Film ‘There’s No Tomorrow’ Spreads Eco-Hysteria About Economic Collapse
The current system of economic growth is unsustainable, and people should “try to avoid banks,” “consider gardening to grow your own food,” and reject the advances of globalization. That’s not a clip from National Geographic’s “Doomsday Preppers.” That is the latest message of doom and gloom from the environmental movement.
Incubate Pictures produced a nearly 35 minute animated film titled “There’s No Tomorrow,” which depicted a gloomy future of unsustainable economic growth, diminishing natural resources, and environmental degradation. “There’s No Tomorrow” argues that since the modern economy is based on continuous growth fueled by fossil fuels, and oil production has already reached its production peak, the economy will eventually collapse.
Video after the jump.
The solutions “There’s No Tomorrow” proposes for these drastic problems are stark. The film suggests the elimination of the capitalist economy and economic growth. The “Happy Ending” proposed by the film declares that economies should become localized, declaring that viewers should “consider the use of local currencies should the larger economy cease to function.”
The dire predictions of “There’s No Tomorrow” echo the cries of eco-extremists like Paul Watson, who called for a return to sail-powered ships and a decrease in population to less than 1 billion. Its solutions mirror the cries of radical environmentalists such as Lierre Keith, Derrick Jensen, and Aric McBay, who sought the destruction of human civilization.
“There’s No Tomorrow” claimed to address arguments that humans will technologically adapt to changing conditions by arguing that today’s challenges are too drastic to be solved, and even argued that “more advanced technologies may make the situation worse.” Essentially, the film rehashed the tired 200-year-old argument that humanity is doomed because it there is no possible way humans can adapt to the challenges they face.
Despite the filmmakers’ claim that “every care has been taken to insure the accuracy of the data,” the film is riddled with inaccuracies and distortions. Discoveries of new methods of retrieving oil have further called into question the already highly speculative theory that we have reached “Peak Oil” propounded by “There’s No Tomorrow.” Developments in hydrofracking (opposed by environmentalists and their liberal political allies) have drastically decreased natural gas prices since 2007.
The inaccuracies inherent in “There’s No Tomorrow” are unsurprising, considering its reliance on flawed sources. Incubate Pictures notes that the making of “There’s No Tomorrow” was assisted by the Post Carbon Institute’s Richard Heinberg and Tod Brilliant. The Post Carbon Institute questions “whether or not human beings are unsustainable by nature” and declares that “institutionalized perpetual growth together with an exponentially-growing global population is a recipe for disaster.”
The idea that the world will run out of resources has haunted the fears of environmentalists since Thomas Malthus’ dire prediction that food production would fail to feed a burgeoning human population – in 1798. In modern times, biologist Paul Ehrlich has been among the most prominent proponents of imminent human and environmental collapse – famously claiming in 1970: "I would take even money that England will not exist in the year 2000." Despite his track record of failed predictions, he still preaches the dark gospel of economic catastrophe.
The media have entered the controversy on the side of the doomsayers, amplifying the argument that the earth’s ever-growing legion of consumers will one day destroy the environment. Both environmentalists and the media ignore that people are creative and can solve the challenges they are faced with, myopically focusing only on the problems humanity faces.
No one denies that the technological, economic, and environmental challenges the world faces are daunting. But doomsayers have religiously predicted environmental and social disaster for human beings for over 200 years, and been proven spectacularly wrong on every occasion. Their forecasts of the end of the world have proven to be as accurate as Harold Camping’s.
- Paul Wilson's blog
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Comments
funny, the Bible says we
Submitted by TruthMonger on Tue, 02/21/2012 - 12:36pm.
funny, the Bible says we should live like there is no tomorrow...
Congratulations Jimmy Carter!
Irony?
Submitted by Galvanic on Tue, 02/21/2012 - 12:38pm.
Fifteen to twenty years ago, there was a movement of sorts that warned of political and economic disaster, and advised citizens to stock up on essentials like gasoline, heating fuel, and non-perishable food stuffs. It suggested tranferring wealth into gold, and growing one's own food. It warned that our communities and our families had to be self-sufficient.
They were called survivalists, and the Left referred to them as kooks, crazies, and worse. They were a dangerous fringe element.
Now we see the green movement recommending we take the same measures. Aside from stocking up on firearms and ammo, the checklist looks remarkably similar to that of the survivalists.
But they won't be slammed as kooks or threats to us. Many on the Left will see them as taking prudent precautionary measures. And $ millions will be made selling merchandice to that crowd.
that's a fantastic point - i
Submitted by TruthMonger on Tue, 02/21/2012 - 12:42pm.
that's a fantastic point - i will enjoy hearing their rational for that now...
Congratulations Jimmy Carter!
⇒ Is Al Gore in it?
Submitted by Cool Arrow on Tue, 02/21/2012 - 12:42pm.
Is he going to play the part of the Sta-Puff Marshmallow Man?
just imagine if he crossed
Submitted by TruthMonger on Tue, 02/21/2012 - 1:01pm.
just imagine if he crossed the streams with micheal moore:)
Congratulations Jimmy Carter!
Gutlessly
Submitted by Tugboat Phil on Tue, 02/21/2012 - 12:44pm.
They disabled comments on their Youtube page.
However, there is a very quick way to a prosperous tomorrow....have the eco worriers commit suicide. These are the people that use the legal system to stop energy exploration and production.
It is not
Submitted by ahusser on Tue, 02/21/2012 - 12:57pm.
