Product Details

• Directors: Christophe Fauchere
• Producers: Joyce Johnson, Chris Fauchere
• Language: English, Spanish, Portuguese
• Region: All Regions
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Tiroir A Films
• DVD Release Date: July 2, 2007
• Run Time: 56 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000SNWA2A
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #25,481 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

As our global population and its appetite for energy rise drastically, resource depletion and global warming have become the most pressing issues facing humanity today.
Most experts agree that global peak oil production, when demand exceeds supply, will occur within the next 15 years and will drastically change the very fabric of our industrialized world.
As fossil fuels power every facet of the American economy, how can we avoid an energy crisis and a possible collapse of our economy? Today, China and India have aspirations to attain our western quality of life; but at the rate and the way we use the world's energy resources, their ambition will be physically impossible.
In addition to increasing geopolitical conflicts, the process of extracting and using these crucial resources is endangering the very own habitat that we depend on to prosper as a species - pushing the earth's climate and ecosystem to a point of no-return.
Scientists and experts agree that the use of renewable energy such as solar and wind power, coupled with higher efficiency and conservation, will be key factors in preserving our quality of life and paving the way to a sustainable world for our children.
Will America be up to the task as it consumes 25% of the world's energy, 85% of which comes from non-renewable fossil fuels?
This award-winning documentary exposes the problems associated with our energy consumption. It also offers concrete solutions for those who want to educate themselves and be part of the solutions in this decisive era. The film features passionate individuals, entrepreneurs, experts and scientists at the forefront of their field bringing legitimacy and expertise to the core message of the piece.

Tiroir A Films has just released a DVD for when End of Suburbia just won't do. Energy Crossroads does well what it sets out to do - providing Americans with an accurate, comprehensive picture of the two biggest crises of our era. I'll be loaning my copy out quite a bit.
- Bart Anderson co-editor of Energy Bulletin.

You've probably seen Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth. Or perhaps you've seen Who Killed the Electric Car. Now you should put Energy Crossroads on your list".
- Green Energy News

"The movie is compelling and empowering, as it is one of the first to comprehensively cover the key aspects of the energy/environment/economy dilemma.
"Energy Crossroads" is a graphic tour de force that will compel you to share the experience."
- Morey Wolfson, MW Energy Solutions LLC

"...this is the DVD to give to friends and family who haven't yet caught on....it will soften them up and give them a clear snapshot of the energy present."
Mick Winter - Dry Dipstick

"I am grateful to the filmmaker for exposing the critical issues of energy and sustainability.
The film uses the best scientific arguments to construct a comprehensive expose about resource depletion, the waste of our primary resources and the necessity to achieve sustainability"
- Jerome Adnot, School of Mines of Paris, Energy Department

"Tiroir A Films produced an excellent film that provides a convincing description of the challenge without being so alarming that average people won't watch."
- Scott Pugh, ASPO-USA/Retired Naval Officer

"Recommended for public libraries wishing to build up their environmental media collections"
Library Journal, 10/1/2007"

This product is manufactured on demand using DVD-R recordable media. Amazon.com's standard return policy will apply.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Cold Shower of Fact, March 2, 2008

By	Mick Winter (Napa Valley, California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

In a society where most people take energy for granted and assume life will go on just as it is, this film is a cold shower of fact.

For many of us, energy is something we wish we had more of, drained of it as we might be at the end of a long day. But the energy that lights and heats our homes and powers our TV, refrigerator and air conditioner, that helps grow and transport our foods, and that lets us drive to work or bring the kids home from school, that energy remains far in the shadows. Since it's just "there", we give it little if any thought.

Energy Crossroads looks deeply and objectively at our use of, and dependence on, energy. It traces the history of our society since the Industrial Revolution and makes very clear that without cheap energy--primarily petroleum over the last 100 years--our society, and the industrialized society worldwide, could never have existed.

Our fossil fuel-based society has literally exploded on the earth, bringing a wealth and minimum standard of living to hundreds of millions of people in those countries fortunate enough--and ruthless enough--to have acquired and experienced it.

The result has been the consumption of a vast amount of resources that this planet will never see again. We have reached the point in time where we must change. The alternative is, let us say, too unpleasant. As the film points out, America almost woke up in the early 1970s at the time of the Arab oil embargo. But the country only looked like it was waking up. It ended up rolling over and going back to sleep.

The first half of Energy Crossroads focuses on the current state of energy resources, our past and current dependency on those resources, and the fact that crude oil production, and soon that of natural gas as well, has--or soon will--peaked. At a time when we need to produce more and more oil because of an expanding worldwide population demanding more and more energy, we are beginning to produce less and less.

This is not a comfortable position, and it will not hold. As one of the film's experts states, "We will continue to have energy wars until we can find a way to share resources equitably." It also dangles the possibility that our society could experience a worldwide economic depression of at least the severity of the one in the 1930s.

The film also brings in top scientists to explain the connection between fossil fuel usage and climate change and how because of global warming and sea level rise it would be critical to switch over to renewable energy even if we weren't experiencing oil depletion.

The film's second half focuses on solutions--or at least energy solutions. It briefly, but convincingly, covers such areas as wind, biofuels, hydrogen, solar, and other proposed alternative sources of energy, some of which are currently in use, others which remain in the future. But Energy Crossroads makes very clear that within the next few decades these forms of energy will--and can--be only a small percentage of our total energy sources.

The movie also makes clear that our prime problem is a liquid fuel shortage, and that nothing can come close to the low-cost, energy-dense value of crude oil. (If my recollection is correct, I can happily say that it doesn't even suggest that the fantasy of oil sands is a real replacement for crude.)

Energy Crossroads also discusses recycling, including precycling at the source to produce fewer non-recyclable, non-degradable products. It discusses the value of energy-efficient homes and buildings, and of more public transit use. And it emphasizes that conservation is the most efficient and cost-effective of all alternatives.

Energy Crossroads is refreshing because it doesn't have the usual talking head suspects that appear in most Peak Oil films, events and books. Instead it includes appearances and commentary by a variety of knowledgeable and well-credentialed experts in the fields of climatology, environment, anthropology, energy and, yes, Peak Oil, thanks to the cooperation of the Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas -- USA.

The target audience for this film doesn't appear to be those already familiar with Peak Oil and the worldwide energy predicament. But if you are one of that more knowledgeable minority, this is the DVD to give to friends and family who haven't yet caught on. Energy Crossroads probably won't scare them, but it will soften them up and give them a clear snapshot of the energy present. Once you've decided they're ready, you can hit them with your thoughts on what the future might hold, and what we must do to change.

Mick Winter, host of DryDipstick.com, is the author of "Peak Oil Prep: Prepare for Peak Oil, Climate Change and Economic Collapse".

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A must see for everyone!, April 16, 2009

By	Steve J. Johnson (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I've been interested in the peak oil energy depletion problem since I read the Long Emergency in 2006. I've seen many films dealing with this subject and I would say that Energy Crossroads is a great first step in educating the public about this serious problem confronting us all. I think this is the perfect film to be viewed in the schools as well. I was happy to learn that there is a sequel to this film called The Great Squeeze produced by the same film maker and it actually has an interview with James Howard Kunstler who wrote The Long Emergency..