Blind Spot
Blind Spot is a documentary film that illustrates the current oil and energy crisis that our world is facing.
Whatever measures of ignorance, greed, wishful thinking, we have put ourselves at a crossroads, which offer two paths with dire consequences.
If we continue to burn fossil fuels we will choke the life out of the planet and if we don’t our way of life will collapse.
According to one review, it makes An Inconvenient Truth look like a sitcom.
There’s a lot of environmental films out there that while not painting a rosy picture still want us to feel a sense of hey things will still be ok, not so with Blind Spot. Director Adolfo Doring has, along with many of the scientists, economists and other experts, wisely decided that the time for coddling us is past, perhaps even too long past.
This absolutely beautifully shot ode to the end of our world as we have known it doesn’t even bother to try and convince us. Either you see the visual beauty of this world, city and country, and want to save it or you don’t.
Either you hear and heed the wisdom of the cadre of experts he presents or you don’t. There is no panic in this ?lm just an absolute and stark reality that we either choose to face or not.
Either way the film tells us it's coming and as one environmental advocate quotes nature as saying (and I paraphrase) either you do it or I will and if I do it I’ll remove things and most of them will be you.
Of course, the graph of 1970's peak U.S. oil production was skewed (after this film was made) by the "shale revolution" when the 2008 global oil shock demanded new sources. So, people are once again ignoring the peak phenomenon by assuming fracking and tar sands are something "new" rather than another (final) oil bubble.
The comments dwelling on abiotic oil are typical of vague, denial-laden reactions to this predicament. Many admit that even if it does exist, the amounts are too small to matter . Peaking data from oil producing nations shows no evidence of an abiotic influence, just bell curves. And climate change makes burning more oil illogical, regardless.
From the video description: "Either you see the visual beauty of this world, city and country, and want to save it or you don’t."
Those who want to cover the world in ugly, noisy, lethal, futile wind turbines should heed the above sentence. We need to stop growthism, not build more machines all over the place.
Cool E Beans wrote: "I am sick and tired of hearing that you need a fuel to replace a fuel. Run an electric motor which drives an electric generator which produces enough power to run the electric motor. Any excess production of energy would power the world."
You're just describing a perpetual motion system with no net energy loss, like people who think a "magnet motor" is some ingenious new idea they can build and become billionaires. I hope you were being sarcastic!
Finite does actually mean finite, and you can't get most people to admit it because they are intellectual cowards or just too dumb. Humans evolved when nature was much bigger than Man and can't admit that it's now the converse (in terms of our leveraged ability to deplete and destroy). Most people are just trying to find some vapid feel-good angle, like religion.
Is the director doing his homework when all he does is find the same misinformed types to support his agenda? There is enough frozen methane off the coast of much of the populated world to last centuries. Japan started mining this stuff some years ago.
Is it really "science" when supposed scientists try to pass crap computer MODELS off as fact when the empirical data shows something far different?
If I had the resources I would dearly love to find a nice uninhabited island that is capable of growing food. Find a few like minded friends and exclude media, lawyers, socialists, politicians, and any other lazy corrupted minds. Producing energy is an easy thing. Ethanol, anyone can make it from soft vegetative matter.
It is getting way old having to tolerate and suffer for the mistakes of those who find it too much effort to check facts, turn a few pages in a history book, or even look around. Nope just reverse peristaltic (up chuck) the fake news and fraudulent govt emotification.
To bad we cannot go back a few thousand years for certain laws when they stoned false prophets to death. So long Al Gore and many other hypocrites.
DustUp, this film was made to educate people like you, but you just can't handle evidence. One of the most absurd things you wrote was the methane comment, which is exactly what we shouldn't be doing. It's a major AGW accelerator, which of course you deny. And you lecture us about history books while completely ignoring actual trends. It's unlikely you've got a college education, except in some money-centric field.
Cornucopian thinking is truly mindless.
It's not so simple with undersea methane hydrates, as they have serious global warming potential and extraction difficulties.
