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Week 11 [15.01.2018-21.01.2018] World of the Future

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"There's No Tomorrow" is an animation documentary about limits to growth. It discusses many subjects like: resource depletion, EROEI (energy returned on energy invested) and food production. What I really like about this short video is that, in contrast to many related documentaries, it presents all the information in a clear and simple way. I hope you will enjoy it!


Questions:
  1. Have you learned about any new topics and ideas watching this video? What's your opinion about them?
  2. What do you think about their predictions of the future? Would you be able to live like that? How do you think the future of our species will unfold?
  3. Did you like the "design" of this documentary? Do you think such animation documentaries might be more easy to understand?

Comments

Łukasz Domeradzki said…
Yes. I think that it's very important to focus on better tomorrow, especially resources depletion as nearly everything we're making use today is finite and sooner or later we'll be forced to become independent of them. Especially renewable energy is interesting topic in this regard.

I also liked the design of the video, since it's very clear and simple. Thanks for your presentation.
20 January 2018 at 14:59
Aleksander Bartos said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
20 January 2018 at 16:15
Aleksander Bartos said…
I also like the idea of renewable energy, but from what I learned it seems like there is no such thing as unlimited renewable energy. Taking solar panels for example, not only do we need oil and many other rare earth materials to produce them but there is a limit to how many we can have. I wouldn't like to live in a world where instead of blue sky all we see are the bottoms of solar panels. Thanks for commenting!
20 January 2018 at 16:16
Unknown said…
This comment has been removed by the author.
21 January 2018 at 10:12
Maciej Główka said…
I agree that we should start thinking how we can care more about our Earth. We must remember, that many materials we get from our planet is finite. What are we going to do when they will be gone?
I find this video very good, it tells a story very clearly.
21 January 2018 at 11:41
Unknown said…
Thanks a lot for this interesting video. It expanded my knowledge about energy problems in the world. Frankly speaking, I was not aware of it till I watched the video. The information about our addiction to oil was particulary exciting. I am inclined to believe that the humandkind will destroy the planet and the richest part of the population will move to another planet.
The animation is acceptable and I may say that I like it very much
21 January 2018 at 12:05
Unknown said…
1) Nope.
2) They are right but meaningless until we actually start doing something about the problem at hand.
3) I have no idea. I would have to try doing this.
4) It still is a documentary and i don't like these xD
21 January 2018 at 13:00
Alicja said…
I really liked this documentary. I was aware of the main issues discussed in it, but it was interesting to learn some details like that 7 calories of fossil fuel energy are used to create 1 calorie of food. The documentary explains well problems with our financial system, which is built on the assumption of growth, which in turn requires increasing supply of energy to support it. It is indeed like a Ponzi scheme and it will eventually collapse.

The presented future prediction sounds reasonable. It has actually started happening already. Fertilizers poison the rivers and oceans and many places in the world do not have access to clean water. We also have a problem with waste utilization. With China's decision to stop importing plastic waste this year we are facing a real issue.
The global energy debt crisis deepens as China is reaching its limits:
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Is-China-Heading-Toward-An-Energy-Debt-Crisis.html
The documentary talked a lot about an average American, but China is the second and fast growing energy consumer with 1.4 bln people. The economical problems that China or India are facing are of completely different proportions than the ones we do in the West:
https://www.hydrocarbons-technology.com/features/featureenergy-gluttons-the-worlds-top-10-energy-consumers-4433940/

