A collection of publicly available videos on energy depletion, Climate Change, Sustainability, the Transition Movement and related subjects.
The Third Curve
Mansoor Khan, film director and author
Mansoor’s book The Third Curve: The End of Growth. As we know it! examines the nature of economic growth to provide a new lens to understand our reality and the future. It identifies the root cause of the malady by reminding us of the forgotten relationships between money and energy, capital and resources, concept and reality. And that forces us to accept energy descent which mean end of growth as a natural and healthy paradigm.
TEDx Talk – The Third Curve
TEDx talk by Mansoor Khan at the KCG College of Technology, Chennai.
The Third Curve: Video Interviews
Mansoor has also been doing a series of short video interviews with experts across various fields from ecology to energy to economics. The interviews take off from the issues covered in The Third Curve (see a short video summary of the book below). Some of the prominent names featured so far: Vandana Shiva, Ashish Kothari, Sunita Narain and Arun Maira. The interviews can be viewed on Mansoor’s YouTube channel.
Sacred Economics with Charles Eisenstein – A Short Film
Sacred Economics traces the history of money from ancient gift economies to modern capitalism, revealing how the money system has contributed to alienation, competition, and scarcity, destroyed community, and necessitated endless growth. Today, these trends have reached their extreme – but in the wake of their collapse, we may find great opportunity to transition to a more connected, ecological, and sustainable way of being.
Energy Gain and Future Energy: Collapse of Sustainability
By Prof Joseph Tainter, Utah State University – author of the acclaimed book The Collapse of Complex Societies
It Is Too Late for Sustainable Development
By Dennis Meadows, MIT professor and co-author of the Club of Rome report Limits to Growth
It is far too late to achieve sustainable development, as that term is commonly understood. A precipitous decline in resource and energy use is coming in the next decades, and the most important goal now is to adopt policies that will reduce its negative impacts on the values that are most important to us.
Making Resilience Possible: From Theory to Practice
Dr Venkat Pulla, Australian Catholic University, Brisbane
Global stressors that are impacting on rural community life such as energy stress, climate change, soil degradation etc. The cumulative effect of the above variables contributes to the growing risk of a cascading collapse of systems vital to our human wellbeing. Consequently communities are expected to do everything in order to avoid such outcomes, today. In sequence, this paper addresses three areas: Our ability to cope, become resilient and build home without hurricanes, storm surges, excess rainfall and winds that ignite fresh fires; Undertake a re-visit of the context of rural and remote stranded-ness and the ‘ecological adaptive cycle metaphor’ and finally address the social processes that facilitate the recovery and promote resilience identified in recent research in Australia. Watch
Arithmetic, Population & Energy (Lecture)
By Dr Albert Bartlett, Prof Emeritus, Physics, Univ of Colorado, Boulder CO
A lecture that demonstrates the limits to growth. The best takeaway from Bartlett is: “The greatest shortcoming of the human race is our inability to understand the exponential function.” To listen to an audio version, click here.
Humans and Planet Earth: Transitioning from Teenagers to Adults as a Species (Lecture)
Dr. Nate Hagens 2014 Earth Week presentation at UW-Stevens Point.
Nate is a well-known authority on global resource depletion. Until recently he was lead editor of The Oil Drum, one of the most popular and highly-respected websites for analysis and discussion of global energy supplies and the future implications of energy decline. Nate’s presentations address the opportunities and constraints we face in the transition away from fossil fuels.
Video Interview – William R. Catton, Jr
In this interview, the author of the seminal Overshoot: The Ecological Basis of Revolutionary Change outlines the major themes of his book: stealing from the future, exuberant growth, takeover and drawdown, industrialization, carrying capacity deficit, the absence of real villains, the bane of advertising, humankind’s true nature, ecological modesty, and the need for us to expect the worst.
Collapse of Complex Societies
By Dr. Joseph Tainter
The collapse of complex societies of the past can inform the present on the risks of collapse. Dr. Joseph Tainter, author of the book The Collapse of Complex societies, and featured in Leonardo Dicaprio’s film The Eleventh Hour, details the factors that led to the collapse of past civilizations including the Roman Empire. This is part 1 of 7 of a keynote talk delivered to the 2010 International Conference on Sustainability: Energy, Economy, and Environment organized by nonprofit Local Future.
If I Had a Hammer
William H. Schlesinger, president of the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies
Schlesinger’s presentation on the world’s most pressing environmental problems and what needs to be done to ensure a habitable planet, now and for future generations.
