peak production will surely happen. They disagree only on when it will happen. Oil industry analysts predict the Global Peak could occur around 2020. Critics disagree and provide evidence suggesting the Peak will occur as early as 2010. Either way, the Peak is inevitable.

....

http://www.peakoil.net/Documentary.html

[NMDemDist2]

1. is the documentary playing on FX as well? n/t

[ohio_liberal]

2. I've been seeing the promos on FX

during NASCAR races. I'll definitely check it out.

[kliljedahl]

26. Little bit of

y in that, don't you think?


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[BrklynLiberal]

3. This was discussed on "Ring of Fire" today

The Long Emergency

What's going to happen as we start running out of cheap gas to guzzle?

By JAMES HOWARD KUNSTLER

A few weeks ago, the price of oil ratcheted above fifty-five dollars a barrel, which is about twenty dollars a barrel more than a year ago. The next day, the oil story was buried on page six of the New York Times business section. Apparently, the price of oil is not considered significant news, even when it goes up five bucks a barrel in the span of ten days. That same day, the stock market shot up more than a hundred points because, CNN said, government data showed no signs of inflation. Note to clueless nation: Call planet Earth.

<snip>

The term "global oil-production peak" means that a turning point will come when the world produces the most oil it will ever produce in a given year and, after that, yearly production will inexorably decline. It is usually represented graphically in a bell curve. The peak is the top of the curve, the halfway point of the world's all-time total endowment, meaning half the world's oil will be left. That seems like a lot of oil, and it is, but there's a big catch: It's the half that is much more difficult to extract, far more costly to get, of much poorer quality and located mostly in places where the people hate us. A substantial amount of it will never be extracted.

The United States passed its own oil peak -- about 11 million barrels a day -- in 1970, and since then production has dropped steadily. In 2004 it ran just above 5 million barrels a day (we get a tad more from natural-gas condensates). Yet we consume roughly 20 million barrels a day now. That means we have to import about two-thirds of our oil, and the ratio will continue to worsen.

The U.S. peak in 1970 brought on a portentous change in geoeconomic power. Within a few years, foreign producers, chiefly OPEC, were setting the price of oil, and this in turn led to the oil crises of the 1970s. In response, frantic development of non-OPEC oil, especially the North Sea fields of England and Norway, essentially saved the West's ass for about two decades. Since 1999, these fields have entered depletion. Meanwhile, worldwide discovery of new oil has steadily declined to insignificant levels in 2003 and 2004.

<snip>

Now we are faced with the global oil-production peak. The best estimates of when this will actually happen have been somewhere between now and 2010. In 2004, however, after demand from burgeoning China and India shot up, and revelations that Shell Oil wildly misstated its reserves, and Saudi Arabia proved incapable of goosing up its production despite promises to do so, the most knowledgeable experts revised their predictions and now concur that 2005 is apt to be the year of all-time global peak production.

It will change everything about how we live.

<snip>

more....
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/_/id/7203633?rnd=1118015270621&has-player=true&version=6.0.12.872

[kliljedahl]

24. Kunstler is also affiliated with "The End of Suburbia"

A much better documentary about our relationship with oil.

Link: http://www.endofsuburbia.com/

"Oil Storm" seems to deal with "disasters" that interrupt our "Abundant Supply". "The End of Suburbia" deals with peak oil & why we're in deep Doo-Doo.


Keith’s Barbeque Central

[Junkdrawer]

4. Are we being prepared for an open War for Oil?

I'm watching now...

[ohio_liberal]

5. I dunno

Certainly not flattering to the Saudi royal family.

[Coexist]

8. they did say that the Bush's were not that close to the Saudi Royal Family

that made me roll my eyes.

[ohio_liberal]

11. I missed that part

They were pretty accurate about the Saudi royals having tenuous control over the country and that they're greedy bastards. I'm not sure what to think yet of the uber-religious gas station owner and family. I'd bet the son who shipped out isn't coming back.

[Coexist]

15. they didn't mention how the royal family has the oil system "rigged"

to be destroyed if there was ever a "coup".

