JR:  Right now, the global economy is a Ponzi scheme.  We created a way of raising standards of living we can’t possibly pass on to our children.  As Tom Friedman reported in 2009, “We have been getting rich by depleting all our natural stocks — water, hydrocarbons, forests, rivers, fish and arable land — and not by generating renewable flows.”

It has to collapse, unless adults stand up now and say, “This is a Ponzi scheme. We have not generated real wealth, and we are destroying a livable climate.”  Real wealth is something you can pass on in a way that others can enjoy.”  I’ve also noted that the 1% can insulate themselves from the collapse far longer than everyone else, with their gated and moated communities, multiple homes in multiple climates, security guards, private jets and general insensitivity to the price of anything — and hence insensitivity to the value of everything.

by Cole Mellino

The new documentary film GrowthBusters had its world premiere in Washington, DC last night. And Climate Progress had a chance to catch up with Director Dave Gardner to chat about why he made the movie.

Gardner, like so many Americans, grew up hooked on growth. He once had a successful career as a corporate film producer, putting together promotional videos for large companies. But his newest film rails against many of those corporations that are trying to keep us addicted to growth.

First, here’s the trailer to the film:

GrowthBusters: Hooked on Growth Trailer from Dave Gardner on Vimeo.

GrowthBusters follows Gardner as he questions the push for never-ending economic growth in the U.S. and the world.

“If I have one goal on this planet, it is to make it okay to question growth,” he tells Climate Progress. “I’m not afraid to say I’m against growth.”

Gardner became interested in the issue when he started looking at the growth patterns of cities, especially his own hometown of Colorado Springs. Officials felt that “if they weren’t growing, they were dying.” And that incessant focus on growth had major environmental implications for Colorado Springs — draining the water supply, increasing congestion on the roads, and destroying pristine wilderness that defines the state.

He ran for City Council in Colorado Springs to bring attention to the issue. After a tight race, he lost. But it made him more determined to educate people about the consequences and limits to growth.

We need to “stop drinking the Kool-Aid” and stop “our nearly universal worship of growth everlasting,” says Gardner.

Gardner’s goal in making the film is to prepare people for a time when resource constraints eventually kill our all-growth-all-the-time paradigm. He also wants to make it okay to be against the culture of growth — to allow people to question the people and institutions that tell us that it’s the only available path. Gardner calls them Growth Pushers.

Gardner worked with many of these Growth Pushers in a previous life doing film work for large corporations. That work allowed him see the marketing behind the push for mindless consumption. Eventually, he realized he needed to do something about it. Hence, the film, which pulls back the curtain on the cultural forces promoting endless, destructive growth.

Gardner encourages people to join their local Transition Movement, which is helping cities prepare for a world of dwindling resources and a changing climate — offering a path to prosperity through “de-growth.”

He also asks people to change the conversation in local politics. “We need to lead the leaders,” says Gardner.

GrowthBusters is one of many recent films to take a look at the limits to growth. But this film is more of a human story about one person’s quest to change the dialogue about what it means to be prosperous. It’s worth a watch when it comes to your city.

— Cole Mellino with Stephen Lacey (and an intro by Joe Romm)

Related Post:

• An Illustrated Guide to the Science of Global Warming Impacts: How We Know Inaction Is the Gravest Threat Humanity Faces

The jury is out on whether Saudi Arabia actually has enough excess or spare production capacity to continue to control the price of oil.  I  discussed that at length in two posts this year (here and here).

What is clear is that the Saudis want to create the impression that they control the price of oil — and that they don’t want oil prices so high that Americans make the shift off of our billion-dollar-a-day addiction too quickly, which is to say, fast enough to preserve a livable climate for our children and countless future generations.

If you need proof, Ben Armbruster of Think Progress Security has this remarkable video of Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal on CNN:

BIN TALAL: The stiff position of Saudi Arabia, we want the price to be between $70 and $80. Not only to help the West, but also to help ourselves. We don’t want the West to go and find alternatives, because, clearly, the higher the price oil goes, the more you have incentive to go and find alternatives. So, really, our interest coincides with American interest, to have the price for around $70, $80 which is a price good for consumers and producers.