Extinctions: When, Where, How Fast, and What We Can Do To Stop Them
Stuart Pimm, Professor of Conservation Ecology at Duke University
“Yes, life will recover from what we are doing to the planet. but don’t hold your breath. It’s going to take millions of years. It’s going to take an incredible number of human generations. Trillions of people will live in a biologically impoverished world if we don’t stop out human impacts right now.”
On Feedbacks and Tipping Points
Dr. Douglas Crawford-Brown, University of North Carolina
Crawford-Brown is interested in all aspects of research and teaching related to the development of policies for mitigating the risks of environmental change, including – but not restricted to – climate change.
What A Way To Go: Life at the end of Empire
Timothy S. Bennett
Tim Bennett, middle-class white guy, started waking up to the global environmental nightmare in the mid-1980s, calling into question the fundamental assumption that has led to this unprecedented crisis in human history: that humans were destined to dominate the rest of the community of life with the Culture of Empire. Powerful interviews with well-known authors including Daniel Quinn, Derrick Jensen and Richard Heinberg, and noted scientists William Schlesinger and Stuart Pimm, fill in some important pieces. Bennett pushes the dialogue where Al Gore did not go.
The Olduvai Theory
By Richard Duncan, Institue on Energy and Man
The Olduvai theory states that industrial civilization (as defined by per capita energy production) will have a lifetime of less than or equal to 100 years (1930-2030). Here, Richard Duncan explains how it is linked to Peak Oil.
The Truth About Climate Change (BBC)
David Attenborough
Sir David discovers that the world is warming at an unprecedented rate, and finds out why this is now far beyond any normal allowance for cyclical fluctuation. But are humans to blame? These changes are already in motion whatever we do now, but Sir David believes that we may be able to act to prevent a catastrophe.
Consumed: Inside the Belly of the Beast
Journeyman Pictures
Consumerism has become the cornerstone of the post-industrial age. Yet how much do we know about it and what it is doing to us? Using theories of evolutionary psychology to underpin a bold narrative of our times, this film takes a whirlwind tour through the “weird mental illness of consumerism”, showing how our insatiable appetite has driven us into “the jaws of the beast”.
There’s No Tomorrow (2012)
Written and directed by Dermot O’Connor
A quick journey through the subjects of oil formation, peak oil, energy, economic growth, and resource depletion.
The Story of Solutions
By The Story of Stuff Project
An animated video that explores how we can move our economy in a more sustainable and just direction, starting with orienting ourselves toward a new goal.
Understanding Climate Change
David Roberts is staff writer at Grist.org. In this TED Talk titled “Climate Change is Simple” he describes the causes and effects of climate change in blunt, plain terms.
The Human Impact of Climate Change
Climate change has hit home across the globe, especially in countries like Bangladesh, China, and India. A ground report from the Climate Reality Project.
The Planet’s Scarcest Resource Is Time
By Lester Brown, Founder of the Earth Policy Institute
Brown discusses how unprepared the world really is for the growing effects of climate change. “Economists doing supply and demand projections are largely unaware” of the scale of the resource crises facing the world, Brown says, and “food is going to be the weak link for our civilization as it was for so many earlier civilizations
Climate Collapse and Near Term Extinction
Dr Guy R. McPherson, climate scientist, professor emeritus of University of Arizona
Dr McPherson shows why, how and a best guess of when and where climate collapse will affect all living things and very likely result in global extinction of all living things. Except maybe methane eating bacteria. Not for the faint of Heart!
Twilight of an Age
By John Michael Greer, author
Greer observes that our culture has two primary stories: “Infinite Progress” or “Catastrophe”. On the contrary, he sees history as cyclic: civilizations rise and fall. Like others, ours is exhausting its resource base. How to deal with this predicament? He lays out practical ideas, possibilities, and potentials.
Transition 2.0
By Transition Network
An inspirational immersion in the Transition movement, Transition 2.0 gathers stories from around the world of ordinary people doing extraordinary things – printing their own money, growing food and localising their economies.
Models of Resilience and Regeneration
By Albert Bates
Ecovillages make the transition to sustainability easier and more graceful: delinking growth from well-being, reconnecting people with the places where they live, affirming indigenous patterns and practices, and offering a holistic and experiential vessel for social experiments, educational methodologies, and transition paths.
How Shall We Live, With the Earth in Crisis?
