A review of CNN: "We Were Warned: Tomorrow's Oil Crisis"
Tom Fugate
Mad River Post Carbon

This CNN documentary was shown three times on March 18 and again on March 19. Apparently the mainstream media has decided it’s time to alert the American public that there’s a serious problem coming with energy supplies. I suppose that those of us who have been talking about this looming crisis for years should appreciate the fact that it’s finally getting some traction with the media. As a serious discussion of the issue, however, this film leaves much to be desired.

To begin with there was not one mention of the words “peak oil� by anyone. Surely Matthew Simmons at least must have spoken about peak oil with Frank Sesno. Did they edit it out? If so, for what reason? Instead of a serious discussion about the geological realities we are facing what we got was a confusing mishmash of a future oil crisis in 2009 caused by a category 5 hurricane striking Houston followed by a terrorist attack on Saudi Arabia oil infrastructure. Juxtaposed with this we had CNN’s Frank Sesno investigating various possibilities of meeting America’s petroleum “needs�. Osama bin Laden received prominent mention several times as a likely cause of the oil crisis. Indeed the entire film could be seen as one big advertisement for the “war on terror�.

Minutes
Mad River Post-Carbon
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
At Rootswork in East Warren

In attendance: Tom Fugate, Brian Degen, Brendan Degen, Richard Czaplinski, Dennis Derryberry, Jennifer Grace, Serena Gulisano, John Vitko, Nils Behn, Anne Sidney, Robert Riversong, Alex Maclay, Mason Wade, Dorothy Tod, Barry Simpson, Peter Laskowski

We began this meeting with a slide show by Richard Czaplinski on his experiences with living “low on the hog�. Richard has been homesteading in Adamant, Vermont for the past 28 years. He built his modest house using rock and wood from his own property. The entire house cost less than $5,800 to build. He showed us his vegetable gardens, apple trees (varieties which he chose and grafted himself), root cellar, wood cook stove, and attached greenhouse. Richard grows much of his own food and uses various methods of preserving it for winter consumption including canning, drying, root cellaring, and a passive solar greenhouse. He also hunts deer which are locally abundant. He is completely off grid and uses only a tiny amount of electricity which he gets from three solar panels and batteries. All together an impressive and inspiring lifestyle which we all should seek to emulate as energy supplies become scarce.