Online Films
The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (trailer)
1 min - trailer - community, food, peak oil, solutions, sustainability 2207 views - website

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1990, Cuba's economy went into a tailspin. With imports of oil cut by more than half – and food by 80 percent – people were desperate. This film tells of the hardships and struggles as well as the community and creativity of the Cuban people during this difficult time. Cubans share how they transitioned from a highly mechanized, industrial agricultural system to one using organic methods of farming and local, urban gardens. It is an inspiring look into the Cuban culture during this economic crisis, which they call "The Special Period." Cuba, being the only country that has faced such a crisis – the massive reduction of fossil fuels – is an example of options and hope.

Share|




Comments
Posted by Lindsay on Monday, September 29, 2008

Fantastic - interesting and inspiring! I can't believe I hadn't heard more about this. I'll be telling everyone about this!
Posted by Tim on Friday, October 17, 2008

Amazing
Posted by Uncle B on Monday, March 02, 2009

The fat-assed, early maturing fast living, "entitled", over-eating, "spoiled for four generations", over-medicated, over-mechanized American individual will not adapt to Cuban living standards even in four more generations - not humanly possible! Cubans were deprived in the first place, and thereby amenable to the required changes. The American will shrivel and die without his ultra-high carb oil based diet SEE:
“Cattle are fed prodigious quantities of corn. At a feedlot of a mere 37,000 cows, 25 tons of corn are dumped every hour. It takes 1.2 gallons of oil to make the fertilizer used for each bushel of that corn. Before a cow is slaughtered, she will eat 25 pounds of corn a day; by the time she is slaughtered she will weigh more than 1,200 pounds. In her lifetime she will have consumed, in effect, 284 gallons of oil. Today’s factory-raised cow is not a solar-powered ruminant but another fossil fuel machine.” SEE: http://www.earthsave.org/environment/foodchoices.htm
Americans are the "Fatted Calf's" of the cheap oil era, and are about to face the end of life as they know it. China still burns a lot of coal, and have developed a car that runs on coal based electricity - a Battery car! They need now only to synthesis fuel from coal, a proven thing, and they can go without oil for cars -
SEE: The astounding Chinese have epoched the great GM, of U.S.A. in producing an Electric/gas/plug-in car! They are driving them in the streets of China as we speak, they will be retailed in the U.S.A. by 2011, they will cost half the price of a "Volt" and they are "On Order" for Israel! GM take a deep breath, your naughty parts have just been cut off by a Chinese high-tech competitor, and the "Volt" is still "Vapor-ware"! See:http://www.cleantech.com/news/3983/chinas-byd-sells-first-mass-produced-plug-cars
Capitalism has become the "cancer" of democracies, and has done more to promote socialism their antipathy than any other force on earth? And, the Capitalists continue, not seeing their own Achilles heel?
Americans waste electricity on refrigeration - patent laws be damned - style and fashion be damned - This fridge and a solar model at http://www.geekologie.com/2008/08/zero_carbon_footprint_the_sola.php
Einstein Fridge - http://www.gomestic.com/Consumer-Information/Eco-Fridge-That-Uses-Zero-Electricity.285375
Can you see an American "Princess" housewife giving up her stainless steel, ice cube dispensing luxury for this/ only if forced hard by circumstances not upon the U.S.A yet, and so far not foreseeable future?
As for American masculinity and fast cars:
Here in Canada, we have matured and no longer require the fastest time, stoplight to stoplight, and have substituted this thrill for control enough to stay roaded until the point of maximum pleasure. This maturity is reflected in our 'road racing' laws. If we are caught exceeding the limit by a pre-set amount, the vehicle is impounded for a week - to teach us to hold it long enough to enjoy it!
may be we can tell Cubans about this:
Algae can produce oil. Estimates using today's production techniques are 400 gallons per acre. The University of New Hampshire is exploring ways of forced production of algae for biodiesel that is yielding 10,000 gallons per acre and uses salty water. Their calculations show that a tiny area of the Sonoran desert in New Mexico (about 9%) would be enough area to produce all of the transportation fuel in the U.S. using their production techniques. Already, one company is experimenting with algae production stations at a power plant to capture the CO2 from the exhaust and use it to make algae for biodiesel. http://www.itsgood4.us/biodiesel.htm
Then, they would be able to grow their own oil for farm equipment and public transport! let us give it to them, here on the net!
Unbridled Capitalism has stolen from the American people
REFUSING TO GROW HEMP in America during the 17th and 18th Centuries WAS AGAINST THE LAW! You could be jailed in Virginia for refusing to grow hemp from 1763 to 1769; Hemp in Colonial Virginia, G. M. Herdon. http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=3774
Large corporate interests suppress this engine and keep it from the world! They sin against all mankind!
New piston engine!
Directory:Massive Yet Tiny (MYT) Engine http://peswiki.com/index.php/Directory:Massive_Yet_Tiny_(MYT)_Engine#Comments
Add solar panels and decent storage batteries to this new light bulb, and grow-lights can be run for pennies, homes lighted in evenings using solar power, giving third world students a chance!
http://theinfochief.com/
A £2 energy-saving lightbulb that lasts for 60 years has been developed by scientists at Cambridge University. The researchers have designed a bulb that is three times more energy efficient than today’s best offer and can cut lighting bills by 75 per cent.The bulbs are 12 times more efficient that conventional tungsten bulbs and three times more efficient than compact fluorescent “energy efficient” bulbs. They can burn for 100,000 hours and they illuminate instantly and can be dimmed, unlike energy efficient bulbs.
Have Cubans tried using sewage from cities like this?
Free, friendly and non-fossil – biomethane from human waste will soon power public transport in Oslo, the capital city of Norway. http://ecoworldly.com/2009/01/29/human-sewage-to-power-buses-in-norway/
Has Cuba tried Solar, Wave, Wind, Tidal, or Geothermal power sources? China has!
China has approved three solar-energy power plants: the 1-megawatt Chongming Island Project in Shanghai, the 255-kW project in Ordos in Inner Mongolia, and the 10MW solar project in Dunhuang. See: http://cleantech.com/news/4174/chinese-firms-plan-solar-electricit
Do Cubans use Solar for Hot water production yet/ - most other places with sun do.
Bio-mass with fermentation for bio-gasses will leave a soil building sludge, and not contaminate the atmosphere with C02
Cuba has the answers the Americans can never adapt to - they are the fatted calves for the Chinese to eat alive! Doomed by their own prosperity and unsustainablility!





Add a Comment
 Name


Word in Image
 
Search Films


View by Category
Comedy
Documentary
Peak Moment TV
Presentation
PSA
Short Film
Trailer
TV Clip
Video Clip

View by Subject
9/11
activism
animal rights
big ideas
big media
business
cities
climate change
community
consumerism
corporations
culture
drug prohibition
education
elections & democracy
empire
energy
food
globalization
government
health
human rights
impeachment
indigenous issues
indy media
media & war
media literacy
money & economics
peak oil
permaculture
philosophy
police state
politics
relocalization
social issues
solutions
sustainability
technology & design
terrorism?
the big picture
vision
war & peace



http://www.filmsforaction.org admin