[Coexist]

16. delete - dupe

[bdot]

6. I've been watching it.

It's really weird. It's like watching a show on the History Channel for something that happens in the future.

[FreedomAngel82]

7. I forgot about it

Does anybody know if it's going to reair?

[bdot]

9. Yes. 10PM EST

and 4 more times after that. Check your local listings.

[The River]

10. Todays "Fiction" is Tomorrows "Reality"

Todays reality is fueled by oil.
What kind of reality would $5 or $10
a gallon gas bring?
No film at 11

[pstans]

12. I am watching Oil Storm

I have been a follower of Peak Oil and huge James Howard Kunstler fan. I am skeptical that this movie will show the truth, that we are addicted to oil and need to look to alternate forms of energy and localize our lives.

Here are a few thoughts...

1. 30 minutes into the movie, they have repeatedly said that the Saudis have extra capacity to just increase production to help us out. Many people are suspecting that the Saudi's are at Peak already and are unable to just turn out more oil.

2. The price per barrel in the movie was $77. Kunstler has said that the price per barrel could reach over $100 dollars per barrel.

3. The Knowle family (the ones that own the gas station) saying that people will need to turn to faith to survive didn't surprise me coming from Murdoch.

4. The trucking industry would be dead and their protests would be unheard.

5. They better not spin this to encourage destroying ANWR.

[pstans]

13. Noooo! Don't cut the farm aid

In the movie they just cut the farm aid by 50%. The Petro-Agriculture that this country depends would shrivel up and there would be no large scale farming in the country and large food shortages.

[ohio_liberal]

14. Its creepy, isn't it?

You can watch this and guess what's going to happen next. I wonder how many people are watching this and thinking it could never happen.

[Lannes]

17. "5. They better not spin this to encourage destroying ANWR."

Thats what I was thinking,wouldnt be surprised if someone cites this as an excuse to do it.It would be cool if someone flipped it and responded that this is why we should be trying to use emerging technologies to lessen our dependence.Not Ws alternatives but real ones.

[Jawja]

27. This fictional "documentary"

is assuming the Bush Administration is COMPETENT enough to handle such a crisis.

:eyes:

[Coexist]

18. they've lost me - mom can't afford heat or medicine

daughter lives alone - yet they don't move in together to make due until the winter is over.

And why do they not discuss oil from Venezuela? Russia first? We are in a crisis and we approach Russia before South America? WTF?

[pstans]

19. Russia doesn't have any extra oil either

A big reason for the fall of the Soviet Union was that they passed their Peak in the mid 80's.

[blurp]

28. Then you must think that USA failed in 1970

A big reason for the fail of the Soviet Union was that they passed their Peak in the mid 80's.

That's a bunch of bunk.

Mikhail Gorbachev:

"It was a shame, and I continue to say that it was a shame, that during the final years under Brezhnev, we were planning to create a commission headed by the secretary of the Central Committee, Kapitonov to solve the problem of women's pantyhose. Imagine a country that flies into space, launches Sputniks, creates such a defense system, and it can't resolve the problem of women's pantyhose. There's no toothpaste, no soap powder, not the basic necessities of life. It was incredible and humiliating to work in such a government. And so our people were already worked up, and that is why the dissident movement occurred."


The USA had its oil peak in 1970, and somehow we still managed to make toothpaste.

[pstans]

31. Communism?

The US survived their Peak because of Capitalism. The Soviets couldn't because of Communism. I will look for a link to where I read about the Soviet Peak.

