Zeuser

I rented it last night. Wow... some parts are really an eye opener. Some of it I already knew, some of it was news to me.

Info on the movie : https://imdb.com/title/tt0776794/

With these themes showing up more and more in the entertainment industry, like last year's "inconveinent truth", you'd figure people would try to do something about it. So why hasn't it happened yet?

I also see these times as an opportunity for us bicycle commuters as well. With the environment and oil prices on everyone's mind these days, it's getting harder and harder for people to say no to cyclists.

Eggplant Jeff

Well, here's to another (probably soon to be) flaming thread about oil... I liked the thing in the IMDB review, saying the guys who made the movie had "no discernable axe to grind". Even though they called oil "the excrement of the devil" in the first couple minutes.

EVERYONE has an axe to grind when it comes to oil. And even if they don't, everyone who does will accuse them of it.

n4zou

There's plenty of oil in the ground and oceans. Environmentalists and Politicians prevent opening new oil fields and the building of new refineries causing an artificial reduction of supplies. This situation is going to be a disaster for our children as the infrastructure required just to retrieve and process petroleum products can take years to install. No real alternative fuel has been developed thus far no matter
how much the Environmentalists and Politicians cause ever-decreeing supplies of petroleum.

recursive

Yes, If it wasn't for those damn meddling environmentalists, we could have unlimited supplies of petroleum.

For real though, if they have any effect at all, it can't make a difference of more than a few years. With steadily increasing demand, and steadily decreasing supply, you don't have to be as smart as I am to realize the inevitable conclusion.

ax0n

Meh. Maybe $4 per gallon would get some of the morons off the road so I could drive my Explorer as fast as I want to.

unkchunk

Yeah, that's a pretty good question. Do you think you handle the answer? It hasn't happened yet because after issuing their edicts to media, every celebrity evironmentalist gets a limo ride to the airport where they get on their private ject to fly to another airport where another limo picks them up to drive them home. When we stop genuflecting to these schmucks on TV and make them practice what they preach, maybe we might start to see it happen. Until then everything is merely a non binding symbolic gesture and laws are only for other people.

Nicodemus

^

schnee

That's absolutely ignorant and blaming the wrong people.

All the oil in areas 'yet untapped' are a tiny fraction compared to what we already have. It wouldn't make a lick of difference even if you destroyed every ecosystem to get all that oil. It'll move the dial by a few years, nothing much at all. All you'd do is destroy everything beautiful and worthwhile in the name of 'progress'.

schnee

Hey dumb****, guess what, scientists have been talking about this stuff for years, but they've basically been ignored, or silenced by the Bush administration. Actors have started talking about it only recently. If you'd been paying any attention at all, you'd know this, but it's not the sort of information that's useful to Rove, Fox and other neo-con 'news' (and I say that term lightly) organizations.

Besides, their messages are only to inform the populace so we can push the politicians and influence the industry, because it only really happens that way. So, instead of being a stubborn brain-dead hick, fire up a few neurons, understand the problem, then start making the change locally. Lobby for bike lanes, get neighborhood recycling going, buy a more fuel-efficient car, etc. It's difficult but not impossible. And it's ultimately your responsibility.

ax0n

FYI, I can rally for bike lanes for my own safety while I do what millions of Americans love to do: ride a bike.

I don't need a more fuel-efficient car. I have one that gets over 30 MPG when I drive it nice, or I should say when I drive it at all. Still, 5 more people bought Hummers in Kansas City yesterday. So much for making an impact.

You know, you can affect positive change without being a whiny hippy, and without being afraid of the sky falling.

ellenDSD

Where did you rent it? (Couldn't find it at B'buster)

substructure

No matter what one side says or the other. They can scream and cry all they want. Let the hippies hug trees and the SUV drivers suck the earth dry for all I care. I betcha not one side is going to win in this generation or the next. And unfortunately I stand where a lot of others stand: Not giving a flying Sh**! Why? Because I'm sick of the media hype. I'm sick of the political rants and hypocracy. Who really knows which side lies the most. Because they both lie. Both. Scientists have an agenda. Politicians have and agenda. Environmentalists have an agenda. Oil companies have an agenda. I hate it, but it's true. Nothing is going to get done (if it needs to be done at all) with all the bickering and mud-slinging.

n4zou

Your ignorance is showing! Better tuck it back under your skirt.
It took 9 years to get oil from Prudhoe Bay, Alaska into the worlds crude oil supply. Then it's got to be refined.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prudhoe_Bay
No refineries have been built since the 1970's. The last one took 10 years construction time from planning to production in a time when construction requirements, permits, environmental impact statements and the like were nowhere near as hard to obtain. I think it would be impossible to build one as thing stand now.
An artificially low supply of fuel is causing increased inflation of pricing of everything and not just fuel.
Ethanol is touted as an alternative fuel but this causes a decrease supply of corn, a staple food for third world countries. There have already been food riots in Mexico due to increased prices of food and were only just getting started at diverting corn for food to fuel production. Don't be shocked when your grocery bill triples over the next few years. Do not forget corn is also used to feed farm animals. Using food crops for fuel production is just stupid. Not only that but Ethanol is a nasty fuel producing more pollutions than gasoline.

Nicodemus

translation: I don't want to try and find information for myself, I'm just going to sit back and tell myself that they're ALL bandits and liars to justify my apathy.

