Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines (New Society Publishers) | 
 enlarge | Author: Richard Heinberg
Publisher: New Society Publishers
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Avg. Customer Rating:  18 reviews
Sales Rank: 36032
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 224
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.9
ISBN: 086571598X
Dewey Decimal Number: 304.2
EAN: 9780865715981
ASIN: 086571598X
Publication Date: October 16, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
The twentieth century saw unprecedented growth in population, energy consumption, and food production. As the population shifted from rural to urban, the impact of humans on the environment increased dramatically. The twenty-first century ushered in an era of declines, in a number of crucial parameters: - Global oil, natural gas, and coal extraction
- Yearly grain harvests
- Climate stability
- Population
- Economic growth
- Fresh water
- Minerals and ores, such as copper and platinum
To adapt to this profoundly different world, we must begin now to make radical changes to our attitudes, behaviors, and expectations. Peak Everything addresses many of the cultural, psychological, and practical changes we will have to make as nature rapidly dictates our new limits. This latest book from Richard Heinberg, author of three of the most important books on Peak Oil, touches on the most important aspects of the human condition at this unique moment in time. A combination of wry commentary and sober forecasting on subjects as diverse as farming and industrial design, this book tells how we might make the transition from the Age of Excess to the Era of Modesty with grace and satisfaction, while preserving the best of our collective achievements. A must-read for individuals, business leaders, and policymakers who are serious about effecting real change. Richard Heinberg is a journalist, lecturer, and the author of seven books, including The Party's Over, Powerdown, and The Oil Depletion Protocol. He is one of the world's foremost Peak Oil educators.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 13 more reviews...
 Wild Speculation October 25, 2008
This book starts with a completely reasonable premise. There is every reason to believe him when he states that the world will hit peak oil at some point in the next two decades and no one knows the exact date it will hit. It may have already hit in 2005. That however is where the rationality ends the rest of the book is wild speculation.
For one thing he is completely biased towards his way of fixing the problem. A book on energy depletion should at least mention the two most abundant fuels on earth: Thorium, which can run enough nuclear reactors for our entire society to survive for hundreds of years, and Deuterium, which could power enough fusion reactors to keep our society running for billions of years. Anyone who is seriously worried about resource depletion should be promoting more research and development into these technologies, rather than wallowing in pity for the human race. Even worse, he doesn't mention one of the best sources of renewable energy, geothermal power. Perhaps he covers these issues in one of his other books, but if so it is safe to say you can safely read that book and ignore this one.
Instead of focusing on how we can avoid our society from facing real issues he focuses on the bad things that could potentially happen. It really seems from his tone that he actually wants our society to collapse. In the end the book is little more than wishful thinking on his part. If you want to read a rational book on the subject of peak oil I would avoid this book, and read anything by Kenneth S. Duffeyes.
 Don't judge by its title October 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
It's a good book and a great title, but the title does not match the content.
Richard Heinberg is an excellent author, and I HIGHLY recommend that everyone read his (other) book "Party's Over" for a riveting & sobering understanding of peak oil! With that under our belts, many of us are now coming to recognize peak population, peak food, peak pollution, peak global temperature, peak fresh water, peak arable land, peak mineral resources, peak ocean fisheries, peak species diversity, peak uranium, peak weaponry, peak resource wars, peak wealth disparity, peak waste, peak life expectancy, etc. Peak Everything! That's what I THOUGHT this book would address.
Instead, he has cobbled together a collection of essays on aesthetics, psychology, language, and other aspects of peaking. Oh, it's okay stuff, but it's not at all what I expected nor hoped to read--and he warns of that in the first page of the introduction. The intro is sprinkled with charts showing peaks, but they're not really discussed in much detail.
This book is for those who already know a lot about peak everything and just can't stop reading about it. Discussions of Art Nouveau, Freud, and wild parrots were just too tangentially abstract for my expectations. I wanted hard facts and numbers for forceful arguments, proposed plans of action, and glimpses of hope in promising new breakthroughs.
It's hard to rate this fairly because it was so disappointing due to the misleading title. Chapters 8, 9, & 10 won me over to the fourth star. Chapter 8, "Bridging Peak Oil and Climate Change Action," was my long sought acknowledgement of the 800 pound gorilla: discussion of the two topics from a single perspective.
Please, Mr. Heinberg, now write the book on Peak Everything!
 OK August 8, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I have read several of the author's previous books on peak energy, but was a little dissapointed in this book. I was expecting a discussion on potential shortages on other commodies with facts projections etc. The book goes int such things as post hydrocarbon aesthetics and thoughts about life in the future.
Great read, but off topic, and unbalanced July 8, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I got a lot from this book. Its entertaining and well written, but also presents a refreshing look at the often ignored connections between climate change, peak oil, and other topics.
The title is misleading though. The majority of the book's pages do not explicitly discuss the peaking in production of oil, steel, and other commodities. In fact, a few pages in the author mentions how many things are not peaking (e.g. community, craftsmanship, etc.).
The author devotes the lion share of the book to what societies will have to do to get by given the impending peaking of everything production or energy related. In short, economies will become more local, production more manual, and society will de-urbanize. The last chapter is a speculation in broad strokes that this will be accompanied by a fair bit of discomfort, if not outright pain, and gnashing of teeth.
I suspect the author is largely correct in his assessment. But he only briefly discusses why this will be so. To me this is a major flaw in the book, and left me feeling the argument presented is unbalanced.
For example, only a few pages explain why adoption of coal, nuclear and natural gas can't delay these trends any further out than a decade or two, and there is almost no discussion of why wind, solar, and/or geothermal cannot post-pone them forever.
Although I tend to agree with the author, other books credibly argue that we won't be running out of fossil fuel soon, and that the downward slope of the oil peak will be long, drawn out, and replete with technology intensive schemes such as the conversion of coal to gasoline or natural gas, collection of frozen natural gas, and extraction of petroleum from shale and tar sands. While such treaties usually ignore environmental concerns, they do make a point that should at least be addressed.
 Peak Everything, Waking Up to a Century of Decline July 6, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Excellent summation of the ecological problems facing us, not only as a people but a nation and world. Pulls it all together in one book. Excellent.
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