Tod Brilliant

A Message about Post Carbon Institute’s newest creative project.

In fact, God has hammered out a whole lot of plans. He has plans for me and you and everyone we know. His plans range from dinosaurs to pussycats, from Godzilla to Hello Kitty. Oh my heck, He even has plans for gun violence and rape pregnancies. So is it any surprise at all that He has a plan for that liquid solar energy that powers human civilization? Yes, God has a plan for oil.

Whether you buy into Revolution’s watered-down examination of social contract theory, the show’s premise reinforces Post Carbon Institute’s position that it is absolutely necessary that we plan our energy future. We must work hard to transition as smoothly as possible to largely fossil fuel free communities. If we’re caught off guard (too late?), chaos is quite likely.

"We lived in an electric world. We relied on it for everything. And then the power went out… We weren’t prepared."

That little bit of intricate exposition is from the show’s voiceover introduction. And it’s about as gripping as Revolution gets. The upside is we get to hang on those artful words every week.

It’s fifteen years after the Great Blackout. The United States, at the very least, is entirely free of electricity for reasons as yet unknown (but it sure smells like, get this, a conspiracy!) Humans have left the cities for the countryside to live in communal villages or prey on one another. The good guys sport henleys and hoes. The bad ones also wear henleys, but they ride horses and carry swords…

This is a first for us at Post Carbon Institute/Energy Bulletin: an online ‘creative’ fundraising campaign. We want to create a presentation deck for all the HUNDREDS of people who have asked us over the years for our slides. But rather than just dump our slides on people, we want to develop a presentation deck and story that is easy to present and personally resonant. Richard has written a fantastic script that presents our oil journey in a truly accessible way, we are now looking to turn this into something really user friendly and inspiring to present. If we’re able to raise the funds, not only will we create the slideshow but will train volunteers so that they can deliver it in their own communities.