What these enviro-whacko freaks believe is going to happen is what they want to happen. All their policy suggestions, stances and ideology are anti-industrial, anti-business, anti-energy, anti-human, designed to straitjacket most human endeavor and rigidly control all human enterprise in the name of the State, mother earth, Gaia or whatever. Their core belief is self hatred projected into hatred for the human race believing they are the elect which will rule and/or be spared in whatever natural or human cataclysm they believe is going to happen. If all there ideologies were put into place there would be economic collapse and human misery on a grand scale. In their essentially nihilist twisted view we would deserve what happens. Of course they believe only the evil ones (you and me) would be affected and they would live in "harmony" with nature after the collapse. Of course the loss of modernity with all its faults would mean that human existence would revert to nasty, brutish and short. Where might makes right. But folks living in la la land and fantasy worlds are essentially unaware of the consequences of their infantile twisted dreams.
"Somehow, I told you so, just doesn't quite say it." Will Smith in 'I, Robot.'
Well I lasted 5 min.
Submitted by stunned on Tue, 02/21/2012 - 1:01pm.
Loved when she blamed the 1970's shortages on lack of oil production when it was the price controls and chaos of the oil embargos by OPEC that created shortages. If this bunch can't get the history of oil production right I am not bothering with their predictions.
tired of liberal lies
This is like the "Ultimate Weapon"
Submitted by Russian55 on Tue, 02/21/2012 - 1:05pm.
I find the eco-alarmists to be like those who were saying when nuclear weapons first emerged that the end of the world was close at hand.
Over 60 years later, the world has still only seen nuclear weapons used twice.
Of course, there have been plague stories (at one time, by 2000, 50% of Africans were supposed to have been dead or dying from AIDS) and others.
Do these people WANT an apocalypse?
---
Those who beat their swords into plowshares will end up plowing for those who kept their swords in the first place!
This is like the "Ultimate Weapon"
Submitted by Russian55 on Tue, 02/21/2012 - 1:05pm.
I find the eco-alarmists to be like those who were saying when nuclear weapons first emerged that the end of the world was close at hand.
Over 60 years later, the world has still only seen nuclear weapons used twice.
Of course, there have been plague stories (at one time, by 2000, 50% of Africans were supposed to have been dead or dying from AIDS) and others.
Do these people WANT an apocalypse?
---
Those who beat their swords into plowshares will end up plowing for those who kept their swords in the first place!
Having
Submitted by bobsmom on Tue, 02/21/2012 - 1:07pm.
just read an article about the best hope of retirement for us boomers is to drop dead at our desks, when I saw the headline, my first thought was, Thank You Lord!! I can stop trying so darned hard!
Post Carbon Institute
Submitted by stunned on Tue, 02/21/2012 - 1:59pm.
Sounds to me as if these are a bunch of greenies raised on post-apolictic sci-fi novels. Now I admit to enjoying a number of authors of the genre myself but I do NOT long for the day as this crowd does. My Irish grandma who lived to 98 with all her facilities told me of growing up in that era they long for. How her grandparents barely survived the potatoe famine and the death that surrounded them. How she watch cousins and a niece die from illnesses like tetnus, influenza (no antibiotics back then), turberculosus and measles. She had friends die in childbirth and few lived into their 70's when she was a girl. My own mother remembers living on oatmeal and potatoes during WWII and although she never was hungry the diet was so monotomous that she can't stand the smell of oatmeal to this day. A diet of only locally produced goods would be terribly boring and not always well balanced, something the sci-fi authors ever tell you.
None of this is new. The radical environmentalist got a world wide ban on DDT to allow "natural selection" to take place and one million people world wide die every year including 1 in 5 kids under the age of five due to malaria but since those deaths occure in "environmentally sensitive" areas they don't care. God help us all if they ever were able to implement their total agenda, the goal is to re-create the brutal short-lived lives of our ancestors. I for one thank God for my Grandma's perspective which allows me to grateful for everyday of my life no matter how tough things on any given day. Perspective these liberal children lack.
tired of liberal lies
Their underlying symptom is egotism
Submitted by UltraC on Tue, 02/21/2012 - 2:51pm.
Seems to me the issue is one of ego:
We have a bunch of supposedly intelligent "experts" whom see human progress on a plateau as opposed to a steadily-rising line, or more accurately, an exponential curve.
These "experts" are really insulting all those who don't think like them: If these "experts" can't foresee a solution to the myriad of challenges our world faces, can't imagine or devise new technological solutions to accomodate a growing population, shrinking amount of *known* resources, etc, then NO ONE CAN.
They have such little faith in their fellow human beings.
As the article points out, their prediction batting average is laughable. When they are simply pimping their latest video/movie/book of doom, I choose to mock them, ignore them, or pity them.
It's when their predictions are taken seriously by those in power, and become the cornerstone of public policy, in spite of such a poor record, that I will fight them.
Replacing Their Lost Religion
Submitted by HardRightTurn on Tue, 02/21/2012 - 3:18pm.
The leftist secularists need something to replace Revelations with. This is it.
To more fully comprehend the Left, one must read “Leftism As Psychopathy” by John Ray, M.A., Ph.D. Caution, it might scare you a little bit.
http://jonjayray.tripod.com/psycho.html
I tend to look at things like
Submitted by amyshulk on Tue, 02/21/2012 - 3:29pm.
I tend to look at things like this as a positive. It's all about the ebb and flow - and the extreme pendulum swings.
Everything in life is a tradeoff based on utilizing our own best talents.
You can chose to have both parents work to have the money to pay for their children to go to private school vs. one works while the other home schools.
Too many chose the first path, found they were unhappy, and their children are choosing the second path in increasing numbers.
Growing your own food/bartering/small communities have multiple benefits, but the trade offs aren't for everyone.
It is laughable the left is *finally* recognizing the need for self reliance though!
Ronald Reagan