Environmentalists have an agenda. Yeah, the environment

ax0n

There's nothing wrong with being aware of environmental issues, but any self-described environmentalist is operating on too narrow a focus to be useful, IMHO. There can be too much of a good thing, and it goes for environmentalists as well.

If you want to do your part, that's fine. If you want to force or otherwise coerce everyone to do something, you can go somewhere warm, and I'll even tell ya how to get there. I'm not talking about a beach in Cancun, either.

Bigotry goes both ways if you open your eyes enough to see it.

substructure

Give me a freaking break. Roll your eyes elsewhere.
You're darn right I'm apathetic. Where's the enthusiasm in the cause on each side?

One side totes a "cleaner environment for our future" with scare tactics of a global meltdown within months. Polar bears and penguins are floating on cubes of ice out in the ocean alone. There’s a hole in the ozone ripped wide open above the US because we only drive SUVs and only care about Big Business. And where does it mostly come from? The elitist jackasses in SUVs and mansions that cost more to heat than your average Wal-Mart. Or the rock stars who expect us to wipe our butts with one square of tissue. Yeah, I’ll do just that if you kiss my behind right after a single-tissue wipe.

Then you have the other side. Every time a squirrel farts in the gulf, gas goes up another dime. They tell us we’re not really damaging our environment so drive your big, expensive cars into the ground. Yet they shove these “green-friendly” commercials down our throats on TV telling us we’re actually protecting the environment when we buy “their” fuel.

Evidence points to Global Warming or temperature change. And evidence points against it. Someone knows the truth and it ain’t you. You, sir, have an opinion. And you have every right to it. Just like I. So roll away. Tell me I don’t care mainly because I don’t want to do anything about it. Your right, I don’t. I don’t want to live my whole life in fear because I use a half a roll of toilet paper when I’ve had a bad stomach issue. Or I need to drive to work. Or I left a light on in my office. I also don’t want to live in fear of all the oil running dry one day.

acroy

oil, oil, oil!
way back in Biblical times they used oil for light - olive oil maybe? can't remember. I'm sure they had politics, maybe wars, around the price of olive oil because they couldn't imagine any other way of making light.
Whale oil: a huge industry built around squeezing oil out of whales, for similar purposes. Similar politics!
Now decayed-dino juice. The cycle continues.
Someday there will be an alternative cheaper & more efficient than dino juice. it's pretty simple. solar stations in space beaming down near-unlimited power? micro-fission or fusion units powering everything? who knows.
All we know is it will change. Why get so excited about it? Change keeps on happening, the world keeps on spinning....
If gas is too expensive for you, sell the dam' car. If you can afford it, use it.
In the meantime enjoy life, it's really to short to miss!

Zeuser

Ok... what I was trying to get at in my original post is that us cyclists have an opportunity to push cycling a lot more. Get better laws, facilities etc. I keep reading about all the rants in just about every forum on this site and people always want something done to help cyclists. So in this current political enviornment, isn't it a good opportunity to lobby for cyclists in general? With everything going on right now I'd be hard for anybody to say no to cyclists without coming off as not caring about reducing fuel usage, reducing pollution etc.

I remember when I was a child living in Ottawa they would close the parkway running along the river on Sundays to cars and only bikes were allowed to use it on Sundays in the summer. I don't know if they're still doing that but I loved that back then. Why haven't I seen this catch on in other major cities yet?

Why aren't there more bike trails around? Why aren't some traffic laws changed to favor bikes? etc.

There's a unique situation going on and we can probably take advantage of it.

ax0n

That's true. People who say no to cyclists do come off as not caring about reducing fuel usage and pollution. I don't see why people think they have the right to be offended if someone would rather drive their urban assault soccer kid carrier around with reckless abandon than support safer cycling.

SDRider

[darth vader voice]The apathy is strong with this one.[/darth vader voice]

JohnBrooking

Like this. Anyone want to start one in their own area?

Eco-warrior

You know, I've been saying it all along. It's the damn squirrels we need to be worrying about, screw the cows.

ax0n

Actually, It's not so much apathy as it is me being sick and tired of everyone having to force their ways on everyone else. Without having to move this thread to the Politics and Religion forum, I'll just say that on things like this, I'm a mildly conservative centrist.

It's not that I don't care or I'm not passionate about the environment. I just don't care to agree with zealots on either side of the oil/warming/ozone/whatever crisis debate. There's a solution somewhere between both extremes. Bigots simply refuse to acknowledge it, writing all other opinions off as peanut gallery nonsense.

Nightshade

It matters not to me if those dumb a$$ who will not believe in Peak Oil, global
warming, over population , or declining potable water supplies say this kinda
idiot stuff. They will be first in line when there is no food,water, or fuel and
the first to be turned away to die as they deserve to.

It's always stuck me as strange that those who need this message are the ones who
will not hear it. Oh well.........

Zeuser

Unfortunately for you, this is a necessary part of civilzed socities. It's called... hmmm... oh yeah... LAWS!
I don't like stopping at red lights and I certainly see it as someone else trying to force their way onto me but at the same time I see the benefit to such a law.

And for a "mildly conservative centrist" I find your statement very contradictive. "being sick and tired of everyone having to force their ways on everyone else" is exactly what you'd be likely to hear from a Liberal person, not a conservative. The very definition of "conservative" is forcing their ways on everyone else.