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February 1, 2003

The Party's Over (TPO) is an excellently and thoroughly researched treatment of precisely the oil depletion problem, almost entirely free of the usual hidden political agendas, irrelevant personal memoirs, and philosophical delusions.

I would recommend TPO to anybody on this list . . . as a convenient and politically neutral "Pack-'O-Facts" that can be offered to friends, family, colleagues, policy makers, and anybody else in your life or world that you may feel needs a sober sit-down and some rational talking-to about the energy future of industrial civilization.

The Endnotes section at the book's end, organized by chapter, is the best bibliography I've ever seen on all aspects of the topic. This book bears direct comparison to only three other more-or-less mass or general market books that I'm aware of:

Thom Hartmann, Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight ; Jeremy Rifkin, The Hydrogen Economy ; Kenneth Deffeyes, Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage.

With respect to these, I feel that TPO is:

less irrelevantly philosophical than Hartmann's book, more up- to-date, and more pointedly technical in sources used. very similar to the first half of Rifkin's work, where he delineates the problem, but again a more comprehensive and at the same time more focused presentation. The second half of Rifkin's work, where he cheerleads in rather political mode for a salvaging of the world's economy via distributed hydrogen/fuel-cell infrastructure is not directly relevant, except I suppose inasmuch as it would seem to contradict Heinberg's skepticism about propping up global industrial civilization through a 11th hour switch to alternatives. I'd personally go with Heinberg's conclusions. again, in topic/coverage very similar to Deffeye's quite interesting work, but frankly for those who want a quick and focused rollup presentation/package for opening the topic with others, Deffeye's work is overly encumbered with too much aranca about oil geology and personal author's memoirs.

Overall, The Party's Over will serve as the state-of-the-art topic-opener on Hubbert catastrophism, for people on this list, well into the foreseeable future.

Scott Meredith
AlasBabylon list owner

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• Acknowledgments(p. xi)
• Introduction(p. 1)
• Chapter 1 Energy, Nature and Society(p. 9)
• Energy and Earth: The Rules of the Game(p. 10)
• Energy in Ecosystems: Eating and Being Eaten(p. 14)
• Social Leveraging Strategies: How to Gain an Energy Subsidy(p. 20)
• Complexity and Collapse: Societies in Energy Deficit(p. 33)
• Applied Socio-Ecohistory: Explaining the American Success Story(p. 38)
• Chapter 2 Party Time: The Historic Interval of Cheap, Abundant Energy(p. 45)
• Energy in Medieval Europe(p. 47)
• The Coal Revolution(p. 52)
• The Petroleum Miracle, Part I(p. 57)
• Electrifying the World(p. 60)
• The Petroleum Miracle, Part II(p. 64)
• Oil, Geopolitics, and the Global Economy: 1950-1980(p. 73)
• 1980-2001: Lost Opportunities and the Prelude to Catastrophe(p. 78)
• Chapter 3 Lights Out: Approaching the Historic Interval's End(p. 85)
• On to Mesopotamia(p. 88)
• The Ground Giving Way(p. 92)
• M. King Hubbert: Energy Visionary(p. 95)
• Hubbert's Legacy(p. 101)
• Zeroing In on the Date of Peak(p. 111)
• Hubbert's Critics: The Cornucopian Argument(p. 118)
• Who Is Right? Why Does It Matter?(p. 133)
• Chapter 4 Non-Petroleum Energy Sources: Can the Party Continue?(p. 137)
• Natural Gas(p. 139)
• Coal(p. 143)
• Nuclear Power(p. 146)
• Wind(p. 152)
• Solar Power(p. 156)
• Hydrogen(p. 161)
• Hydroelectricity(p. 168)
• Geothermal Power(p. 169)
• Tides and Waves(p. 170)
• Biomass, Biodiesel, and Ethanol(p. 171)
• Fusion, Cold Fusion, and Free-Energy Devices(p. 175)
• Conservation: Efficiency and Curtailment(p. 178)
• Chapter 5 A Banquet of Consequences(p. 185)
• The Economy - Physical and Financial(p. 187)
• Transportation(p. 190)
• Food and Agriculture(p. 193)
• Heating and Cooling(p. 198)
• The Environment(p. 199)
• Public Health(p. 201)
• Information Storage, Processing, and Transmission(p. 203)
• National Politics and Social Movements(p. 204)
• The Geopolitics of Energy-Resource Competition(p. 210)
• Taking It All In(p. 220)
• Chapter 6 Managing the Collapse: Strategies and Recommendations(p. 225)
• You, Your Home, and Your Family(p. 228)
• Your Community(p. 234)
• The Nation(p. 242)
• The World(p. 254)
• A Final Word(p. 259)
• Afterword to the Revised Edition(p. 263)
• The Saudi Enigma(p. 264)
• Shell Game(p. 265)
• Oil's Depressing Outlook(p. 266)
• Significant New Reports(p. 266)
• The Iraq Quagmire(p. 268)
• The Curse of Free Energy(p. 270)
• Where the Real Hope Lies(p. 274)
• Notes(p. 275)
• Bibliography(p. 289)
• Index(p. 297)

Reseñas proporcionadas por Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Heinberg presents an in-depth analysis of the dramatic changes that are about to occur as a result of oil depletion and the imminent decline of cheap oil. He claims that within the next few years, as oil production peaks--and even after having switched to alternative energy sources--industrial societies will have less energy available to do all the things essential to their survival. Heinberg further shows how oil and war have been closely related and how competition to control oil supplies could lead to resource wars in the Middle East, Central Asia, and South America. The opening discussion explains the characteristics and physical laws of energy in general. Chapter 2 traces the history of the industrial era, and chapter 3 assesses oil resources and reviews estimates of current reserves and extraction rates. It also examines why reserve estimates of independent geologists diverge from other agencies. Chapter 4 explores alternatives to oil such as coal, natural gas, solar power, wind, and hydrogen, and chapter 5 focuses on the meaning and implications of the approaching peak in fossil-fuel production. In the final chapter, Heinberg suggests how to face the social, economic, political, and individual lifestyle changes that will be necessary. This remarkable book is a timely wake-up call. ^BSumming Up: Highly recommended. Advanced undergraduates and above. S. Ayubi Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, Camden