Carolyn Baker, psychotherapist and author of Collapsing Consciously: Transformative Truths For Turbulent Times, in conversation with Dave Pollard, Systems thinker
Dave sees endgames for three inter-related systems–economic, energy and ecology–any one of which could lead to civilizational collapse. For Carolyn, we’re in a predicament we can’t fix, but we can choose how we respond. She suggests thinking of the entire Earth community as being terminally ill. Take time to reflect on our lives, make amends, and value the time we have.
The ancient ingenuity of water harvesting
Anupam Mishra
Anupam Mishra documents the life and work of several individuals and communities, across the country, in setting up water harvesting and management systems through talaabs (lakes / tanks). These traditional water bodies are the lifeline of many villages and towns in the country even today. Anupam’s books on the work of people/society organising themselves, to harvest and manage water – Aaj Bhi Khare Hain Talaab andRajasthan Ki Rajat Boondein, are considered landmark works in the field, and continue to inspire several individuals even today, to take up work on setting up and reviving these time-tested water harvesting systems.
6 Ways a Food Co-op Can Change the Economy
Janelle Orsi
Post Carbon Fellow Janelle Orsi’s keynote speech at the Berkshire Cooperative annual member meeting, November 1, 2014.
PEAK OIL
Peak Oil explained in 3 minutes
By Scott McLean (www.scottakio.com)
A 3-minute video explaining Peak Oil, what oil is used for, and what the future may hold with regards to Peak Oil.
Peak Oil – How Will You Ride the Slide?
An animated film that uses only visuals and music to illustrate Peak oil in a simple but powerful way.
By Bruce Woodside
Peak Oil Lessons From The Soviet Union
Dmitry Orlov, engineer and author
Orlov warns that the US’s reliance on diminishing fuel supplies might be sending it down the same path the Soviet Union took before it collapsed.
Documentary: Blind Spot
A documentary film that dramatically illustrates the current oil and energy crisis the world is facing.
Directed by Adolfo Doring
A Crude Awakening – The Oilcrash
Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack’s ground-breaking film on Peak Oil
This award-winning documentary film explores key historical events, data and predictions regarding Peak Oil through interviews with petroleum geologists, former OPEC officials, energy analysts, politicians, and political analysts.
A guide to the energy of the Earth
Lesson by Joshua M. Sneideman, animation by Marc Christoforidis
Energy is neither created nor destroyed — and yet the global demand for it continues to increase. But where does energy come from, and where does it go? Joshua M. Sneideman examines the many ways in which energy cycles through our planet, from the sun to our food chain to electricity and beyond.
300 Years of Fossil Fuels in 300 Seconds
By Post Carbon Institute
Fossil fuels have powered human growth and ingenuity for centuries. Now that we’re reaching the end of cheap and abundant oil and coal supplies, we’re in for an exciting ride. While there’s a real risk that we’ll fall off a cliff, there’s still time to control our transition to a post-carbon future.
Peak Oil explained by M. King Hubbert
1976 video clip of M King Hubbert, the American geologist who first theorised about Peak Oil, speaking about world oil depletion.
Peak Oil and Hubbert’s Curve explained in simple terms
By well-known writers on Peak Oil, Richard Heinberg, Michael C. Ruppert and James Howard Kunstler, among others.
Excerpted from the documentary film The End of Suburbia
Peak Oil and the Globe’s Limitations
Richard Heinberg, senior fellow with the Post Carbon Institute
The author of The Party’s Over, Peak Everything and, most recently, Blackout, discusses the phenomenon of peak oil and how it will affect life on this planet.
The Impending World Oil Shortage: Learning From the Past
By Robert Hirsch, principal author of the report Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation, and Risk Management, which was written for the United States Department of Energy.
James Schlesinger, the first U.S. Energy Secretary, on Peak Oil
Dr. James Schlesinger was the first U.S. Secretary of Energy, from 1977 – 1979. Prior to that, he had been Chairman of the US Atomic Energy Commission, US Secretary of Defense, and Director of Central Intelligence. In this keynote address given at an ASPO-USA (Association for Study of Peak Oil) Conference. A quote by Schlesinger (from another speech) “I once concluded a talk in Italy by saying that like the inhabitants of Pompeii, who ignored the neighboring volcano Vesuvius until it detonated, the world ignores peak oil at its peril.”
Peak Oil & Economic Crisis A Century of Challenges
By Nicole Foss, editor of financial blog The Automatic Earth