Books on Global Warming
*Dead Heat
Oppenheimer, Michael
*The Weather Makers - Flannery. Tim
*Boiling Point and the Heat is On- Gelbspan, Ross
*Inconvenient Truth -Gore, Al
*Big Coal -Goodell, Jeff
*Earth for Sale - Tokar, Brian
The ones with asterisks are available at the Roane County library. Perhaps the best one for making a clear case that climate change is happening and it’s caused by burning fossil fuels is Al Gore’s, which is full of good graphs. In my opinion, it’s also excessively full of Al Gore. Ross Gelbspan’s books focus a lot on the culprits who have labored hard and long to obscure the reality of climate change and delay action. Tokar’s book also focuses on villains—it’s not about climate change in particular but about corporate “greenwashing,” in which corporations try to make themselves look good without really changing destructive practices. Goodell’s book focuses on coal, with a lot of examples taken from West Virginia. Climate change is mentioned but is not the only issue in this book. I didn’t like Flannery’s book as much as some have—I didn’t agree with his prescriptions.
Books on Peak Oil
Heinberg, Richard * The Party’s Over: Oil, war, and the fate of industrial societies revised 2005 and Powerdown: options and actions for a post-carbon world
Kunstler, James Howard * The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the End of the American Dream DVD
and The Long Emergency: Surviving the converging catastrophes of the twenty-first century 2005
Ruppert, Michael * Crossing the Rubicon: the decline of the American empire at the end of the age of oil
Roberts, Paul * The End of Oil: On the edge of a perilous new world 2004
Klare, Michael * Blood and Oil: The dangers and consequences of America’s growing dependency on imported petroleum 2004
Samivar, Matthew * The Oil Age is Over: What to expect as the world runs out of cheap oil
Deffeyes, Kenneth * Beyond Oil: the view from Hubberts’ peak
Simmons, Matthew * Twilight in the Desert: the coming Saudi oil shock and the world economy
Darley, Julian * “High Noon For Natural Gas: The New Energy Crisis” 2004
Websites
http://www.peakoil.net/ Association for the Study of Peak Oil and Gas
http://www.endofsuburbia.com/ about the documentary film
http://www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net/
http://www.energybulletin.net News bulletins
http://www.powerswitch.org.uk/ Peak oil in England
http://scarletalert.blogspot.com/ how to talk to friends and family about Peak Oil
http://www.survivingpeakoil.com/ grassroots ideas for surviving Peak oil
Multi-book Review: Peak Oil
Books reviewed:
Heinberg, Richard * The Party’s Over: Oil, war, and the fate of industrial societies revised 2005 and Powerdown: options and actions for a post-carbon world
Kunstler, James Howard * The Long Emergency: Surviving the converging catastrophes of the twenty-first century 2005
Ruppert, Michael * Crossing the Rubicon: the decline of the American empire at the end of the age of oil
Roberts, Paul * The End of Oil: On the edge of a perilous new world 2004
Klare, Michael * Blood and Oil: The dangers and consequences of America’s growing dependency on imported petroleum 2004
Hartmann, Thom * The Last Days of Ancient Sunlight: the fate of the world and what we can do before it’s too late 1998, 1999, 2004
Film: The End of Suburbia: Oil Depletion and the End of the American Dream
The term Peak Oil refers to that point when we have used half of all the world’s oil. Geologists say that the discovery and production of oil follows a bell curve; the peak is at the top of the curve, at the halfway point. After we pass that point, we’ll have less and less oil available no matter how much money and effort we invest. A growing number of geologists, many of whom have worked for US oil companies, are saying that we are about to arrive at the global peak.
If they’re right, we can expect enormous changes soon. Yes, we’ll still have half the world’s oil, around a trillion barrels. But it will be the half that’s hardest to access, in remote places, under the ocean, or tied up in rock formation. Some of it will never be worth extracting, as it will require more energy to get than it yields. Demand, meanwhile, just keeps rising. China, with 1.3 billion people and a roaring economy, increased its oil use by 16% last year.
The first thing we can expect is skyrocketing prices, and then shortages. Wars over access are also all too likely, particularly in the Middle East, which has over 60% of the remaining reserves. Many think this has already begun.
