Oasis in Space: Population Time-Bomb

Duration: 12:00

Year Published: 1976

Creator: Educational Media Corporation

Complete Record: Compares and contrasts the response of El Salvador and Costa Rica to their overpopulation problems. Opens with several eye level shots of crowds in various cities of Europe, Asia, Africa, and North America. We then see Dr. Carl Sagan discussing overpopulation. Cut to two men standing outside, one of whom is Dr. Pail Ehrlich. Next we see Dr Isaac Asimov addressing the camera. The next person shown is R. Buckminster Fuller. followed by Jacques-Yves Cousteau. He talks over footage of people waving swords above their heads and soldiers being driven away in trucks. We then see a poor woman carrying a ragged child, accompanied by at least three other children, then more shots of people carrying children and objects. Cut to a shot of a starry sky, which zooms in to reveal the Earth and the words Oasis in Space. The next few cuts show overhead shots of beaches, waterfalls, underwater landscapes, clouds, and trees. Then an airplane, piloted by Philippe Cousteau, flies into the shot. The title screen comes in afterward. There are many more shots of people living in crowded cities. Shots of Latina women mixing dough, a man addressing a group of Latino men in cowboy hats, and the two Cousteaus talking to a farmer. Luxurious neighborhoods and poor neighborhoods are compared. Then a maternity ward is shown, packed with babies. Shots of a poor child delivering newspapers. The boy walks through a dilapidated city. Ragged children playing in the street, men digging ditches and building houses. Cousteau’s airplane takes off. Over head shot of a crater lake, the coast and ocean. Shots of men laying cement, a radio host, and more of the airplane. Ranchers driving cattle, children in school, and adults in church. Women in a clinic, babies getting vaccinated, people receiving various kinds of birth control, then more city shots. Followed by shots of starving African people, cut to shots of happy, waving children.