The end of the world as we know it?

On the weekend, I watched a pair of shock-docs - documentaries written to wake you out of your mega-consuming, capitalist slumber and make you think about the big picture with regards to our current idyllic lifestyle and the one thing it hinges on - cheap, plentiful oil.

The 2 documentaries, "Crude Awakening" and "The End of Suburbia" tell the story of how bad the world is destined to get now that we've passed the point of 'global peak oil'. There's a brief on Crude Awakening here. It's not a happy story. If things go according to the documentaries' predictions, things are going to suck, especially for cultures / regions that cannot transform their global dependencies into local ones. In other words - you better find a way to get your energy, food, work, clothing, etc. as close to home as possible. This is because as oil becomes rarer, the things we take for granted, starting with global goods production and delivery will be all but a memory except for the rich, then eventually for everyone.

I did find the topics offered in the documentaries to be perfect for discussion and reflection, but even if what they predict is true in every respect, I doubt the powers that be have the willpower to do anything about it. Also, I found some of the predictions to be based on our ability to do certain things with only our current level of technology, with no regard to what we could achieve if we put our minds to it. But I did appreciate that they put the hydrogen economy solution to rest with honest explanations of why it can't work based on today's infrastructure.