The End of Suburbia

In this documentary, the director claimed that oil depletion and energy crisis might make a big change to the suburbia life in america. About 50 years ago, accorging to the cheap oil price and rapidly growth of auto industy and wholesale stores, people in America can afford the expense to live in the suburban area to avoid the terrible city life and can drive to anywhere they want by car. Somwhow, the lifestyle in suburbia reflects some kinds of American Dream. People can live in a spacious house in nice neighborhood , own a large garage and garden, and buy anything they need in the large wholesale store. They used to the lifestyle and never think about whether the environment will change or not. Nowdays, the situation is totally different. The whole world is facing a energy problem and shortage of fossil fuels, and there will not be enough oil to support the extravagant lifestyle.

The director cited some reasons to support his claim. First, the world had been encountered the oil peak situation and inevitable decline of oil energy. In this documentary, it cited lots expert and scientists to support this argument. Second, because American people who live in suburbia rely on cars heavily. If there is no cheap oil to support their transportation need, it will cause a big problem to the life in suburbia. We can tell the issue from the daily life of the suburbia civilian. Peolpe who live in suburbia need drive cars to buy anything they need or to go to work or school. If they can't afford the oil price, they will not be able to live in suburbia any longer.

In this documentary, the director also cited some counter-argument to this issue. Some people might claim there will be other alternative energy to replace the oil energy, like bio fuel. But the director argue that bio fuel will not be able to replace the oil energy. Because people need fertilizer and some chemical peticide to cultivate the corn or other plants to produce the bio-fuel. But the original source to produce the fertilizer and chemical pesticide is the crude oil. So we just use oil energy to produce other energy, and that is why we can't solve the energy problem in this way. Some people claim that hydrogen can produce clean energy by advanced technology, but it still not been successfully implemented yet until now. The energy generation process is too complicated and too expensive. It also can not fully replace the oil energy in a short time. Some people argue that the estimate about the crude oil in the world is not accurate. But the director cited other expert and scientist's opinion to support the argument that the world is really facing a energy crisis and should prepare to face the situation or it might cause a great panic to the economy.

Right now, the director indicated that some people start to build a new lifestyle different to the suburbia. They live in the urban area and walking distance to the downtown. They don't rely on cars heavily and also avoid consuming too much oil energy in daily life. People also start to realize that the energy is limited and learn to save energy and prepare to face this problem. If American don't take any action to deal with this situation, they will be shocked by the suddenly energy crisis which they never think of before.