Oil-addicted world faces crude awakening

Described as "one of the most frightening films you are ever likely to see" by British newspaper The Guardian, "A Crude Awakening" is essential viewing for anyone wanting to understand the current crisis and why the future is far from rosy.

The documentary, known as "The Oil Crash" outside English-speaking countries, argues that we are moving from a period of cheap, abundant energy to a period of expensive, hard-to-get energy. Since not only politicians but almost everyone - business, the oil multinationals - have failed to anticipate the problem and invest in alternative energy sources, it's going to hurt.

Wars over resources, inflation, economic slowdown, food shortages and a collapsing airline industry are just some of the expected consequences of an addicted world being forced to wean itself off oil.

Oil prices have jumped 50 percent in 2008 alone, battering the economies of consumer nations already hit hard by the global credit crunch.

"A Crude Awakening," which won the Zurich Film Prize in 2006 and has been distributed in more than 20 countries, was made by Swiss journalist Basil Gelpke and Irish-born filmmaker Ray McCormack, who has lived in Zurich since 2000.

McCormack, who has a degree in environmental policy, tells Swissinfo how kicking the fossil fuel habit is going to require a radical change in lifestyle - for everyone.

Swissinfo: How many times a day do you say "I told you so"?

Ray McCormack: We don't say that, but when people said we were scaremongering and just helping the oil companies make more profits, we would say "well we hope we're wrong, but it doesn't look like we are."

But it's not us: it's the people in the film. It isn't my concept that oil exists in finite quantities and sooner or later production will reach a point at which it can no longer rise and it then will slowly fall off while demand will stay the same or keep rising. That's what peak oil is and it's happening right now. People say you should never let facts get in the way of a good story, but for us the facts were the story!

Swissinfo: At the end of the film I thought "that's it - we're doomed." What reaction were you aiming for?

RM: The idea was to shock people into awareness at the very least and to question what they could do to respond to what is going to be quite a tough situation. If you wait until it's upon you, it's too late.

The most telling statistic for me came from a report commissioned by the US government released in 2005 predicting how far in advance you have to prepare for peak oil to be able to deal with it. It's 20 years. And now we're already at the peak and we're not doing anything meaningful about it.

Swissinfo: How do you see the world in 20 years - is Zurich going to look like something out of Mad Max? Can one be optimistic?

RM: In some ways yes, because there are already some people who are changing the way they live. I recently saw a full-page article in our local Zurich paper about why taking exotic holidays is not such a clever thing to do anymore.

Swissinfo: Have you changed the way you live?

RM: I don't own a car - and of course in Switzerland it's a lot easier than in other countries. In the United States they're going to find it extremely difficult because of the way their whole society is constructed - their cities were designed after the invention of the car, unlike in Europe. I also have an allotment and am learning how to grow food - I think it's something we should all learn to do right away.

Swissinfo: How will the average Swiss notice the effects of peak oil?

RM: It's prices. The price of food, electricity, transport - and it's happening already. One of the solutions is car sharing. People are going to have to realize that having two cars sitting in the drive depreciating might not be such a sensible way to continue. Taxing cars more according to their fuel intake would also help.

We have to change from being passive consumers to active citizens and take responsibility for all our consumer behavior.

Swissinfo: All the talk is of the United States, Russia, China - what can little Switzerland do?

RM: This might be a small country but it has a huge effect in terms of the global influence of Swiss-based non-governmental organizations. We also have some of the best engineering minds in the world and the Swiss government really should be throwing money at these people and challenging them to find renewable solutions.