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With this year’s sharp increase in oil prices, the suburbanite love affair with sprawl and SUVs is on the rocks. From sticker shock at the gas pump to policy debates over ethanol and carbon emissions, America is just beginning to face up to its addiction to oil. Will peak oil signal the end of the comfortable way of life carefully crafted in post-WWII America? And how can we be ready for the inevitable depletion of fossil fuels that have powered global society for more than a century? 

Hosted by Aimee Allison, host and producer of KPFA Radio’s Morning Show in Oakland, California, this Link TV special explores America’s future as our oil supply dwindles. Joining Ms. Allison for discussion are guests Richard Heinberg, educator and author of Peak Everything, and Greg Greene, director and writer of the film The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream. As part of the special, Link is airing Greene’s film.

About the film: The End of Suburbia - Oil Depletion and the Collapse of the American Dream

Since World War II North Americans have invested much of their newfound wealth in suburbia. It has promised a sense of space, affordability, family life and upward mobility. As the population of suburban sprawl has exploded in the past 50 years, so too has the suburban way of life become embedded in the American consciousness. 

Suburbia, and all it promises, has become the American Dream.

But as we enter the 21st century, serious questions are beginning to emerge about the sustainability of this way of life. With brutal honesty and a touch of irony, The End of Suburbia explores the American Way of Life and its prospects as the planet approaches a critical era, as global demand for fossil fuels begins to outstrip supply. World Peak Oil and the inevitable decline of fossil fuels are upon us now, some scientists and policy makers argue in this documentary. 

The consequences of inaction in the face of this global crisis are enormous. What does Peak Oil mean for North America? As energy prices skyrocket in the coming years, how will the populations of suburbia react to the collapse of their dream? Are today's suburbs destined to become the slums of tomorrow? And what can be done NOW, individually and collectively, to avoid The End of Suburbia?

LEARN MORE:

Visit The End of Suburbia online.

Richard Heinberg
Environmental Defense Fund
Post Carbon Institute

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