Juice: How Electricity Explains the World

Narrator & co-producer Bryce is well known among some circles as a person with a strictly pragmatic view of this world. If it works - great! If there are secondary issues - work through them. If you wish to avoid problems - ask the right questions beforehand. Tell the story simply if you wish to be understood.

Bryce has been following & writing about the energy sector for about 3 decades, and along with a bit of grey hair he has also gained insights into the hows & whys of energy use. Here he trots around the globe to specific locales which highlight certain societal traits of energy use. Along the way he learned a few new insights himself, which are also included in his new book "A Question of Power" released in March of 2020.

I'd recommend this documentary to any who are interested in the nexus points between energy, the environment, climate change, & the posterity of human society. BTW- EcoModernism is a belief that eco-friendliness is compatible with economic prosperity. If you understand the phrase "Prophets or Wizards", Bryce seems to lean towards the wizards as a pragmatic perspective of life in a peaceful & resource abundant 21st century.

Energy Issues are an important issue facing our Planet and was looking forward to this Documentary. Unfortunately, the Documentary went off the Tracks relatively quickly and had very little to do with Energy or Energy Production.

Instead, the focus seemed to be how impoverished regions of the World seem to feel some sort of entitlement to free energy instead of an accurate realization that political corruption, theft of electricity, and over-population are the primary reasons why these countries do not have modern electrical grids and / or infrastructure.

Perhaps it would have been a better documentary, if the focus was less on hand-outs / and an expectation of charity and more on practical solutions such as mandatory population control and third world national and individual accountability.

This covers a lot of areas. It doesn't have anything to do with handouts. There are at least 20 principles of energy production covered in the short movie. But the point is made that energy is the center of so much of what we do. You could have 5 to 20 episodes in a series to cover all of these topics more thoroughly. It is very well investigated. It doesn't say that producers or users or populations are bad. This is about the reality of a growing culture that uses electricity. Science requires that we always be talking about the good benefits and the bad side effects of any process. If a process seems to have more side effects than it has benefits, then we want to make it a goal to progress away from that process. Living in caves and requiring whale oil were not horrible things. But they're not what we're going to do today. We can imagine where we're going to be in 100 or 1000 years and try to get there.

It's so easy for us in high-energy countries to forget the struggles of those without. This documentary takes you to the places and people that are surviving using less electricity per year than a typical refrigerator does, and it does so with fantastic editing, animations, and sound design!

It's a pragmatic yet provocative perspective seldom seen in environmental documentaries, telling the story of humanity's relationship with energy-- the good, the bad, and the possible. It may just change the way you view electricity, and your role in a world where so many still lack access to it.