Some people just can't handle the idea of limits to anything.
Good doco, straight & poignant. Control & greed are really the heart of the matter. I think it is going to be a painful change (more than likely regressive) with some tough problems to face with basically a generation until reserves are all but depleted.
This should be shown to every high school student before he/she graduates, or at least every college student.
Even if you dont agree with the premise, the suggested timetable, or every detail, this is a much see doc. When you consider the growth of population relative to energy, its a humbling thought to consider how humanity handles an eventual decline in energy reserves.
We may be able to improve solar and wind technologies, we may get greater travel efficiency with electric cars and the necessary infrastructure, but ultimately 1 of 2 things will happen: 1) our standards and model of society will change to no drastically reduce energy consumption, or 2) calamity will drastically reduce our population.
Its an overly simple example, but our current population is similar to any animal that suddenly finds an environment with plentiful supplies of food- their population numbers explode. And when the food supply is overconsumed or destroyed by an outside force (as we have done to many other animals), the population dies off. Food for our current system means energy- we are subject to the same possibility unless we make something happen. Wont be the elite that incites change, and it wont be them that dies off if no change is made!
'Change' is the natural state of the universe! 0ne hundred millions years ago, when all this fossil fuel we use was NOT even there! And yes it was a different atmosphere. But life was very abundant then and I believe 'man' could have lived then. The atmosphere was not poison to our present biological bodies. Different Yes!! What major geological event brought about the trapping of this organic material (carbon) and preventing it's natural and cyclic break-down by biological organisms on the surface thus releasing it back into the atmosphere, I do not know. But it happened and thus our present day atmosphere exists!
If man wants to work against 'change' then there is a answer to our world energy situation. This energy has been given to the earth for a very long time and is stored where we can get to it. Back when all this discovery of 'oil' was happening there was also knowledge of this other energy and 'man' went the fossil fuel way. Looking back it is obvious that was NOT the best choice! It is still not to late to switch over to a more abundant and more friendly way to NOT change our present environment. What I am suggesting is that we switch to Hydrogen and use the carbon for more sustainable uses like plastic's and fertilizers but stop using it to propel automobiles and even power plants. If we would have made this choice back then ... We would NOT be having the situation we are in now.
The sun dumps, an energy equivalent, of 250 billions barrels of oil a day on this planet. That is a lot of energy, yes? This planet is also 70% covered with water. This is where that energy from the sun is being stored! It is feasible for us to supply what the world is now using in energy and still have enough to supply six times more of that! It is called 'Mist Lift OTEC' (Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion) With this method we can make all the hydrogen we could ever want and then transport it to all the countries of the world. So now we do not need to give up our transportation or other comforts that we are all afraid we are going to loose. Think about it and Google and learn!!! and then ... DO IT!!!
ninjasmoke, hydrogen is an energy carrier, not a source. You need to study what ERoI means.
A story of how we are destroying ourselves and our world, and, because it is so painful and because we can believe so heartily in tales of fantasy told by hollow men to comfort us, we choose blindness over truth. The people who tell this story speak with voices that don't scream out a drama of guilt and shame, they quietly tell us that the path we have chosen ends.....soon. Pensive, poignant and plain speaking.
I have met the enemy, and he is us!
The U.S. has one of the lowest international I.Q. standings in education (in what is considered one of the first world class nations!). I think the reason for that is obviously to dumb down the masses. Why? They don't want a informed society that would confront the status quo.
All of our problems would be solved if we, the citizens, had complete control over our lives rather then a Corporate/Commercial corrupt ideology called
"Democracy". Democracy, for many people, means "Corporate State". If you think this somewhat ludacrous the U.S. is now a Incorporated arm of the foundations of Wall St. and the (privately owned fraud) The Federal Reserve System. The "money changers" are now in control of our nation.
What does this have to do with this site? Documentaries are used, for the most part, as a form of propaganda by commercial interest. Commercial TV promotes the dumbing down of the "masses". My opinion has nothing to do with Vlatko's interest in documentaries. He has a great number of them and I do enjoy using his overall diverse archives and the historical development of the genre and the many varieties available in the documentary industry.