The Saudi interest does not coincide with the American interest — and recent Saudi actions  are at the very least puzzling if they really want lower oil prices — see “Does Saudia Arabia want Obama to lose? Is the recent run-up in oil prices due in part to Saudis slashing production in March by over 800,000 barrels a day?”

As yet more evidence that the Saudi interest does not match ours, consider the fact that “bin Talal is also one of Fox News’s largest shareholders.”

Finally, even if  the Saudis have enough remaining capacity to significantly reduce the price of oil now, that won’t last long — see WikiLeaks peak oil bombshell: Saudi Arabian reserves overstated by 40%, global production plateau immiment.

Oil Drum has supporting analysis here, with this great figure:

Exports, in green, are down because Saudi Arabia is consuming more and more of its own oil, so there is less available for others

And that means  no matter what happens in the near-term, the medium- and long-term trend is up, up, up:

• Jeremy Grantham must-read, “Time to Wake Up: Days of Abundant Resources and Falling Prices Are Over Forever”
• Science: “Peak oil production may already be here”
• Least surprising headline of the day: “Exxon Struggles To Find New Oil”
• World’s top energy economist warns peak oil threatens recovery, urges immediate action: “We have to leave oil before oil leaves us”
• German military study warns of peak oil crisis
• Peak oil production coming sooner than expected

Below are the comments from the Facebook commenting system:

Patric Juillet

The incoming water crisis will make peak oil look like a (insert your metaphor here).

June 2 at 10:16am

Prokaryotes

Fox News chief enforced climate change scepticism – leaked email.

Email obtained by Media Matters reveals reporters were under orders to cast doubt on any mention of climate change.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/​media/2010/dec/15/fox-news​-climate-change-email.

June 1 at 9:14pm

Mike Roddy

prokaryotes, that’s a great story about Fox rejecting the ad by a veterans group. This should be a front page story- we know organs like the New York Times will ignore it, but the message has to get out there somehow.

And yeah, David Smith, Americans hate the oil companies anyway. The problem is that they might love their big trucks even more than they hate people like the Saudis.

In my opinion our dependence on countries like Saudi Arabia, which is run by religious fanatics, is unconscionable. And if oil prices go to $250 or more- likely in the next few years- the wealth transfer to oil producing countries could bankrupt us. We have to stop them, including our own complicit firms such as Exxon and Chevron. At some point a president is going to have to take emergency action, which could include nationalizing the oil companies and going on a clean energy fast track. If we don’t kick start this, it may be too late when we finally get around to changing things in a serious way.

June 2 at 9:43am

David Stockbridge Smith

On our busines-as-usual path, doesn’t raising oil prices lead to and require our eventual military take over of foreign oil feilds? Wouldn’t this occur prior to bankruptcy, something far less than $250 per barrel?

June 2 at 10:30am

David Stockbridge Smith

I still think a compelling argument can be made, a wedge can be created between the dirty energy companies and an overwhelming majority of voting Americans based on this issue; that we are all being manipulated by these corporations (and certain world leaders)against our on best interests, purely to protect the golden eggs of an extremely small group of individuals, globally. No one likes to be f__ked with where they live and that is exactly what’s happening here. This could be very emotional. Argueng about who is right is an argument without end.

These guys are giving capitalism a bad name. Industries that outlive their usefullnes or create great consumer hazzards are supposed to naturally bankrupt and dissappear in free-market capitalism. The life of the dirty energy industry is being extended artificially by one reason; the wealth of the participants.

June 2 at 8:12am

Prokaryotes -

Saudi-funded Fox News rejects ad by veterans group arguing against Middle East oil dependence http://thinkprogress.org/r​omm/2010/05/05/205934/saud​i-funded-fox-news-rejects-​ad-by-veterans-group-argui​ng-against-middle-east-oil​-dependence/.

June 1 at 9:14pm

Paul Magnus

Obama is more than a disappointment…
http://www.facebook.com/pe​rmalink.php?story_fbid=114​196512001493&id=1394348227​41700

June 2 at 12:39pm

Jean Mcmahon

My Dear Senator, Tom Coburn, said last week “We have oil out the Wazoo”..must be, he knows everything.

June 2 at 7:39pm