This week, the price of crude oil is trading at a shocking $96 a barrel. By year’s end, analysts predict petroleum will reach $100. And it’s not going to stop there. The world we’ve created runs on oil. But energy experts say the world is running out of oil. Much faster than previously thought. Demand will continue to outpace supplies, shortages are inevitable, and the price will only continue to rise -- causing a ripple effect of disastrous economic, social and political consequences.

On Saturday December 08th, (at 02:00 PM. PST), the History Channel will present Megadisasters: Oil Apocalypse, a documentary that Los Angeles-based filmmaker Martin Kent is calling “a wake up call,” about the world’s energy crisis. “We can no longer count on getting all the gasoline we need – and there’s no plan B.”

By plan B, Kent is referring to a coordinated system of alternative energies laid out in his film, that could replace our addiction and dependence on oil. It’s long been known that oil is a finite, non-renewable resource, that pollutes the environment, and now mankind is coming to realize that it is also most likely causing climate change. “Yet government leaders keep proposing alternative energy plans that would be slowly implemented over the next few decades. That will be too late,” says Kent. As “Oil Apocalypse” points out, renewable, clean energies like solar and wind currently account for less than 1% of our power. Meanwhile, demand for oil is increasing. Much faster than previously anticipated. With China and India rapidly industrializing, creating an energy-hungry middle class, demand for oil will increase from the world’s current consumption of 84 million barrels a day, to 100 million barrels within the next 5 years. Unfortunately, while oil producers and refiners are scrambling to develop new techniques and sources of production, as yet they have not developed anything of proven value or significance to meet that level of demand.

“Oil Apocalypse” presents a terrifying set of of scenarios. True to the laws of supply and demand, we are fast approaching the breaking point, when the imbalance could destabilize the economies and infrastructures of virtually every nation on the planet. In filmmaker Kent’s documentary, some of the world’s most respected energy experts, financial analysts and political leaders are warning of dire consequences. A deadly scramble for the basic necessities of life. Neighbor against neighbor, nation against nation – perhaps even World War III. Still, they say it’s not too late. But we have to act fast. Says Kent: “My hope is that upon seeing this film, everyone will be inspired to become an energy activist, instead of sitting back and hoping that the scientists and leaders will somehow rise up and fix this in the eleventh hour.”

Interviews included in the film:

Richard Heinberg
Author, The Party’s Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies ; The Oil Depletion Protocol

Fadel Gheit
Managing Director, Oil & Gas Research, Oppenheimer & Co.

David Goodstein
Geologist, university professor, Caltech, author, Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil

Kenneth Deffeyes
Author, Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak

Roscoe Bartlett
Congressman, U.S. House of Representatives (6th District of Maryland - R)

J. Robinson West
Chairman, PFC Energy

Matthew Simmons
Chairman, Simmons & Company International, Author, Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock

Dan Arvizu
Director, National Renewable Energy Laboratory, Golden, CO

James Bartis
Senior Policy Researcher, Energy & Environment, RAND Corporation

Christine Woodside
Journalist, author, The Homeowner’s Guide to Energy Independence

Michael Economides
University Professor, Petroleum Engineering, University of Houston, Co-Author, The Color of Oil

Kurt Marfurt
Professor of Geophysics, University of Houston

Terry Penney
Technology Manager, Advanced Vehicles, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Thomas Foust
Biomass Program Technology Manager, National Renewable Energy Laboratory

Keith Wipke
Research Engineer, National Renewable Energy Lab

Marc Landry
Master Research Technician, National Renewable Energy Lab

Rick Mitchell
Offshore Oil Drilling Engineer, Devon Energy