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The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil - DVD - 53 minutes
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The Power Of Community

"This fascinating and empowering film shows how in times of need, communities pulled together and people went back to basics - local organic food production & consumption"
- Laurentine ten Bosch, Producer Food Matters

How Reliant Are We On Oil?

Whether you are a global warming skeptic or not, the fact remains that oil from fossil fuels is a finite resource. One day it will run out. What will the world look like and what will we do when that happens? There are so many products and services that we use in our daily life that rely on oil, either for transportation or in their manufacturing:

Fuel

Pesticides and fertilizers

Food

Pharmaceutical medicine

Plastics

Cosmetics

Appliances

What Can This Film Tell Us?

Is it really possible for us to adapt in a world less reliant on oil? One place that we can start to learn is from Cuba. 'The Power of Community; How Cuba Survived Peak Oil' examines how Cuba survived major oil shortages and managed to transform their transport and agricultural systems and turn their country around for the better.

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 unusual look into the Cuban culture during this economic crisis, which they call "The Special Period." The film opens with a short history of Peak Oil, a term for the time in our history when world oil production will reach its all-time peak and begin to decline forever. Cuba, the only country that has faced such a crisis – the massive reduction of fossil fuels – is an example of options and hope.

The award winning film 'The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil' is a project of the Arthur Morgan Institute for Community Solutions, a non-profit organization that designs and teaches low-energy solutions to the current unsustainable, fossil fuel based, industrialized, and centralized way of living.

Why Is This Information So Relevant Now?

Many people are seeing the move toward a sustainable future as imperative. There are now many towns where local residents are setting up 'Transition Towns'. A transition town is a community-led response to the pressures of climate change, fossil fuel depletion and increasingly, economic instability. Transition towns promote the strategy of relocalization - building societies based on the local production of food, energy and goods, and local governance and culture. Sometimes we cant wait for our governments to be there for us, so we have to take action ourselves.

"This is such an inspiring film! What we should all be doing now is preserving and reclaiming lost agricultural land, promoting community gardens and organic agriculture" - Adrien Burke, San Diego CA