But if we don't wake up from our comatose state we will reap the outcome of complete destabilization of our culture, our government and nation and will be sold out to the highest bidder with a smile. They will justify it and call it progress. A uninformed people are a captured people. A "Blind Spot" for sure.
the problem with abiotic origins for oil is that anytime a site on earth is put forward for abiotic oil there are logical explanation to say that it is not (organic tracers, sedimentary rock nearby...). then there is the claim of the origins of the methane on titan, i don't know of any concrete evidence in any direction for its origins. i am not saying that abiotic oil doesn't exist (even tho i believe it doesn't) but in order to prove a theory or propose it as a viable alternative. there has to be direct repeatable and observable proof. the ball is in the court of the proponents of the theory. the onus is not on the people on the other side to prove it wrong. bring scientific proof for abiotic origins and we can talk.
...Boo!...scared yet? You should be. Thanks for another must see Doc Vlatko!
Methane seas on Titan prove abiotic origin to at least some hydrocarbons. Probably they are all abiotic. That does not mean they are in unlimited supply. Whatever is produced may be, and probably is, running down. Abiotic merely means that hydrocarbons are NOT produced by siltification and compression of dead organic material - no one knows what the real story is. Biotic hydrocarbons is poorly established. Ask a geologist - very few will say that oil definitely biological in origin. Most will tell you we don't know.
I worked as an oilfield geologist, btw.
Abiotic oil is BS you say ? Well I'm just a kid, tho if oil is produced from biomass, how do you explain traces of it in meteors, or better yet check out Saturn's moon Titan?
Someone earlier replied "Even Gold admits ....".
Abiotic oil theory was developed during the cold war, by some Soviet Union scientists,all papers and such at that time were written in their language (obviously), and this Thomas Gold brought the ideea to the so called civilized west. He isn't an expert, he was even accused by the scientists who came up with the theory, becouse he started taking facts, and adding wishfull thinking into them and taking the "hype/glory" for himself (typical isn't it?). Do your research.
It is indeed sad that wikipedia, for many people, has replaced the bible.
Even if oil were formed in the mantle, abiotic theorists see no plausible means by which it could rise to the depths at which we find it without passing through intermediary regions in which the temperature would be too high and pressure too low for liquid hydrocarbons to survive. (from energy site)
I believe there most likely is abiotic oil out there, but it seems like the research still has a long way to go.
also a small number of Russian geologists (not the whole russian scientific community) claimed they had success drilling in basement rock in Dneiper-Donets Basin in the Ukraine and wrote of findings which included up to 65billion barrels of reserves. Of course later independent researchers went out to check his claim and found only up to 2.7 billion barrels in the well.
Good to know you get more of your info from the Bible as apposed to cited resources.
There are people who dismiss the abiotic oil theory completely (like that dude Sylvester). People, unlike you, who have done little to none research on the matter. If you read my post carefully I did not imply that abiotic oil is an abundant resource, or that it will save us from the path we are on now.
Quote "I believe there most likely is abiotic oil out there, but it seems like the research still has a long way to go."
As in many things, we still have to do a lot of research, but it is nevertheless a solution, even if temporary, to the crysis we face today.
Altough I was raised as an orthodox, I have managed to surpass religion since I reached the age of reason (10 yo). To put it in diffrent words, I am not a religious person.
I find it amusing that you think I got such facts from an outdated book aka bible.
"An Inconvenient Truth looks like a sitcom?" It is a criminal sitcom, that why!
An Ex Vice President of the United States, is now known as a International Con man! Who Knew!
Yea, Are there any other movies under the category Sitcom Realities?
My major question is where do documentary film makers get funding? Or why. by who? About 90% of film makers have to tow the company line. Do it our way or no way!
If you believe that Armageddon is around the corner, it will be corporately owned. They hold the copyrights and of course, disclaimers. This way the can't be sued for not registration with a foreign agent, I mean, lets keep it Kosher.
