Beyond Opinion

Yesterday I got in the mail a DVD I ordered called The End of Suburbia and looked at it on my home theater. To me this is the most important movie of the year. It is even more important than Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11. It is a movie about the upcoming oil shortage. According to the movie, it will threaten life in the suburbs, causing housing values to collapse in the suburbs and forcing people to live in the city. It may even affect our food production. The film then gives us a possible solution. This solution is not in terms of alternative fuels, such as hydrogen; instead it says that most hydrogen in the world comes from fossil fuels and so is really part of the problem. (I do think that hydrogen may work if it is obtained by electrolysis by solar energy.) Instead, the movie says that we will have to do things more locally, and mentioned an urban design of a combined shopping area and living place, featuring 3-5 story townhouse like habitats. If people group together and agree to buy such a place, they will bring to the "town" a feeling of belongingness that is lacking in the suburbs, where people don't care for each other at all. The movie also emphasizes simplicity and implies that we may have to grow some of our own food. It is an interesting film, and one that I think people should look at, for the media is hardly at all covering this forthcoming shortage. Indeed, when Anne told people where she was about it today, they acted surprised. But something will happen soon, because already Saudi Arabia is saying that it is pumping the best it can but many doubt it can meet demand, suggesting that we may have hit the peak. Please buy the DVD and play it for your friends, church, and civic groups, for this is by far the most important movie of the year. It can be obtained from Post Carbon Books.