The magazine on peak oil and the Transition movement
The best documentaries, feature films and shorts.
After I saw Matt Damon and John Krasinski's new fracking drama Promised Land, I couldn't help but compare it to the slew of trite pieces trotted out during the previews. There was the typical wedding family hijinks RomCom; the take-no-prisoners gangster-fest; the scorched-earth-meets-futuristic-savior piece; and some picture about a lovable psychotic redeemed by a chick. Guilty pleasures, all (for somebody). And all committed to film using no small amount of fossil fuel … [Read more...]
Can shopping save the world? Put down your credit card and start exercising your citizen muscles with Annie Leonard’s new film. I used to think the truth would set us free. Like many who care about the environment, I spent years thinking that information would lead to change. If only people realize the mess our planet is in, I thought, things will change. So I wrote reports, gave speeches, even testified before Congress. Some things changed. Sadly, the big picture didn’t. For a long … [Read more...]
A Pigaerator? What’s that? I’m glad you asked. Joel Salatin, Janaia Donaldson’s guest on this episode of Peak Moment TV, explains this, while providing many other fascinating insights Salatin's pasture-based agriculture on Polyface Farms in Virginia. To avoid the overgrazing so common in modern farm practices, animals are moved every day to fresh pasture, including their portable infrastructure such as shelters and electric fencing. Sequester some carbon cowpies While most modern … [Read more...]
Film Review: The Big Fix exposes BP's efforts to minimize awareness of North America's biggest oil spill. In the weeks after the Deepwater Horizon platform exploded and oil began pouring into the Gulf of Mexico, filmmaker Josh Tickell was in touch with folks back home in Louisiana. The stories they told about the spill were very different from what he was hearing in the mainstream media. So Josh and his wife Rebecca hired a film crew and drove south to find out for themselves what was going … [Read more...]
It seems that gone are the days of finding Grandma’s thrifty old ways and viewpoints amusing and charmingly old fashioned. But are we missing out on not only a resource that's much needed today in hearing about how our grandparents used to live, but also simply tuning into and honoring the wisdom of the elders? As the US faces an uncertain future, financially as well as in many other ways, it's time to turn to those who've lived through other hard times, such as the Great Depression, to … [Read more...]
Peak oil. What changes might it bring and what mind shifts may we have to make to prepare ourselves to face these challenges, both in a practical sense and psychologically? This is the basis for Peak Moment TV Conversation' 351 with Energy Bulletin co-editor Bart Anderson. With the possibility of such dramatic change to how we live, how we interact with the world, and even how we think and view things, what do we need to do to make this transition easier? School's in Anderson urges … [Read more...]
Admit it: you love Soylent Green. Whenever it appears on any late-night television schedule, fans of the cult film have to watch. Not because it’s a good movie. With its cheesy “futuristic” music and leading man Charlton Heston’s faux tough-guy dialogue, Soylent Green is an easy target to lampoon. But its impact – and its message – continues to be surprisingly durable. Apocalypse bites The year is 2022. Scarcity – of every resource – is a fixed fact of life for the 40 … [Read more...]
John Ottway has the job at the end of the world. He's a sharpshooter who protects oil rig workers from animal predators lurking in the wilderness surrounding a remote Alaskan oil facility in the new film, The Grey. When Ottway (Liam Neeson) and some of his co-workers workers board a light plane for Nome, he finds out quickly that his knowledge of wolf behavior will come in handy. The plane crashes and he and the handful of survivors face an ultimate battle of survival with no fuel, food or GPS … [Read more...]
Peak oil isn't all about Saudi Arabia depletion curves and what's for lunch at the annual ASPO conference. In fact, may folks still don't know much about peak oil. I didn't know about it until recently. My casual online search for ideas about how to simplify my home led me, via Peak Moment, to so much more than I could ever have imagined. I found an episode about a couple who were simplifying, which was my introduction to Peak Moment, and also to the issue of peak oil. More than 200 … [Read more...]
An ongoing issue in the peak oil world is how to tell the story of declining non-renewable resources in a way that's accessible to a wider audience, while remaining credible to experts. To reach out without dumbing down. Most experts on energy and the economy have already made up their minds on the financial crisis, global warming and peak oil and no one documentary is going to shake the faith of these stalwarts. But the public is a different story and there's plenty of room there for … [Read more...]
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