Crude Awakening: Shrewd filmmaking

il is the most important resource in the world today, with all of our conveniences propped up by rich, dark crude. Oil is in the insecticide used to kill cockroaches, and food has petroleum-based fertilizers to help it grow. A Crude Awakening: the Oil Crash shows simply and grippingly that the convenience of modern North American life is tied inexorably to the supply of oil. And that supply is already drying up.

The film’s material is presented in a simple, matter-of-fact way that is at once chilling and riveting. With compelling visuals and simple dialogue, A Crude Awakening presents its weighty subject–one full of scientific jargon and complicated geological concepts–in a way even a roughneck can understand. A central theme throughout is the oil peak, and how supply can only go down while consumption can only go up–a paradox that will end in an incredible financial crash and massive recession.

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