Review of “The End of Suburbia”

Recently I attended a screening of “The End of Suburbia” here in Florida and was invited to say a few words after the film played. The experience was very positive for me and, hopefully, helpful for those in attendance. I learned where I need to focus my message (upcoming in Part II of this post) and how to treat the “End of Suburbia” film.

“The End of Suburbia” is a 2005 documentary focusing on America’s community architecture, particularly suburban design, and the future of our ways of life. The film gives a history of the development of suburbia: after World War II, the U.S. government funded massive housing projects targeted at returning war veterans. The promise was for nearly every American to live in a country home without the burdens that came with it. Utilities were provided by the grid (most notably natural gas); shopping, school, and work in the city were made possible by cars running on cheap oil.

As the film explains, suburbia can not survive in the absence of low-cost petroleum products, and the advent of Peak Oil will be the downfall of that way of life. Oil runs our agriculture, our businesses, our industries, our leisure, and nearly every conceivable aspect of life as we know it. Worse yet, there is no readily scalable alternative -- ethanol, hydrogen, solar, wind -- not one alternative, nor any combination of them, can combine to meet the current demand for petroleum energy.

Such is the premise of “The End of Suburbia”. I consider showing it one the best methods with which to introduce Peak Oil, but I have several criticisms. First, the film does not go nearly far enough in demonstrating the seriousness of the situation and intense danger present for all of us. Viewers are left with the optimistic sense that Peak Oil will simply mean living more locally and restructuring our neighborhoods (in my view), but the reality is far more dire. Preparation involves a complete rethinking of our ways of life on a personal level, in addition to infrastructure reshaping. There is a glossing-over of the challenges to agriculture and the fact that, without tremendous amounts of effort, millions of people face imminent starvation within the United States itself. The film mentions nothing of becoming self-sufficient in as many aspects as possible, such as making soap, clothing, food, lumber, and so forth.

A second major criticism I have is that the film is targeted at a very specific audience -- individuals who already posses a liberal bent. The portrayals of the government, neocons, and big business -- while accurate -- immediately raise the hackles of anyone who leans conservative. If we hope to persuade our conservative friends of the threat of Peak Oil, it cannot be accomplished by putting their ideology on the defensive. It’s hard enough to convince liberals of Peak Oil effects, even though it is a natural logical extension of almost every liberal political movement. In short, “The End of Suburbia” is not a film to show to your conservative friends and relatives if you hope to provoke thoughtful discussion on the topic.