New documentary: PEAK OIL - imposed by Nature
Please go to www.troposdoc.com to order this DVD.
Production Company:
TROPOS DOKUMENTAR, Oslo, Norway
Producer / Director / Cameraman:
Amund Prestegard, 52, Norwegian.
Experienced in all aspects of filmmaking since 1972.
Prestegard runs his own production company, TROPOS DOKUMENTAR since 1995.
The film ”PEAK OIL – imposed by Nature” was nominated ”Best professional documentary” at The Norwegian Documentary Film Festival 2005.
The idea for this film came about when Prestegard in the fall of 2002, during research for another project, became aware of the global oil depletion situation when reading the works of Campbell, Laherrere and Simmons.
In the film Dr.Colin Campbell takes us to Stavanger in Norway where he worked the last 10 years of his professional career. He explains the aspects of discovery and subsequent production, the increase and the decline, and the fact that this will happen to the world as a whole very soon. Dr. Campbell is also our ”guide” throughout the film. Our ”anchorman”, so to speak.
Richard Webb is a financial risk analyst with broad experience from some of the world’s largest investment banks. He expresses his opinion about signs that the market is reaching an extremity, and that this tends to endorse what Colin Campbell and the ASPO are saying; that we are near the peak. Webb underlines the importance to understand that the dramatic event is not when we will run out of oil, but rather what will happen when there is less tomorrow than there is today.
Norwegian petroleum geologist Olve Torvanger has 30 years of world wide experience in seismic surveys, searching for oil. He points to the seriousness of a situation in which our tools become ever more sophisticated, but we are finding less and less.
Matthew Simmons is Chairman and CEO of Simmons & Co.International, one of the worlds largest energy investment banking firms. He expresses a deep concern for the urgent need to take measures to prevent that the decline shall destroy our society. He refers to the word ”crisis” as: A temporary problem that has been left unattended so long that it has become permanent!
Aage Figenschou, norwegian board member of Simmons & Co expresses concern over the oil companies’ downgrading of their reserves. He believes that we are near the peak, but underlines that it will not make people run to fill up their cars. What we will see, he says, is a constant pressure towards ever higher prices, a rather negative thing....
Chris Skrebowski, editor of Petroleum Review in London draws up the lines of a need for a much stronger involvement from government that could go as far as deciding who can have, and who can not. The Government, he claims, will find themselves in a war-like situation.
Investigative reporter Michael C.Ruppert is expressing his views on the fact that Dr.Campbell was approached in his own village in Western Ireland by US intelligence. Ruppert claims that what the CIA most of all wants to know is; ”how close is the ASPO to penetrating the public consciousness with the issues of PEAK OIL and how close is the public to acknowledging what it’s going to mean”. According to Ruppert the so-called ”war on terrorism” is nothing but a war to control the last reamining oil reserves of the planet.
US president George W. Bush expresses in the film worries over the fact that the US now imports over half of their crude oil, and that very often they import that from countries that ”don’t particularly like us,”... ”that it could jeopardize the national security to be dependent on sources of energy from countries that don’t care for America,-what we stand for, -what we love.”
The PAL version of the DVD is shipping world-wide through www.troposdoc.com
Also available in Europe from Powerswitch (UK)

I received the great documentary "Peak Oil - Imposed by Nature" on DVD.
It is 28 minutes long, made by a Norweigan filmaker.
It features Colin Campbell - which really makes the documentary worth watching. In my opinion he's a far better spokesperson on issue of peak oil than Kunstler, who was featured in The END of SUBURBIA. Certainly Kunstler is more entertaining, but Colin lends the issue more credibility and emotion.
Imposed by Nature is also much more consise than the END of SUBURBIA and mentions Peak Oil almost from the beginning. It also doesn't have any humerous parts like the END of SUBURBIA.
In addition to Colin it features Matthew Simmons, Richard Webb (a financial risk analyst), Chris Skrebowski (editor of Petroleum Review in the UK), Michael C.Ruppert, and George W. Bush (expressing his concern that we import over half the oil we consume in the US).
It was filmed in Europe, primarily in Norway and the UK. It was interesting in that peak oil crisis is acknowledged by the Norweigan government and the issue was recived well by members of the UK government. It includes a segment in the House of Commons where Colin Campbell is speaking to UK government officials (though Tony Blair was not present).
It is short enough to be included at a city council meeting, as part of a 1-hour class or during a lunch break. It definately opens up a lot more possibilities for showing a Peak Oil documentary. I may be showing it during my lunch break at work next week.
I intend to arrange a public screenings of this documentary in the Pasadena area (or elsewhere). It's short enough that it could be screened with other short documentaries, perhaps Our Synthetic Sea (21 minutes), which is about plastic polution in our oceans. It could also be shown with the World Population DVD produced by the Population Connection - A graphic simulation of the History of Human Population Grown - which is just a few minutes long, but quite a powerful image.
Compared to the information packed PowerDown DVD, which I also highly recommend (www.powerdowndvd.org), Imposed by Nature keeps your attention better. Imposed by Nature has a variety of vioces, a nice soundtrack, interesting outdoor locations, and quaility editing.
Eric Einem
Pasadena Post Carbon Outpost Coordinator
I think that this document almost changed world.
I'm honestly not sure what to think about peak oil. The science of it goes over my head, so I have to take experts at their word. This is where the problem lies. I'm not aware of any consensus in the scientific community. In fact, isn't it fair to say the scientific community at large is skeptical of peak oil? on the other hand, there are some very smart people who support the theory, and, well, let's face it...it's just common sense. I hop to see more documentaries exploring the issue.
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