Blind Spot is a documentary film that illustrates the current oil and energy crisis that our world is facing. Is facing what? "A sucker born every minute"?
There is no "crisis" concerning oil. It's a manufactured scam. Look up Abiotic Oil and check out the secret being kept from consumers. This lie is part of the "Big Oil" Companies ploy to fleece the public by not informing the them about the nature of the constant process of deep oil which constantly reproduces oil in the earths core.
The United States Government is purposely destroying its country for the Internationalist so they can dominate control of our natural resources and our economy.
The Abiotic Oil Theory has just as many issues if it were true. Even Gold admits that this theory would have consequences particularly in prospecting and extraction.
Also its not widely accepted.
"The abiogenic origin theory of oil formation is rejected by most geologists, who argue that the composition of hydrocarbons found in commercial oil fields have a low content of 13C isotopes, similar to that found in marine and terrestrial plants; whereas hydrocarbons from abiotic origins such as methane have a higher content of 13C isotopes. " - environmental literary council
WTF are u smoking? Oil is dead organic matter. The earths core is iron. How in the name of all things holy do u get oil replenishment from the earth's core. Are you American?
There is no such thing as deep oil. No one has proved it and any geologist will tell you it's not possible. If it is a lie it's so the oil companies make you think that the oil will never run out.
I agree with Lester Brown; "WE", meaning the proletariat, aren't prepared for the decline of oil production. However, there are so many clean and alternative options that we, the proletariat have NEVER been told are viable opitions, simply because they have a low probability for MAXIMUM profit. But you wanna bet that if there is no more oil, our governments will still find a way to bomb some other country, in the interest of progress.
Oil, is just another paradigm that follows the flow of money up that hill to the already very rich.
or we're told that they're too expensive, without weighing the real cost of oil against clean alternatives. if we'd strip the oil companies of their federal leases, use of the military, and make them adhere to strict environmental standards when drilling, producing and using oil, then they would be on equal footing with alternative energies.
every thing about oil is a carsinagen,use hydrogen,water,elec.,to power things,use helicopters and hovercrafts for transportation and deliveries and clean powered trains[no diesal]use peanut oil for tractors.build with real wood,organic food and medicine.catch rain water,use a windmill like the ranch ones of 100 years ago.think about the next generation are cell phones or towers good for people or nature.question everything[i stole that].
Very nice! Not at all the environmentalist propaganda film I thought it might be, rather this doc lays out some basic facts without overly promoting anything except the obvious.
Hard to believe so many people turn a blind eye to facts that should be well known... but this will likely remain the case until people are forced into lifestyle changes.
At some point, oil will run out, and life will change for most, if not all of us. Maybe modern man will find other ways to power it's machine-filled lifestyle, but we may very well be forced to abandon many things and ways of life that we take for granted today.
It's called the Mob Rule. (I just came up with that)
People rise up only when they themselves personally get hit by a certain disaster, and then cry out to everyone else why haven't people been doing anything and all that when it's too late. Its just as if suddenly you wake them up with a bucket of cold water, and that cold water are the direct repercussions on 1. people's wallet. 2. people's freedoms. 3. people's property.
Otherwise they won't budge and continue on in this continuous dream of wealth and prosperity.
They keep talking about some "crisis". There is no crisis. Use oil and enjoy it. When oil runs out, electric, solar and hydro will replace it. The planet constantly goes through cooling and warming, so relax.
Yeah we all know the planet's fine! That's a fact. however human civilization... that's another story.
