'Americans believe that God will ensure there is enough oil for them forever'
Life, as we know it, is coming to an end. While the experts keep arguing about just how much of a threat global warming is, there is one genuinely inconvenient — and irrefutable — truth that will affect us all: the oil supply is finite and we’re running out. This particular problem is the basis of A Crude Awakening, a bleak but still entertaining look at the looming crisis and just how we got to this point. Neil Davey caught up with documentary makers Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack.
The subject of oil shortages was a huge issue in the late 70s but seems to have been swept under the carpet. It’s the elephant in the room — we all know it’s happening but we’ve been ignoring the situation for years.
Ray: Yes. Exactly. We're all doing rather well, we have a very comfortable life based on the oil so why rock the boat? We're not pointing the finger at oil companies.
Basil: We all enjoy a fabulous lifestyle. I was on a Mediterranean island recently and a little girl developed a medical condition. There was no hospital on the island but an hour later a chopper lands and flies her to the mainland. Thanks to oil. It's created a fabulous lifestyle.
R: But we probably all need to change our consumption patterns and leave oil for the important things. I don't fly to Barcelona to go clubbing on a Friday night and I think everyone has to stop doing that fairly soon.
Comparisons to An Inconvenient Truth are, perhaps, inevitable. That’s come under pressure from certain parties and organisations. Have you been put under any pressure or received any negative press from the oil companies?
R: No, not at all.
B: There's actually been interest. The library of Shell, corporate communications from BP, they've asked for the DVD and have offered to pay for it.
R: We're happy to buy oil from them and very happy to sell them our DVDs. It's a good arrangement.
B: There's been more interest from within the financial community, hedge funds and similar, they've organised in house screenings.
R: Nobody’s writing to us saying we're talking rubbish, which is gratifying. Although there have been one or two extremists.
B: Yes, we're are not good Christians apparently.
R: Or that we're in the pay of the oil companies, trying to stir things up so they can put the price up! We’ve had two people say that. But we're talking a very tiny minority.
B: We told them we would have accepted if the oil companies had offered us enough...!
R: Some people in the US believe that the world was created 5000 years ago and oil was created then and God will ensure that there's enough for us till the end of creation. Everybody has their own opinion. But most people have written to say thank you for making the film. When people write to the BBC, nine out of 10 are complaining. With us it's the other way round. We seem to have made something that people accept.
Now we just have to hope that people go and see it, of course.
R: Exactly, that's the other thing.
B: And it is an entertaining film. You can be serious and engaging. We want young cinemagoers to realise that this is the problem they're going to be most affected by in the next 20-30 years. It will help them to know before hand.
R: We had a couple of young journalists say that they didn't find it depressing they found it enlightening, it's something they're glad they know.
Although the comparisons to An Inconvenient Truth are probably inevitable, it probably makes a more appropriate sister piece to Who Killed The Electric Car? which shows it could all have been so much different.
R: Back in the 1990s, I think the oil companies felt threatened.
B: They're probably biting their fingers that they didn't pursue it, now that Toyota has these hybrid cars. They come up with smaller cars, more energy efficient cars and I wouldn't be surprised if they come up with a more feasible electric car in the near future.
R: What seems a little strange is that they're focusing on the hydrogen solution, while the engineers are saying electric is the best hope. The companies still seem to be off message somehow. Hydrogen stores more energy but it's gas and, increasingly, coal so it's using three times the amount of fossil fuel. It's not really a clever way to go.
Has making the film made you change your lifestyle in any way?
B: Not really. We're just two guys.
R: I don't own a car… but the ‘elephant in the room’ within this debate is the food question. The production of our food is totally dependent on fossil fuels. It's 10 units of fossil fuels to one unit of food, 10 calories to one. That’s going to become a real issue… it already is
B: Wheat prices and corn prices are rising
R: I've started becoming friendly with the farmer that drives up and down my road selling his produce. I'm slowly adapting. But it's not about us, it's about everybody and adjusting our consumption patterns. Even if you do want to do something, it's not that easy.
B: The problem is the 300 million people in China with driving licences. It's not finger pointing or blaming the Chinese, but this is actually happening. We have the two most populated countries on the planet industrialising very rapidly. And the problem is in the numbers, the 300m with licences but no cars yet. I don't want to sound cynical about it but ultimately the real impact will be in higher prices for energy so we make better use of it.
R: These places are just beginning to develop their consumption patterns, inflation is being kept in check by inexopensive goods coming out of China, so for the first time we're about to see a truly globalised economy and we're coming into a phase where energy will be more scarce and in every respect more expensive. What’s the impact of that going to be?
Has anyone had a dig about you doing publicity tours for a film that ostensibly suggests we should consider our oil consumption?
R: It’s true. I didn't cycle here from Zurich…
B: I don't think it's about guilt, it's about planning. But overall mobility needs to come down. Yes, it can be a great thing to go to a party on a Friday in Barcelona but do we need to do all that commuting?
R: And a lot of publicity we've done for the film has been phone-ins or over the net.
B: And the benefits of doing the film and the publicity far offsets any consumption.
R: I think it's a sensible use of fossil fuels to go around and explain to people we need to use less of them.
The comment in the film that really hit home was the expert pondering the question of whether our grandchildren will fly.
R: I would say if your grandchild turns out to be a very rich person, I'd say yes. But for most of us, it'll be the special thing it was when we were kids. Which is okay, in a way.
B: I was 12 when I flew for the first time, I remember it well.
R: And you'll enjoy it more... as we were gathering material for the film, we didn't always jump on a plane. Basil went to Venezuela and Azerbaijan, but there wasn't anyone we could call up and say shoot an interview with this person and send it to us. We did that where we could though.
B: We didn't do things to save fossil fuels though, we did it to save money.
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