[Coexist]

35. Here is some stuff on Soviet peak oil

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article4455.htm
<snip>
The Memorandum predicts an impending peak in Soviet oil production "not later than the early 1980s" (the actual peak occurred in 1987 at 12.6 million barrels per day, following a preliminary peak in 1983 of 12.5 Mb/d). "During the next decade," the unnamed authors of the document conclude, "the USSR may well find itself not only unable to supply oil to Eastern Europe and the West on the present scale, but also having to compete for OPEC oil for its own use." The Memorandum predicts that the oil peak will have important economic impacts: "When oil production stops growing, and perhaps even before, profound repercussions will be felt on the domestic economy of the USSR and on its international economic relations."

http://www.pastpeak.com/archives/2005/03/oil_and_the_sov_1.htm
<snip>
Stephen Kotkin points out that the Soviet Union, up to 1985, was exporting two million barrels of oil per day. The hard currency from oil allowed the Soviets to import items that were internally in short supply, from electronics to soap. At that time, Soviet oil production was larger than Saudi production by a factor of three, but Saudi Aramco had much lower production costs. Saudi Aramco resorted to a familiar tactic: a price war. They flooded the world with oil and drove the world price of crude oil below the Soviet cost of production and transportation...evere shortages of everything...developed within the Soviet bloc. <...>

After six years without hard currency, the Soviet Union collapsed. Control of the world's dominant energy source carries enormous power.

[bdot]

20. That's Americans for ya.

They never use common sense.

[Individualist]

23. My thought as well

It wasn't mentioned whether the daughter's residence had heat. In any event, there was no mention of a husband, so it wouldn't have been a big problem, especially in view of a crisis situation, to move in together.

[pstans]

21. Yeaaaahh!

An hour and a half into the movie with Oil over $150+ per barrel they say that America realizes that they need to abandon oil as their main energy form and cure their addiction.

Hmm... we should be doing that now.

[Lannes]

22. later they said

That they need to increase domestic oil to solve their problems.Cheney must have ghost written this movie.

[Massacure]

25. what was the point of that G-Whiz commercial?

That was actually quite humorous.

[lectrobyte]

41. What was the G Whiz commercial? I only caught the last hour of

the show. Thanks.

[Massacure]

42. It was a device to measure G-forces.

They were showing people in cars turning corners and their faces were getting all distorted. Then they attached a G-Whiz to their sun visor and it would tell them when they were turning too fast so their faces would not get distorted and make them look like freaks of nature. It was quite obviously a sarcastic commercial, but why waste money to air something like that?

[burythehatchet]

29. YAYYYYYY.....Preznit Bush saved the day again

he's the BEST!!!!!!!

and here I thought this thing would be more propoganda....:sarcasm:

[bdot]

30. I don't think they ever mentioned Cheney

They did mention Rice. Is Cheney out by Sept of this year?

[Junkdrawer]

32. Yep. As it becomes more and more transparent that Iraq (and Iran?)..

is all about Oil, we're going to be shown that "we have a stake" in the Oil Wars.

Now here's the Big Question: If we're going to war for Oil, shouldn't we be giving more than lip service to conservation and CAFE standards?

[burythehatchet]

34. Find a way to make money from conservation

and the Bushies will be all over it.

[BamaGirl]

33. Anyone else feel like they just watched a two hour commercial for

domestic drilling?? I won't even go into the religious stuff. Needless to say, I wasn't surprised to see those references.

[Coexist]

36. Oh yeah.

No talk of funding for new technologies - just "let's find our OWN sources."

[RoyGBiv]

37. The religious stuff ...

To be perfectly honest, I feel like I'm watching a documentary on the need to establish strong religious institutions, the implication being that those who are not associated with these institutions will starve.

The overall tone is on the surface critical of our government, but I haven't been able to put away the feeling that the real criticism is of a secular government specifically.

[Renew Deal]

38. It's pretty interesting.

It's many of the Peak Oil predictions in a 2 hour package.

[doublethink]

39. It's only a half hour into the movie here on the west coast ...

and I have a problem with the thank God for the "Saud's'" slant so far. I really haven't been paying real attention to it though 100%, just on in the background, I'll have to catch this propaganda on the rebound once it replays about 30 times before we invade Iran at some point.... la de da de da. :) Peace.

[high density]

40. "Oil Storm" was rather lame and contrived

It was talking about finding domestic sources of oil and I felt like I was watching an ad for the Bushco energy policy of oil, oil, and more oil. Too bad, it could have been interesting but my suspension of disbelief was destroyed when the mother character was crying for her son who died for oil, while the dad was advocating for more oil about a breath or two later.