Crude Impact

According to Matt Simmons, advisor to U.S. President George Bush, "If peak oil happens (...), it could very easily be a global tipping point." "Peak oil" is the moment from which international oil production will inevitably decline. According to the American Geological Survey, this moment will come in the distant future, but one of the interviewees in this documentary asserts that it could well come in the year 2007. In this essayistic plea, the filmmakers introduce writers, activists and other opinion leaders who warn about the imminent catastrophe. Illustrative images of nodding donkeys, oil tankers and motorways, animated fragments and computer graphics, and a melodious but ominous soundtrack accompany the different chapters of the documentary, which have titles like "Foreign policy impact," "Earth impact" and "Future impact." The emphasis is on the United States, which accounts for 25% of the world's oil consumption. But the film also pays attention to the growing demand from China, the social consequences of the extraction of oil for indigenous people in their territory (like the Ogoni in Nigeria), and the political, ecological and climatic consequences for humanity in the long run.