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Books : The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial SocietiesIn association with Amazon.comRating:  - Chicken Little Is On the LooseHeinberg, like most Malthusians, views the world as a static system and it doesn't work that way. Let's all congregate back here in 10 years or so and see what the facts are. I'll bet the "Peak Oil" theorists will have moved their peak date back considerably. Rating:  - Cassandra or not, it doesn't matterEveryone with a spreadsheet program and Internet access can make his own predictions. Just take the publications of various energy organizations like BP, Shell, Energy agencies regarding available reserves and resources of oil, oil sand, oil shale, gas, coal, uranium and convert them into usable kWh. Then take the worldwide consumption of kWh, as well as consumption per head, and add population growth and economic growth. Project into the future. Oil peak might be bad, but fuel can be created from other sources like gas (GTL - gas to liquid) or coal (CTL - coal to liquid). It all doesn't matter, if you take the kWh or the usable energy content in all resources into account. This excel table will be very enlightening. And it only takes a few hours to make, including the Internet search. Then you can start thinking - if the fossil energy is gone in 20-40 years, how to replace it? And when to start innovation and how long does implementation take. Just think back 20-40 years and about the changes in that time span. THEN you can start panicking or working on solutions for yourself, your family, your community. You can't change the world. Rating: - The best book about peak oilPeak oil and its implications for the future of our society should be THE issue of the upcoming presidential campaign, more important than medicare and SS reform, Iraq, global warming or overpopulation. All these issues are tertiary to how peak oil will change the way you live and if you read no other book this or any other year, read Richard Heinberg's "The Party's Over." His book is a sober assessment of the role of fossil fuels in the history of the world and how that world will change with the inevitable decline of those fuels. He uses a powerful ecological perspective at the outset showing how energy flows influence organisms, populations and societies in a highly readable explication festooned with examples and analogies. He chooses to take the word of geologists not oil executives and politicians as to when the world hits Peak Oil, that point when world oil production is no longer increasing and starts turning down.It is that point where half of the worlds oil has been consumed and in every year thereafter, less will be available. This book could be the most important book you will ever read because it will alter how you view pusillanimous politicians, your investments, how you live or where you will live, what role alternative energy should play, and what we can do to start the discussion on how we should shape our society to cope with this, the most important issue of the 21st century. I will be buying many more copies to send to friends and relatives. Google "peak oil" for more resources and examine Richard Heinberg's web site. Rating: - Excellent!I really enjoyed reading this book since Heinberg always keeps to the facts. That is, he maintains a very calm tone considering the formidable nature of the reality facing us. Although there are many excellent reviews of this book out there I will write down a few of mt feelings about it. He reviews the peak oil reality in a very straight-forward manner - very easy to understand. In fact, I would recommend his chapters to those who are new to the topic. He then reviews the options. It is here that the book shines since he never seems to get angry, preachy or arrogant as Kunstler is sometimes. Given the immediacy, apathy and the lack of general change this is very good. This is a book that I would recommend to someone wanting to learn about this topic. Better, it is a book you cam loan to those who are somewhat open and who you don't want to scare (too much). Recommended... Rating: - A Thoughtful and Balanced Overview of Peak OilI discovered Peak Oil in August 2006 through James Kunstler's 'The Long Emergency,' and since then I have read almost every book available on this subject, including all of Heinberg's books. I have even written my own essay for friends and family - which can be downloaded from my website at http://www.dougcraftfineart.com. This book is a great overview of the Peak Oil and energy depletion crisis facing us, and I recommend it for anyone looking for a comprehensive and thoughtful overview of this difficult subject. I have found all of Heinberg's books to be thoroughly researched, and well written, and he does offer positive suggestions for dealing with Peak Oil in this book. Other reviewers who complain of doom and gloom with Heinberg, have clearly not read some of what many other authors in this field have to offer. Whether you are a pessimist or optimist, the facts surrounding this issue and the nature of resource depletion are simply unassailable from an honest scientific evaluation. Peak Oil and energy depletion - coupled with climate change and exponentially growing population - are deadly serious issues representing the most calamitous crisis we humans have ever faced. Ever. The problem simply cannot be sugar coated. Nonetheless, I found 'The Party's Over' to offer a positive vision of our future where human communities have the opportunity to rediscover the traditional benefits of local economic interdependence and a much more sane pace of life. Until I had read Heinberg, I was truly in despair over our future. Now, I understand that we are adaptable and creative beyond what we think, we will survive, and we will all have the opportunity to help make positive contributions if we so choose. |
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