What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire (Full Movie)

This is the entire feature length documentary, What a Way to Go: Life at the End of Empire, produced by Sally Erickson and Timothy Scott Bennett. Please visit http://www.whatawaytogomovie.com/ to purchase a copy and support the filmmakers. And visit http://bluehagbooks.com/ to learn about Bennett's new novel, All of the Above. Thanks!

Category:

Nonprofits & Activism

Tags:

• what a way to go
• civilization
• empire
• collapse
• mass extinction
• climate change
• population overshoot
• peak oil
• documentary

[yakovlev3a]

This video mentioned overpopulation but I what they did not mention was the balancing act between population and lifestyle. The sustainability of a lifestyle is dependent mostly on the size population that lives in that way. So its not so much that our current lifestyle is unsustainable as it is that there are just too many damn people. China has already implemented a 1 child policy. If the rest of the world does that, we can shrink ourselves to a size such that urbanized lifestyle IS sustanable

[TSWabbit]

@yakovlev3a You may wish to view again. The balance between population and lifestyle was explicitly explored, and the point was made that we focus more on the numbers side of the equation than we do the lifestyle side of things. So people come down on one side of the other - too many people or too damaging a lifestyle, rather than look at both at once. China's "success" is questionable, I think. And their economic growth seems to be the larger "problem" at this point.

[MissMamimi]

This is awesome. Thank you so much for uploading this. Must share.

[TSWabbit]

@MissMamimi You're welcome, MissMamimi. Share away!

[skulldrix]

Third world countries are devasted BECAUSE of western civilization you idiot.

[TSWabbit]

@skulldrix I agree wholeheartedly. What gives you the impression that I think otherwise? Perhaps you should watch more carefully, before doing that whole "name calling" thing. Just sayin'

[LightReuse]

@yakovlev3a Air with value added, compressed. Another ubiquitous substance, water -- and most of it comes with a price. Okay, value added water, pumped into homes by water companies or value added water sitting in a refrigerator ice cold and ready to drink. A money system can rely on resource abundance (petroleum) by making it so can't buy without exchanging what the 'money system' declares is legal tender. US had it made in time past when all oil was priced in USD.

[yakovlev3a]

@LightReuse When I mentioned air, I meant air as we breathe it. The marketability of compressed air comes from the fact that it is compressed into a form which air does not commonly occur. Hence the scarcity once more. Economies thrive on scarcity

[LightReuse]

@yak I'm for bartering. Compressed air is available for sale. US Constitution only gold & silver legal tender, a resource backing a monetary system. Oil backs fiat currencies.

[yakovlev3a]

@LightReuse How can a monetary system rely on resource abundance? If resources are abundant, then people do not need money as a way of deciding whose needs get met. This is why no one sells air for example. It is too abundant and cannot be kept out of everyone's hands. Developed or undeveloped, any nation that seeks a technological lifestyle but is not currently shrinking population is part of the crisis.

[LightReuse]

Economic systems vary on what factors are critical for its existence. A DBMS relies on abundance of resources, not on population growth. The 3rd world is responsible for the bulk of world population increase. It is the industrialized nations that saw population decreases. In agrarian cultures, families are larger than in industrialized cultures. Mankind's problems come down to those who follow natural law and those who do not; or the righteous and the unrighteous.

[yakovlev3a]

@LightReuse The monetary system has an important effect today, but population growth by far precedes DBMS. It has existed since the dawn of urban civilization around 10000 years ago. The DBMS was born out of that but economic systems are driven on scarcity which can only continually exist when there is endless population growth. In essence, most of mankind's problems come down to this.

[LightReuse]

60% to 70% of oil is used in transport fuels. 1979 US gov't declared gasoline rationing, but can't declare ration now because run on oil/nat gas supplies in USA & globally. Over 50% of US east coast oil refining capacity nixed by 7.2012. 495k bpd in St. Croix closing. Rationing without declaring rationing. Oil is life blood of modern military; Pentagon/DOD aware of peak oil & probably ordered Big Oil to close the refineries. Peak oil is a national security issue.

[LightReuse]

@yak Population does not drive economic growth. Debt based monetary system whereby every $1 created comes with interest attached is the cause of the drive for economic growth. Under a DBMS, the only way to maintain the system is to create an ever increasing supply of dollars. Debt growth is unlimited & exponential under a DBMS. When oil becomes too expensive for the masses, you will see economic growth come to a halt, yet population hasn't gone down significantly.

[yakovlev3a]

@TSWabbit Outside of things such as decentralizing food industries, using mostly renewable resources such as wind, solar, and geothermal power, and stopping the production of wasteful goods.I dont think that it is not necessary to address both population and lifestyle. This is because the most destructive aspects of our culture, come solely the fact that the population is endlessly growing. For example the reason our economy needs to grow all the time is because of the population issue