And now, just in time for the weekend: Three Recommended Videos

I have watched three videos of late which all tackle various aspects of the same problem: globalization. The first video, The End of Suburbia, draws a lot upon the work of James Howard Kunstler, who is interviewed within the film. Kunstler takes the stance that suburban living as it came about after the end of the Second World War and continues to the present day, is the “biggest misallocation of resources in the history of the world”. His reasoning is due to peak oil, which is the year of the maximum amount of oil produced ever. Some scientists have postulated that this peak has already occurred, some think it is occurring now, while others put it off a couple of years into the future. Whenever it does occur, it will be a bumpy plateau, but one thing is certain, oil production will decrease forever after, with all the ramifications for a global economy with runs on it. As Kunstler says, “It will be the end of the 2000-mile Caesar salad.” Suburbia, with its car dependence, may become the slums of the future as it will be impossible to live there as energy costs escalate. It will no longer be sustainable. Kunstler, whose book The Long Emergency tackles this issue in depth, doesn’t believe that technology will be able to solve the problem, as no proposed replacement energy source, such as solar and wind power, can make up the difference; alternative methods of powering automobiles, such as ethanol, don’t make the cut either. Ethanol, made from corn, requires massive petroleum inputs both in fertilizer and in fuel to power the machinery to plant and harvest the crop. You end up investing more energy into its production than what you get out of it. In the end, Kunstler sees a forced return to more local ways of living, and, with a nod to Thomas Malthus, a time of political, social and economic upheaval.

The next video which I recommend is Wal-Mart: The High Cost of Low Prices. I used to work for this corporate giant, and honestly, I really don’t have too many bad words to say about them. That being said, this video does show how their “cut-throat” business practices have destroyed Main Street America, outsourced manufacturing to the cheap labor paradises of China, Central America and the like and keep their hourly employees below the poverty level, costing the American taxpayer mega-bucks. There is nothing really new here, but two things in the video really struck me personally. First, the fall of a local grocer in Hamilton, Missouri, is detailed, showing the local football field in a few shots. Oddly enough, I’ve been there. Scott Peterson, a friend of mine from college, and I visited his parents, Wes and Carolyn, a few times there back in the early 1990’s. They live on a farm outside Breckenridge, Missouri, which is in the Hamilton school district, where we watched his brother, Jay, play in a high school football game. Second, Jim Bill Lynn, a former Wal-Martian, is featured in the film, telling how he was forced out of the company for telling the truth about Central American sweatshop suppliers. I attended training by Jim Bill back in 2000 at a distribution center in Ohio. He was one of THE most motivated Wal-Mart employees I have ever encountered: a real champion of the company. He lived and breathed Wal-Mart. For good old Jim Bill to turn on them, things must not be all as they seem.

The third video I saw and heartily recommend is Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. If you ever doubted the phenomenon of global warming as a result of our changing the environment, see this. Key points from the film:

• If you are thinking about buying a coastal home, think again!
• If you are planning a vacation to see glaciers, plan soon!
• We are all screwed.

The only thing I didn’t like about the film was that Gore has not really gotten over his defeat at the hands of the US Supreme Court back in late 2000. If anyone could justify being a sore loser, I guess, it would be him, but still, that “feel sorry for me, feel sorry for us” angle isn’t too appealing. It is, after all, history.

All in all, these three videos may put you in a depressive funk (stock up on plenty of alcohol before watching, which I guess is good advice for most videos), but at the same time, they get you thinking about our impact on the world around us, and just possibly, how we might make things better. Perhaps, with local solutions, we can undo some of the detrimental effects of the massive globalization which have occurred over the past few decades. Or, we can just keep on doing what were doing, sit back and enjoy the show. Who needs Hollywood for a disaster film when you can create your own?