Most of the books listed above have long sections explaining why the various alternatives will not save us, although many will be useful as partial measures. Worldwide, gas will peak about ten years behind oil; in North America it’s already in steep decline. Coal is more abundant, especially here, but it has the worst environmental problems associated with its use, especially with greenhouse gases. Nuclear power has enormous environmental, safety and economic problems, and there is a limited supply of uranium. Hydrogen takes more energy to produce than it yields; thus it is not an energy source at all, although it may be useful as a storage and transport medium for energy. Biomass may offer local solutions, but in general will be of little help in a world in which we’ll have enough trouble growing sufficient crops for food; natural gas is the primary feedstock for fertilizer and pesticides. The various renewable energy sources have none of these problems, but some depend on intermittent power sources (which is where the hydrogen may come in handy). Furthermore, windmills and solar panels and hydroelectric plants all require energy-intensive manufacture that may not be possible without oil. Finally, they simply are not as energy-dense as fossil fuels, which are the product of millions of years of stored solar energy. Did you know that we use, each year, fossil fuels that accumulated over a million years of prehistory?
Comparing the books
Of the list above, I recommend Heinberg’s two books. Some of this may be because I like his politics; I was turned off, for example, by what I saw as racism in Kunstler’s book. But some is a matter of focus. Heinberg’s “The Party's Over” clearly lays out the evidence that we have an imminent problem, then methodically shows why each of the proposed alternatives will not save us. I found the section on solutions at the end to be pretty thin, though. And that's where “Powerdown” comes in.
Here, Heinberg uses just the first section to present the case he made in “The Party's Over”, while most of the book is addressed to solutions. In essence, he sees four approaches--1) attempting to take over the Middle East (which is obviously what the current US administration has in mind); 2) pretending it isn't a problem and that technology or markets will save us--which is no solution, of course. This is the public face of the first, unethical "solution." 3) working cooperatively with other nations to develop alternatives as rapidly as possible while conserving fossil fuels and reducing population--I'd love to see humanity take this course, but a partial implementation of this approach seems the best we might hope for now, and only with a major change in US leadership. Finally, 4) the solution for individuals who see the problem and want to do what they can--forming enclaves to enhance the odds of personal and community survival, as well as to preserve local ecosystems and culture. Some of the reading I've done on this topic attempts to shoot down every particle of hope and then offer, for solutions, nothing but "pray." Heinberg's book is much more thoughtful and more useful than that.
Kunstler’s “Long Emergency” did a pretty good job of explaining the problem, and tying it in with the related problems of global climate change and overpopulation. He has good information on the possibility that climate change will lead to a sudden shutting down of the Gulf Stream and thus an extreme chilling of Europe and the eastern US, maybe even an ice age. He also speculates about how different countries, and different regions of this one, are likely to fare after the oil is gone--pure speculation, but interesting. I was troubled by what I saw as racist stereotyping. He didn’t use notes and citations.
Roberts’ “The End of Oil” has way too much information about things most of us don’t care about—geopolitics—but does contain some useful information. I suspected he got his information about global climate change from the coal industry.
Klare’s “Blood and Oil” is the worst when it comes to extraneous information, if oil depletion is your interest. It’s primarily history and geopolitics, showing the petroleum base to much international politics.
“The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight”, by Hartmann, is the most comprehensive of all. It attempts to explain, in cultural terms, how and why we’ve come to such a catastrophic pass. His solution involves paradigm shifting and major cultural changes; he wants us to learn from the indigenous tribes that don’t value maximizing consumption and conquest, but live in balance with the rest of their ecosystems. Thus his prescriptions, while copious, are more focused on individual changes, spiritual and philosophical in nature, than on politics and policy changes. I happen to think he’s right, that we need the profound examination and change he discusses—but you may prefer the tighter focus of other books.
The film, “The End of Suburbia”, is not credited to Kunstler but I think he must have had more to do with it than the others. While most of the authors discussed here have speaking parts, it has such a heavy focus on suburbia—Kunstler’s area of interest and expertise—that it skips over the critical analysis of alternative energy sources.
While I had preferences, I found all of these books to be worth reading, and the film to be worth viewing.