“Global crude oil reserves are like a huge, melting glacier that shrinks, floods, and fertilizes side valleys hitherto deserted, out of reach.”
― Matthieu Auzanneau
The survivalist film (2015) is a metaphor for our current condition. Here we have a microcosm of our current global condition. The opening credits juxtapose population growth with oil depletion. We have a depopulation event due to a global ecological collapse. This is refracted through domestic routine and isolationist confinement. The film’s metaphorical attention to gardening, hunting and perimeter maintenance foregrounds the parallels our modern predicament. compressing planetary crisis into a narrative of resource exhaustion and environmental limits on a localized scale.
What we are experiencing in our post Covid world is a ‘race for what’s left’ scramble for the final amount of the worlds dwindling oil supplies.
As an oil based civilization we cannot completely rely on technical development to science our way out of this. All of our infrastructure, agriculture and technology requires as much oil as we have always needed.
The Jevons paradox comes into play every time we bring in a technology that reduces our reliance on fossil fuels. The effect from increased demand predominates, and the improved efficiency results in a faster rate of resource use.
work in progress..