Holguin-VerasLuisAnnotation8

Blind Spot (2008) by Adolfo Doring

The central issue that is brought up by the movie is in regards to how must of the work gets done throughout the world. For example, around 150 years ago there were less than 20% of things that were powered by fossil fuels. Now however, almost all work is done either directly or indirectly through the use of fossil fuels. An additional issue is that for the most part is that we generally have the mentality that if we are not being affected by whatever issue now, then why care about it. We can only think about the short term and not long term.


 * __Behavioral__ – People are not able to go about their daily lives without running into products that in some way related to fossil fuels. We have literally always have had cheap fossil fuels, mainly oil and as a result we do not know how to do without it.
 * Another thing is that in America we believe in the reactionary approach and not the proactive approach in that we will not feel like doing something unless something happens. If something does not happen, or if it does happen but no one “cries wolf” then we will not even bother to care and think about the issue.
 * In addition we have several assumptions that are just plain wrong. The first one being that we believe that infinite grow, be that financial in possible when we only have a finite amount of resources. We also believe the equation resource equals pollution in somewhat linear and that there can be an increase in the equation with no negative consequences.
 * There is also the fact that the way we do stuff, Americans for the most part, is that we rely heavily on both debt and cheap foreign goods. If those foreign good become expensive then there will be countless people who will no longer people able to afford the resources they need. From the 1830’s to the 1970’s wages had risen, from the 1980’s to now wages have leveled off. However the standard of living has dropped, in that wages have been at constant levels but at the same time the prices of goods and services has risen.
 * __Economic__ – There has been an increase in the demand for oil in the last few decades but we are finding less and less new oil wells. Think of the law of supply and demand, in that low supply will increase the demand on oil and in turn the price for oil will increase. The other issue is in regards to we have a finite amount of oil. We all agree that there are ever decreasing amounts of oil in the world but at the same time we do not do anything about it.
 * Image that oil prices doubled, this will affect quite literally everything. Farmers will need to pay more to make the food that they grow. This increase in price will affect everyone down the line and will affect what items will be able to be sold in stores. Also with the rise of oil prices, farmers will be more likely to grow crops for biofuel production instead of growing crops for eating because the farmers may be able to get subsidies from the government for making biofuels.
 * __Ecological__ – Ever since 200 years ago, humans have had an ever exponential increase of damage done to the environment. We are using finite resources at an extremely rapid pace when those very resources took thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of years to form.
 * Most if not all of the issues what have, are or will be occurring on this planet have been caused by us. Some of these issues include the increase in global warming which melts the ice caps and in turn causes the sea level to rise, over fishing, less food, more flooding.
 * __Technological__ – Generally food now travels over 1,500 miles before it is used. Some believe that biofuels are very helpful but for the time being t takes more to make the biofuels that it to just use fossil fuels. There is a paradox known as a Jevons paradox which states that as efficiency increase there will be an increase in consumption.
 * __Cultural__ - The US has around 4% of the world population but it has over 25% of the world fuel consumption. We only produce around half of the energy that we use through green methods such as solar or wind energy than the energy that we use in the country.
 * · We are a culture that quite often does not car or one that just does not want to know. We are also one that depends mostly on cheap fossil fuels and have a mentality that it will always remain cheap. If the world had the same consumption culture like the US, it would take 3 to 5 earths to do so.
 * 1/3 of private consumption of the world occurs in the US. Once oil is gone, most of our culture will quite literally fall apart because we are not citizens but are consumers. In addition, we are a culture that only wants to hear that the world is good but at the same time we don’t care to hear the truth that the world is not perfect. There is also the fact that we believe that there are no consequences for our actions, we love positive feedback and we believe in the notion that technology will be the solution to all of our problems.
 * __Political__ – Lobbying has played a major role in the damages we have caused to the environment. On average companies spend around $108 million to lobby politics. Jimmy Carter said that we relied too much on oil. Sadly however there was another political person who said that we must keep on using oil and that there will be nothing wrong from the use of oil.

I did not feel as thou the film was compelled me to seek out for information. The main reason is that for a certain extent I was already pretty knowledgeable about the issues shown in the film. The film did not really give out possible suggestions that could be used to solve some of the issues shown in the movie.

The intended audience that the movie was targeting I think would be anyone who has at least some knowledge about the issues and facts that are shown in the movie. The movie did not really show an image or give an example that could stick with the views in that many of the issues that are shown are issues that for the most part cannot really be seen.

In addition, the issues shown are ones that will happen in the long term and quite often one cannot physically see the damages caused by the issues. Global warming is a great example in that it is an issue that we are causing but at the same time one cannot physically see the consequences that have or will occur from global warming. The other issue, in this case with global warming, is that its consequences will take years if no decades to be felt. It will take a long time for people to notice that the world is getting hotter and that global sea levels are rising.