I think that using animation in the documentary helps to simplify the topic being described. It also appeals more personal and friendly.
21 January 2018 at 17:31
Aleksander Bartos said…
I think that it's probably too late to change the future. We are just a carbon based life, which needs energy to survive in one way or another. I can't see how our species could overcome the 8th step of The Great Filter theory. Thanks for your comment!
21 January 2018 at 17:41
Aleksander Bartos said…
Well I don't think rich people will be able to colonize another planet, because we don't have such technology and the timeline is probably too short. I think they will create some underground habitat here on Earth. Maybe they already do? Thanks for your thoughts and glad you could learn something new from this documentary!
21 January 2018 at 17:46
Aleksander Bartos said…
What do you mean by meaningless? I don't think that documentaries follow Newton's 3rd Law so there doesn't need to be a reaction for every action. They just simply present what the future could look like and there are no direct commands from the creators. Thanks for your answers anyway!
21 January 2018 at 17:53
Unknown said…
How many similar videos have already been created, and the sad reality remains the same. The problem lies in ourselves, have anyone of you, after watching the video, decided to change your attitude to nature?
It's commendable if you are really think so and your rush will not end tomorrow.
We are the main enemies of our existence on our planet. To change something, you need to change yourself first - obvious words, but what impact they could have if each of us could understand this.
The words in the end are frustrating, that even if we will become smarter and more attentive to the resource of the earth, humanity is still doomed to perish...
As for myself, I decided to choose a bicycle over a public transport and get rid of the habit of storing packets in packets)
21 January 2018 at 18:03
Aleksander Bartos said…
I totally agree with everything you've said, but as of 2016 U.S average energy usage per capita is still 3 times as large as that of China. Sure, when we take the total consumption, then China already has a bigger impact on the environment. For me personally the saddest thing is that people from the West blame all the poor people for overpopulation, while not seeing that the biggest issue is energy usage and carbon emissions. Average American has the same impact on environment as 30 Indians. Of course their population could become the problem at some point in the future, but I don't think there will be a civilization as we know it at that time. As of know we already need 2 Earths each year to provide for our species and even if we got rid of whole Africa we would still need more than 1. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and touching on important topics!
21 January 2018 at 18:13
Aleksander Bartos said…
"Be the change that you wish to see in the world." - beautiful words indeed, but the problem is that we are primates and because of that we are socially oriented animals. Most people only care about their position and what other apes might think about them. Because of that the only way to push these words forward is to change the mainstream and others will follow to acquire the wows of other males and females.
21 January 2018 at 18:44
Andrzej Niewiadomski said…
I agree with Maciej that people must care more about their own planet. Aleksander, do not be so pessimistic ;)
21 January 2018 at 20:42
Unknown said…
I did not know that the difference between oil consumption and production is so huge. It's definitely worrying but I think that we can overcome dependency on this one resource and replace it with other ones.
I think that the key to survival is being able to harvest resources on the moon and other planets in our solar system. Earth will finally run out of every single material but there's plentiful on other planets, moons and asteroids.
21 January 2018 at 21:24
Aleksander Bartos said…
There is a saying that a pessimist is a well informed optimist, but I would rather call myself a realist rather than a pessimist on that matter. Mostly because I don't think that the disappearance of a homo sapiens species is an inherently bad thing. Just another unnoticeable event in the universe, given its scale. Like many other species before, ours will cease to exist one day. It doesn't really matter when. ;)
21 January 2018 at 22:00
Aleksander Bartos said…
Of course there are a plentiful of other planets, but we won't reach them when we run out of oil and the timeline for this event is rather short. We just don't have the technology for space harvesting, the biggest thing we brought back from space was a 11.7kg rock. Mind you that was back in 1972. There is a great theory called The Great Filter, which expands on Fermi Paradox, that could explain one of the reasons why haven't we met any ET civilization. The other thing is what are we going to replace oil with? There is no knowledge of another energy source with similar energy density. We are addicted to oil and when it runs out we will go through a withdrawal that will change everything about what we do and how we do it.
21 January 2018 at 22:25
Unknown said…
This whole video feels like "Efff everything and go live like a caveman or the Amish, don't fall for bad capitalists' frauds, AVOID BANKS(yeaaa pay me in gold, my dear company, and my fleet of homing pigeons will deliver golden coins to people I would normally buy from with Paypal), eat BIO-food(which is usually the same, but costs 2x so you can feel the majic power of healthy food in your pocket) and ride on a bicycle (especially right now)".
By the time this problem becomes really important, we will be using other types of fuels and if not... Why should I care if it would probably not hit me as I'll be long dead? It's all nice n' easy to say "use bicycle, public transport" when you are sitting in a nice cozy chair in front of PC, but when it comes to getting up to work, it somehow feels better when you are sitting in your own car, listen to your own music and don't have to bounce between an old lady travelling nowhere and some piss-stinking bum, or freeze your head off and inhale fresh fumes of the car in front of you, while riding on a bicycle...
21 January 2018 at 22:30
Małgorzata Szporer said…
I really loved the design of this documentary. It is very esthetic and beautifully made. It graphically show the causes and effects of the occurrence. It also presents graphs and statistics which help understand the scale of a given matter. The pace of the video keeps the viewer in suspense.
21 January 2018 at 22:36
Aleksander Bartos said…
Of course it does feel better to do the things you mentioned. We are animals after all, pleasures before everything else. To tell you the truth I do all the things you mentioned, because I won't be bringing kids to this fucked up world anyway and I don't really care whether your kids will be raped, while being eaten by your neighbors, because there is no food and water in the nearby supermarket. Saying all that I don't get what is your problem with this documentary, probably you haven't watched it, because not once did they say how you should live your life.
21 January 2018 at 22:41
Aleksander Bartos said…
Glad you've enjoyed the design, that's the biggest reason why I've presented this particular documentary instead of many others related to the topic.
21 January 2018 at 22:43
Maryna Bratishko said…
This is a very interesting topic actually. For us is probably difficult to understand that we have big problem Very soon, us (people) will become too much and the food, places, and resources in fact of our existence will not lack. But most of us are not thinking how to save all of humanity and only thinks about how to get rich and pump more barrels of oil to sell it at a higher price.
And on account of the "design" of the presentation, everything was very clear and informative. Thank you very much, it was interesting.
21 January 2018 at 23:40
Aleksander Bartos said…
Unfortunately that's how civilization has always worked. Ever since the beginnings of agriculture. There are very interesting archeological studies that focus on wealth disparity. Back when we were hunter-gatherers all the dwellings of the tribe were almost of the same size. Interesting thing happened with "invention" of agriculture. Large houses started to appear and they were connected to granaries. There were a few of them, but there was a lot of much smaller houses that were bundled together. Nothing has changed since then, maybe only that the wealth disparity is becoming bigger and bigger with every year. It became even more apparent since the 70s, when dollar became independent from the value of gold. Nice to hear that you liked the documentary. Cheers!
21 January 2018 at 23:57
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