“…You’ve probably never put the pieces together like this movie does.” says Dan, who is a recent critique of the documentary “The end of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream”. As I sat by myself Thursday night I thought to myself, this is going to be the biggest waste of time ever. I could be studying for my geology quiz, or writing/practicing my speech for my public speaking class. But as the lights dimmed and the movie began, I allowed myself to be open-minded and see what the movie had to say. Little did I know that it would affect me in such a profound way. I did find some holes in the logic presented to me, but overall I came away from the movie with a new perspective on living life. I realized that as a human being I am selfish and take for granted the things that are so readily available to me. “The End of Suburbia”, truly hits the nail square on the head when it says, “We're literally stuck up a cul-de-sac in a cement SUV without a fill-up”.
I found that the movie overall, portrayed that we as people will not be able to survive in our current “culturally accessible” way of life for much longer. This hit home for me, and made me really start to take interest in the movie. It got me thinking and rationalizing the current predicaments we as a nation and world are facing. Our world is so dependent upon oil and coal, that without it we would be totally lost and utterly devastated. Our world and culture as we know it would cease to exist and we as humans would be completely lost. This revelation had never occurred to me before. Maybe the reason it had never occurred to me is because I live in an area that is going through a huge transformation as a direct result of a massive oil boom. But upon further research, I realized that this “massive oil boom” is not so massive at all. Compared with the world consumption, it is only a miniscule operation. I always thought I was safe and life would continue on in the same way it always had. This documentary’s discussion of depleting oil reserves, and how this depletion would affect the suburban way of life, further broadened my mind. I came to the realization that something needs to be done about this issue. The question arose from this movie; how would people in these suburban areas survive so far from the essential necessities. How would they heat their large homes, and commute to work? How will the landscape of America change when this happens? All these questions ran through my head, as the movie presented them to us. I couldn’t believe that our world had not realized what was going on around them.
I have resolved since this movie to help out the world by not wasting as much energy, and trying to conserve as much fuel as possible. I hope that this can give the end of oil a little more time. That way, we can discover a new way to energize the metropolis of the suburban life style. I know that fuel is something that no person can live without, unless you want to be a hermit in the middle of the woods, but I can make a difference everyday through simple actions. Turning off lights, taking the city bus, walking, growing my own vegetable in a garden, all can help our dire situation. I just only hope that we as humans realize the implication that our glorious glorified country living is doing to the world and our future before it’s too late.
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