If you expect this documentary to report a magical new energy source that the 25% of humankind in the 1st world can use to cheaply maintain our standard of living while giving the growing 2nd and 3rd worlds what we now take for granted...you will be left disappointed.
He gives no such promise. It is sad that most people think electricity originates in a wall socket and transitioning away from a once-in-a- millennia cheap and (previously) abundant energy source (=fossil fuels) will be as easy as flipping a switch. If it was that easy, we would have already done it.
The filmmaker interviews experts who say that future fossil fuel production cannot keep up with demand, alternatives are uneconomic without government subsidies, and there is nothing on the horizon to save us from wrenching long term decline in our standard of living: It's a very difficult pill to swallow. Unfortunately, he has done his homework and is mostly correct.
The message is 1) pursue alternatives until one actually works, even if it takes 1000 years, 2) conserve, conserve, conserve, 3) get access to existing fossil fuels (like others are doing), 4) get used to less (and more expensive) energy since we are now competing with others for the last of the "cheap" options.
If you didn't like the ending in "No Country for Old Men", you won't like this one either. However, you might be a little more appreciative of what you do have.
He gives no such promise. It is sad that most people think electricity originates in a wall socket and transitioning away from a once-in-a- millennia cheap and (previously) abundant energy source (=fossil fuels) will be as easy as flipping a switch. If it was that easy, we would have already done it.
The filmmaker interviews experts who say that future fossil fuel production cannot keep up with demand, alternatives are uneconomic without government subsidies, and there is nothing on the horizon to save us from wrenching long term decline in our standard of living: It's a very difficult pill to swallow. Unfortunately, he has done his homework and is mostly correct.
The message is 1) pursue alternatives until one actually works, even if it takes 1000 years, 2) conserve, conserve, conserve, 3) get access to existing fossil fuels (like others are doing), 4) get used to less (and more expensive) energy since we are now competing with others for the last of the "cheap" options.
If you didn't like the ending in "No Country for Old Men", you won't like this one either. However, you might be a little more appreciative of what you do have.