Also this biodiesel and ethanol arguments that come up are pretty flawed. For one its always painted as if some farmers got together and decided this- when that's just not the case. The farmers grow whats cheap and processing companies are the ones who help to lobby the government to make it cheap. Farmers are closing down all over the US everyday because the government has made corn so damn cheap. The farmers here are just as much victims as anyone else. And secondly when we bring how many people are starve to death the dark corners of the world, it always failed to mention that if even we didn't turn this corn to fuel these people would still starve. Its not a problem of production when it comes to feeding the world - its a problem of economics. In many countries where famine is a regular occurrence not far from where malnourished children parish someone just finished a dinner and tossed their scraps. We have food - we have lots of food - but those people have no money. we make some bio-diesel they still don't have money. I just feel like when these issues arn't addressed the bio-diesel question is grossly misrepresented.
It doesn't help the farmers any either when quotas are imposed. My grandparents used to sell milk and pork but they imposed quotas on everyone so its either make it or don't bother trying. With the small farmers going out like that its harder to get locally grown food too.
Cool_E_Beans, I'm failing to see what is blatantly eugenic about this film.
Very informative and made a lot of commonsense thinking. Great doco.
I'm going to show this to my Mom.
This is one of the most blatently eugenic ideals presentations I have ever seen. Forget about the lack of oil in the coming decades, we the people have to go.
I liked the chart (the same type Al Gore used in 'An Inconvenient Truth') showing world population growth with a marked indicator of maximum sustainable population world wide. There has been NO study regarding the carrying capacity of the world especially considering the amount of cropland being used for fuel substitutes instead of food either for people or food animals. Moreover, if we used our own cropland for our own food, only exporting what we overproduce to our nearest neighbors and each of them doing the same, cutting out the continuous fuel consuming transportation of foods world wide, the oil we have could be used for a much longer period of time giving us a better chance to establish new mechanical means of locomotion to replace what we use now ie: all electric vehicles which could run on themselves.
I am sick and tired of hearing that you need a fuel to replace a fuel. Run an electric motor which drives an electric generator which produces enough power to run the electric motor. Any excess production of energy would power the world.
As an individual its simple to say, but as a society we still want toaster ovens and tuna in a can. The way things are running now, a shortage of oil will choke us with nothing short of a death grip. With limited oil comes limited resources to switch over to a new energy source on a scale large enough to sustain us. The prices for our basics like food and heat and resources for construction will be astronomical. It would happen eventually but not before we suffer dearly in the process.
The only thing you can really do is make yourself sustainable, help others do the same and hope the system comes to its senses in time to save and recover what we have now.
I'm afraid my cup is half empty when I think about such things on a larger scale. A person is smart, people are dumb.
"Run an electric motor which drives an electric generator which produces enough power to run the electric motor. Any excess production of energy would power the world."
unfortunately, this is impossible. you'll lose some energy at every stage, so you'd have not only no excess energy, you'd have an energy shortage.
Yeah, over unity... some people get mad at you for even suggesting it.
Wow seriously.. how did no one ever thought of that... oh wait, they did, and it doesn't work.
The thing is, and that's true for a lot more other situations in this world: It doesn't just come down to 2-3 variables. There are Thousands and thousands of factors all interconnected in order to know what are the causes of a particular observation.
At the Univ, there's this class I like and the teacher is great: the class subject is: Ecology and environment. (pretty much an initiation class) but still, it presents the fact in such a way that... it lets people know that what's going on in the world is an accumulation of many ''butterfly effects''.
Here's an example of what i learned today on Algae: High crop fertilizers get into rivers and lakes. Lakes get extra boost of phosphorus. Planktons Bloom a lot more. Plankton dies a lot more. More Rotting. Bacteria eating on rotting Plankton asphixiate lakes. Lake's oxygen level drops to near 0. Fish dies.
Phosphorus depletes, leaving only Nitrates. Nitrates create cyano-bacteria (blue Algae).
Same variant happening in coastal areas. Mass sea population deaths/ toxins in bacterium, therefore toxins in fish (going up the food chain).
And that goes on and on and I can talk about that all day....And I didn't mention the 80% of what underlies those observations i just mentionned...
2 messages:
1. Learn Science.
2. The more you know, the uglier it gets sometimes. but ya can't deny it. And Nowhere in any Documentary would the Experts actually present the details to people like they do in school classes.... unfortunately.