Week 2: 'A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash'

'A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash' is a documentary that deals with the history of oil and its future as we approach a peak in oil production, showing the dangers of our current way of life and the consequences if we don't change or find a viable renewable energy source. Some points raised in the film include:

• 98% of our current transportation energy is from oil
• Every calorie consumed in USA has taken 10 calories of hydrocarbon to produce
• In 1900, Baku in Azerbaijan produced 95% of the World's oil, but now much of their oil reserves have been exhausted
• Until 1950 the US was the main producer, but their reserves have also mainly run out in previously abundant areas like McCabey, Texas, and oil drilled from Maracaibo, Venezuela
• Oil has been a reason for warfare for many years and Caucasian oil reserves helped give Russia victory over the Germans in World War II, also dubbed 'the War of Engines'
• Statistics for oil reserves haven't decreased despite extensive drilling and some figures seem to increase overnight as countries won't acknowledge the depletion of their oil for fear of losing trade
• China imports 25% of the world's oil, and with its high growth rate and the population's aspirations the levels of car ownership will only increase.