How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

"The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil" was a movie I watched in a contemporary issues seminar I had back in college. This movie, is a relatively uplifting tail about the realities of Peak Oil and how the people can effect change when they act together for a common purpose. Of course their actions came out of necessity, but the people of Cuba were able to almost completely kick their dependence on oil overnight when the fall of the Soviet Union shut off their oil supply.

The movie below is subtitled in Spanish. I couldn't find a way to turn subtitles off but it should be useful for my multilingual readers.


The Power of Community. How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (sub español) from El Tránsito Necesario on Vimeo.


I think Cuba almost had it better than we do. Their change came over night, kind of an extreme slap in the face. The effects of Peak Oil on the US are going to be more subtle and drawn out. I feel like the frog, sitting in a pot of water, being brought to a slow boil. The nice part about Cuba's predicament was that their changes were facilitated by the government. Issuing rations of food, bicycles for transportation, and mandating a emphasis on urban organic agriculture. Not all these solutions would work as effectively here, but there are places around the States where these types of changes could do a lot to numb the Peak Oil fallout.