Peak Oil And The Inevitable Collapse

COLLAPSE (CINEMA)

Release Date: Oct 1st, 2010
Certificate: PG
Running Time: 82 minutes

Director: Chris Smith
Produced by: Chris Smith & Kate Noble
Starring: Michael Ruppert

Collapse is a documentary which looks at the crises of energy and money in a post peak oil world.

It’s very easy to dismiss Michael Ruppert’s claims as one of a conspiracy theorist and think nothing more of it, but as he himself says, he deals with conspiracy facts, not theories. What he believes is that the people who are running the planet are losing control and the facts which he presents paint an apocalyptic future for us.

Ruppert, a Political Science graduate from UCLA, worked as a Los Angeles police officer in narcotics in the 1970’s but was forced to resign when he went on record in a case against the CIA involving drug trafficking. After trying to expose the CIA’s activities, he received several death threats and attempts were made on his life. He then turned his attention to becoming an investigative journalist and has since then founded From The Wilderness, a publication which aims to expose government corruption.

Peak Oil is the main focus of Collapse and Ruppert outlines in great detail over the course of 82 minutes how our economies will suffer when global petroleum extraction reaches its limit and begins to decline. This concept is based on a model created by M. King Hubbert back 1956 when he was able to predict that the demand for oil would increase as countries develop. As demand increases, so too would output, thus eventually reaching a peak and followed by a decline thereafter. Ruppert maintains that once this decline begins, economies around the world will suffer and points to America and Britain as places which are experiencing the most notable effects so far. Bankruptcy, starvation, dislocation of citizens are just some of these effects.

Drawing on information which is available to any internet user, Ruppert’s findings are terrifying and hard to ignore. While you may be a sceptic to such claims, it’s not a stretch of the imagination to wonder what will happen in a world without oil. Air, rail, road and sea transport will cease, money won’t be printed, food production will ground to a halt, law enforcement will give way to chaos, the markets will crumble, inflation will rocket and society will breakdown. There is hope though, for those who can live off their land. Buying up canned goods and stocking up on water might get you through the first few months, but its being to grow crops and have access to fresh water that will keep you alive in the long run. He also recommends holistic medication and first aid books. Buy gold if you can because in the long run it’s the one material which will always be valuable and can be traded.

Forget the idea that you can have as much as you want because until mankind surrenders to the fact that it lives on a finite planet and that it must have balance with that planet, with its resources, with the animals and all the other life there can be no happiness for anything. Anything. It’s all about getting balance back.
- Michael Ruppert

Director Chris Smith’s approach to the film is that of a neutral observer. What you see on screen is Ruppert being interviewed in what looks like a bunker. Smith asks the questions, leading Ruppert to talk about his personal life and experiences, together with his beliefs, research and the way forward for us. There are moments when Ruppert becomes too choked up to speak, fighting back tears and talks about counting the smiles on people’s faces when he walks his dog.

“What I hoped to reveal was … that his obsession with the collapse of industrial civilization has led to the collapse of his life. In the end, it is a character study about his obsession.”
- Chris Smith, director

Indeed, Ruppert’s obsession with the collapse of the world has led to the collapse of his own life. At the time of filming, he was no longer able to pay his rent and was awaiting eviction from his home in Culver City, California. He remains a man passionate about what he believes and what he knows. He has visited 13 countries; lectured in eight; and was guest lecturer at more than thirty universities and colleges in the U.S. and Canada. He might be a radical thinker, but so too was Galileo and we can now look and see the world is not flat. Can’t we also look and see some the things Ruppert is talking about before it’s too late?

Make seeing Collapse your priority and decide for yourself.