Hunt_Blind+Spot

//Blind Spot,// Adolfo Doring, 2008
 * 1.** **Title, director and release year?**

A blind spot is a conscious denial of a stark reality. Blind Spot is a documentary about the current oil and energy crisis. The main idea behind this film is that if we continue to burn fossil fuels at the rate we are, we are going to face some dire consequences. By making educated decisions now concerning the energy crisis, we have more options in the future.The way we run our economy and the energy we use has effects on the environment. There will eventually be a point known as Peak Oil where we deplete our energy. Declining oil production will change the world, and if we continue to burn fossil fuels, our economy or ecology will eventually collapse. “Oil is the lifeline of the world economy.” “Fossil fuels are essence of Industrial Revolution.” Lee Henry Jevins developed the “Jevins Paradox” that states that when the efficiency of a resource is improved, more of that resource is then actually used in total as opposed to less. “We’ve always harnessed energy, fossil fuels were the jackpot.” -Richard Heinberg.
 * 2. What is the central argument or narrative of the film?**


 * 3. What sustainability problems does the film draw out?**
 * -Oil Scarcity: Humanity is using the finite supply of oil the Earth has produced at an alarmingly fast rate that is unsustainable. US reached peak oil nationally in 1970. The world will reach peak oil around 2060. Furthermore, many current wells are aging quickly, particularly in Saudi Arabia. The US consumes 20 million barrels per day, double what we consumed in the 60s, yet we produce only 5 million barrels per day, down from about 10 million in the 70s.
 * [[image:Capture.JPG width="542" height="343"]]
 * -The American Way: Howard Baker identifies the “American way” as a sustainability problem because instead of attempting to organize a solution to the problem peak oil we believe that we will find more or simply exert brute force in order to control more oil. A novel question was posed by Bill McKibben that identified another piece of the matrix. He wondered why “more people are in prison than working on a farm?” Fossil fuels was what drove innovation, it was the force behind the industrial revolution. Things we find commonplace now, such as an Orange from Florida, is possible because petroleum is cheap. Americans are accustomed to a high standard of living, and we believe that growth is normal and consumption is normal. By believing these things, we do 30% of the world’s consumption although we only make up 4.5% of the world’s population.
 * -Political Support for Oil: Political support for oil has always been strong in the US. Three significant oil shocks in the 70s: ’73, ’75, ’79. President Jimmy Carter went so far as to say that the US would be of oil in 20 years and threw some solar panels on the white house symbolically. When Reagan came into office however, he removed the solar panels, promoted oil production and exploration, removed many taxes on oil and energy and consumption increased. To this day, the oil industry spends millions of dollars lobbying and making up false claims about global warming.

I think the most compelling part of the film was the analysis on common things we don’t normally think about, such as it takes three calories of energy to transport one calorie of lettuce. For the most part, I was already well aware of peak oil and alternative solutions, such as biodiesel, that aren’t really solutions to the problem. So, informational tidbits such as the food example, was interesting and thought provoking because it seems ridiculous that it takes so much energy to consume so little energy.
 * 4. What parts of the film did you find most persuasive and compelling? Why?**

The image that sticks with me from //Blind Spot,// is a comparison of humans to wine yeast. William Catton described how yeast is put into a vat of grape juice, they consume the sugars, their population grows, and eventually they consume all the sugar and the yeast population dies. The image of micro-organisms in a contained environment growing to the point that they’ve exhausted their food sources and then die is an apt metaphor I can picture. Albert Bartlett later says that “civilizations collapse if they grow beyond the capacity to produce food…it’s just plain common sense.”
 * 5. What parts of the film were you not compelled or convinced by?**

I would like to seek out alternative energy sources as well as ways other countries set up their residential developments to save on fossil fuels, for instance some European countries make driving cars more difficult than riding bicycles.
 * 6. What additional information does this film compel you to seek out? Where do you want to dig deeper and what connections do you want to make with other issues, factors, problems, etc.?**

I believe this film best addresses people who are unaware of how fossil fuels affect every aspect of life. It is not just cars will be affected by the decline of fossil fuels, everything we do will be affected when it is no longer a viable fuel source. I believe this film fosters viewers to think about alternative means to fossil fuels and perhaps steps to cut down on their consumption.
 * 7. What audiences does the film best address? What kind of imagination is fostered in viewers? Do you think the film is likely to change the way viewers think about and act on environmental problems?**

Will humanity transition to energy uses that don’t stress the planet or will we “overshoot” as described by William Catton? The film suggests we realign our definition of true progress and evaluate the validity of our complex, developed society. Depressingly, there are no individual points of intervention, besides perhaps changing some minor trends in consumption that could overpower the systematic failure the film argues we are sure to meet.
 * 8. What kinds of action or points of intervention are suggested by the film?**

More precise points of intervention would have been useful to help the film. I very much like the overall vibe of the film that admits that the problem of humanity knowing we have a grave problem, yet we choose to ignore it; ignorance is bliss.
 * 9. What could have been added to this film to enhance its environmental educational value?**

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