After Oil
From WFYI
| 00:58:54
Producers: WFYI & Purdue College of Engineering
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3 Comments
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Review of After OilThis is a slick, entertaining and informative production about one of our nation's and the world's greatest challenges. I personally learned a lot about the history, the issues and the options regarding our dependence on fossil fuels. Although the piece lays out the not-so-easy-to-hear facts, it provides cause for hope in the numerous options available. This program is well-researched, written and produced in an engaging, sometimes entertaining style, that helps to clarify the issues and keep the content from becoming too dry and technical. Barbara Bogaev, known to many as a fill-in host on "Fresh Air" and as one of the original hosts of American Public Media's "Weekend America," does an excellent job of delivering the script in a comfortable and personable style. The production is nicely mixed and edited using a variety of techniques to keep up the pace and maintain listener interest, including: original interview clips, archival film clip audio and appropriate music. As a one-hour program, this show is "Program Director friendly," offering a newscast cutaway and two :60 station breaks following a standard NPR-style clock. Easy to work into a news/talk format as a weekend special or a holiday replacement. SPECIAL NOTE FOR PROGRAM DIRECTORS: This is a production of Purdue University's Engineering Department and it includes Purdue experts. This Purdue involvement is clearly stated throughout the show, solving my own personal concerns about "disclosure" issues. In addition, the producers did a good job of including other experts from MIT, Harvard and from the oil and energy industries. The "Purdue connection" is obvious to me as a listener and I hope also to most of our public radio listeners. PDs will have to judge for yourselves whether this is a problem.
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Review of After OilReally good piece. It covered the issue widely and even presented options that I hadn't heard anywhere else. Highly rec! |
Transcript
I?m Barbara Bogaev.
(music)
When we look at all the things that made America what it is ?. It?s fair to say that for the last hundred years or so, America has been shaped ? more than anything ? by cheap oil. But now .... there are plenty of people telling us: ?The party is over.? The cheap oil is almost gone.
SIMMONS: Ninety-eight percent of our transportation comes from oil. ... just look around at how many things we use that come from very long distances and say ?That life ends.?
BEZDEK: We?re talking about economic costs that could make the problems of the 1970s look almost trivial by comparison.
We have the tools to solve the problem. But do we have the will?
GORE: The technological answer is not a short term answer. We are going to go from point A to point B. Whether we go on a very smooth road or we have a rollercoaster ride is the only uncertainty.
Life after...
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Timing and Cues
Billboard 1:00
In: I'm Barbara Bogaev. When we look
OQ: after this hour's news
News Hole Music 5:00
Segment A 14:59
In: I'm Barbara Bogaev
OQ: be back after a break
Break Music 1:00
Segment B 19:29
In: This is "After Oil" from the Purdue
OQ: College of Engineering. I'm Barbara Bogaev
Break Music 1:00
Segment C 16:29
In: This is After Oil from the Purdue University
OQ: Purdue-dot.edu. I'm Barbara Bogaev
Additional Files
- After Oil Ad in Current (after_oil_current_ad.jpg)
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Additional Information
- Produced: Jun 01, 2007
- Added to PRX: Jun 08, 2007
- This piece is in English
Eric Youngdale
Posted on August 08, 2007 at 11:41 AM | Permalink
Review of After Oil
After hearing a promo on the radio, I was looking forward to the program. In the end I found myself deeply disappointed by more or less the entire program. For the most part, it seemed to be cheer leading for technologies of one sort or another, which would tend to minimize the technical challenges that are still unsolved.
For example, they talk about carbon sequestration, and how they can capture all of the CO2. Wrong. If you make liquid fuels and burn it in an internal combustion engine, CO2 still comes out the tailpipe. Secondly, many experts now believe that sequestration simply isn't feasible on the scale that would be required to address global warming.
They talk about ethanol as if it is some sort of solution. They don't talk about the huge energy inputs and limited amounts of feedstock that are available, which lead many to conclude that this is really a diversion. Good discussion here:
http://www.theoildrum.com/node/2851#more
They talk about hydrogen as if it is some sort of solution, neglecting the fact that it is currently made from natural gas, a non-renewable fossil fuel, and the making of the hydrogen causes CO2 to be emitted. Yes, in theory it can be made by splitting water, but in reality there are large losses in converting electricity to compressed hydrogen. You would be far better off with a simple battery powered car. Many experts say that this is 30-50 years in the future. If ever.
In the end, this type of program tends to plant the idea in people's minds that whatever problems exist, people are working on them, and that the general public can blissfully continue on with life as usual.
Want a sober and in my opinion far more realistic assessment of where humanity finds itself today? Rent the documentary "A Crude Awakening".