The party's over : oil, war and the fate of industrial societies / Richard Heinberg.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Heinberg, Richard.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Petroleum industry and trade--Political aspects.

Petroleum industry and trade.

Petroleum reserves--Political aspects.

Petroleum reserves.

Renewable energy sources.

Physical Description:

xi, 306 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Edition:

Second edition, revised and updated.

Place of Publication:

Gabriola Island, BC : New Society Publishers, [2005]

Summary:

The world is about to change dramatically and forever as the result of oil depletion. Within the next few years, the global production of oil will peak. Thereafter, even with a switch to alternative energy sources, industrial societies will have less energy available to do all the things essential to their survival. We are entering a new era as different from the industrial era as the latter was from medieval times.

The Party's Over deals head-on with this imminent decline of cheap oil. It shows how oil and war have always been closely related for the past century and how competition to control oil supplies is likely to lead to new resource wars in the Middle East, Central Asia and South America. Tracing the crucial role of fossil fuels in the rise of industrialism, the book discusses the degree to which energy alternatives can compensate for oil and recommends a managed transition to a slower-paced, low-energy, sustainable society in the future.

This substantially revised edition brings the current debate over oil supplies and forecasts up to date, includes more recent evidence for a near-term oil peak, adds material on the looming natural gas crisis and on possible non-petroleum sources of energy, and discusses in more depth the geopolitics of the steadily souring oil binge and the options now before us.

A riveting wake-up call, The Party's Over is essential reading for all those concerned with the future of modern life as we know it.

Contents:

Chapter 1 Energy, Nature and Society 9

Energy and Earth: The Rules of the Game 10

Energy in Ecosystems: Eating and Being Eaten 14

Social Leveraging Strategies: How to Gain an Energy Subsidy 20

Complexity and Collapse: Societies in Energy Deficit 33

Applied Socio-Ecohistory: Explaining the American Success Story 38

Chapter 2 Party Time: The Historic Interval of Cheap, Abundant Energy 45

Energy in Medieval Europe 47

The Coal Revolution 52

The Petroleum Miracle, Part I 57

Electrifying the World 60

The Petroleum Miracle, Part II 64

Oil, Geopolitics, and the Global Economy: 1950-1980 73

1980-2001: Lost Opportunities and the Prelude to Catastrophe 78

Chapter 3 Lights Out: Approaching the Historic Interval's End 85

On to Mesopotamia 88

The Ground Giving Way 92

M. King Hubbert: Energy Visionary 95

Hubbert's Legacy 101

Zeroing In on the Date of Peak 111

Hubbert's Critics: The Cornucopian Argument 118

Who Is Right? Why Does It Matter? 133

Chapter 4 Non-Petroleum Energy Sources: Can the Party Continue? 137

Natural Gas 139

Coal 143

Nuclear Power 146

Wind 152

Solar Power 156

Hydrogen 161

Hydroelectricity 168

Geothermal Power 169

Tides and Waves 170

Biomass, Biodiesel, and Ethanol 171

Fusion, Cold Fusion, and Free-Energy Devices 175

Conservation: Efficiency and Curtailment 178

Chapter 5 A Banquet of Consequences 185

The Economy - Physical and Financial 187

Transportation 190

Food and Agriculture 193

Heating and Cooling 198

The Environment 199

Public Health 201

Information Storage, Processing, and Transmission 203

National Politics and Social Movements 204

The Geopolitics of Energy-Resource Competition 210

Taking It All In 220

Chapter 6 Managing the Collapse: Strategies and Recommendations 225

You, Your Home, and Your Family 228

Your Community 234

The Nation 242

The World 254

Afterword to the Revised Edition 263

The Saudi Enigma 264

Shell Game 265

Oil's Depressing Outlook 266

Significant New Reports 266

The Iraq Quagmire 268

The Curse of Free Energy 270

Where the Real Hope Lies 274.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-294) and index.

ISBN:

0865715297 :

OCLC:

60834110