The Oil Drum

Well here I am sat by the tele, waiting for the BBC show, If the Oil Runs Out, the facts upon which they base it being given here.

Pause while 3,550,000 barrels of oil are consumed, (the show mentions that) and what did I think?

Well I could begin by suggesting they had the wrong buttons on the drill bit, but that would be a bit facetious. In a very small nutshell, it tracks a family during the time that the first well is drilled in ANWR, (in 2016) at the same time that President Chavez in Venezuela pulls his country out of OPEC, and that Saudi and China get together to do a goods for oil swop. Oil prices rise and the consequences are transiently illustrated through the impact on the family (losing job, long gas lines, food prices up, aspirin (an oil product) out of stock, and the like). The well is being drilled in the purported last hope for oil. And it does not find the 250 m of oil that was anticipated. But seven months later they are through the crisis and into another world.

...and that word is pab·u·lum, a noun; here are some definitions:

1. plant or animal food: a source of nourishment in an easily absorbable liquid, especially the nutrient intake of plants and lower animals
2. unsatisfying intellectual material: material whose intellectual content is thin, trite, bland, or generally unsatisfying (literary)

That was the word that immediately came to mind after I watched "We Were Warned" this evening. Some other thoughts under the fold.

The program (updated link) CNN Presents: We Were Warned: Tomorrow's Oil Crisis will air this Saturday at 8pm and 11pm EDT and again Sunday at 8pm and 11pm EDT.  The program will also air on CNN International on Saturday and Sunday as well (the times vary by locale, please check this site for the airing time in your country).

A brief comment if I may: [climbs on soapbox]The meme is developing, it is slowly and secularly becoming a part of the American consciousness, you can almost feel it. This is the time to share these ideas with the people you care about and help them learn something about these problems. Use these opportunities.[/climbs off soapbox]

Linked under the fold is something Leanan found on the Education portion of CNN, including a brief summary and a grade school classroom lesson about the production.