Peak Oil Booklist Hubbert's Peak:The Impending World Oil Shortage - $33.95 Kenneth S. Deffeyes Were the energy concerns of 2000 a preview of everyone's future? Will gas lines in the coming years make those of 1973 look short? Is the present chaos in oil prices the leading edge of a more serious crisis that will rock national economies around the world? According to Kenneth Deffeyes, a geologist with extensive personal experience in the oil industry, the answer to all of these questions is "yes". World oil production is peaking and will start to fall for good sometime during the first decade of the 21st century. In 1956, geophysicist M. King Hubbert - then working at the Shell research lab in Houston - predicted that US oil production would reach its highest level in the early 1970s. Though roundly criticized by oil experts and economists, Hubbert's prediction came true in 1971. The hundred-year period during which most of the world's oil was discovered became known as Hubbert's Peak - a span of time almost comically shorter than the hundreds of millions of years the oil deposits took to form. Crude: The Story of Oil - $24.95 Sonia Shah Crude tells the unexpurgated story of oil and its crucial role in everyday modern life. This story is about far more than fuel and light. In addition to fueling our cars and illuminating our cities, crude oil and its by-products fertilize our crops, pave our roads, and make plastic possible. Without nitrogen fertilizer, about two-fifths of the world's population would not be alive. The Western world's newborn babies are caught by hands in petro-plastic gloves, swaddled in petro-polyester med by oil-powered heaters. The few remaining wood products (such as this book) are extracted by oil-powered machines travelling on oil-cove red roads. The modern world is soaked, drenched, saturated in oil. Crude tells the gripping tale of how it came to be. A great human drama emerges, of discovery and innovation, risk, the promise of riches, and the power of greed. From an Australian author. The Oil Age is Over - US$14.95 + $9.95 postage or download PDF for US$11.95 Matt Savinar Now, with The Oil Age is Over: What to Expect as the World Runs Out of Cheap Oil, 2005-2050, Savinar provides you with an brutally-honest and unabashed analysis of what to expect as the world enters an era of permanent oil scarcity. Engaging, thorough, and easy-to-read, The Oil Age is Over is sure to become a must-read for everybody from Wall Street executives to Berekely environmentalists, blue-state liberals to red-state conservatives, and anybody else concerned about what to expect and how to prepare for end of the oil age. Order On-line from www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net The Final Energy Crisis - AU$53.95 Andrew McKillop (editor) It is a nice change to see an international range of contributors focus beyond the US scene, and not just on oil and gas, but on how long coal may last if it has to substitute for just about everything else. They explore the case for the imminent acceleration of fossil fuel depletion and the limits of 'sustainability'. They outline the political background to the situation, not just among the world's largest consumers of fossil fuel, the US and China, but also in Europe and the developing world. Considering our future economic survival, they include a detailed examination of France and Australia. Finally, they explore the extreme costs of alternatives such as nuclear power, and outline other possible lifestyles and methods. Twilight in the Desert - $38.95 Matthew R. Simmons This book is likely to be the most important ever written about oil. The vale of secrecy that has surrounded the world's oil resources must be lifted so the world can plan its future. This magnificently researched book of Matt Simmons may very well have the power to make that happen. - Richard E. Smalley, Ph.D., Nobel Laureate - Chemistry (1996) Simmons effectively confronts the complacent notion that there are ample oil reserves in Saudi Arabia. Twilight in the Desert should provoke anyone who believes that the recent increase in oil prices reflects either a speculative bubble or short-term supply constraints. It should provoke elected governments that have been complacent about their public's lack of concern about energy policy. And it will inevitably provoke producers like Saudi Arabia who believe they can maintain the vale of secrecy over their resources base that the world so strongly depends on. - Edward L. Morse, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Energy Policy The Coming Oil Crisis - US$33.00 Colin J. Campbell If ever the precisely appropriate book turned up at exactly the opportune moment, this is it. During 1997, an academic debate of immense significance for the future of civilization began to surface in a remarkably diverse array of media. The debate concerns the question, is there enough crude oil left in the world to get us to 2010 without a historically unprecedented discontinuity. The whole character of society in the 20th Century, and of its history, economics and politics is more a product of oil than of any other factor. Campbell's book is the most interdisciplinary and broadly informed book available on a wide range of these issues. He has about four decades of experience in every aspect of the oil business, from finding the stuff in the field, to analysis, management, finance and consulting. It simply drips with honesty, frankness, realism and wisdom. He penetrates the maze of conflicting information and disinformation, as well as imprecise and confusing definitions, noting that there are colossal vested interests with motives to distort and confuse: oil is money and money is power. Campbell does not pretend that he knows what will happen but gives us a range of plausible scenarios. These events will produce a major change in thinking and our perceptions of reality. Campbell notes linkages between all kinds of systems components: for example, the politics of the Middle East. The book is very well written. It is replete with tables, discussions of the principal personalities in this issue area, and organized tables of explanation of important concepts and terms. Was this a welcome breath of fresh air ! W.J.George, Petroleum Economist, London The End of Oil - $26.95 Paul Roberts Billions of people around the world enjoy an unprecedented standard of living based on one thing: oil. And each year we demand more. We produce and consume energy not simply to heat, feed, move or defend ourselves, but to educate, entertain, construct our world then fill it with stuff. Everything we buy, from a McDonalds' hamburger to garden furniture to cancer drugs, represents a measure of energy produced and consumed. But how can this sustain itself, when already we have burned our way through half the easily available oil? Yet the pursuit of fuel is relentless. It can shape the diplomatic, economic and military strategies of nations, perverting the cultures and politics of entire regions; it props up corrupt governments and dictators; it fosters the instability and resentments that have already spawned Muammar Qaddafi, Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden. In this devastating piece of reportage, Paul Roberts shows what is likely to happen, why the transition from oil will be complicated, traumatic and possibly dangerous, and what it will mean for our daily lives. Powerdown - $29.95 Richard Heinberg Avoiding cynicism and despair, the book begins with an overview of the likely impacts of oil and natural gas depletion and then outlines four options for industrial societies during the next decades: Last One Standing: the path of competition for remaining resources; Powerdown: the path of co-operation, conservation and sharing; Waiting for a Magic Elixir: wishful thinking, false hopes and denial; Building Lifeboats: the path of community solidarity and preservation. Finally, the book explores how three important groups within global society -- the power elites, (the anti-war and anti-globalisation movements, et al: the 'Other Superpower'), and ordinary people -- are likely to respond to these four options. Timely, accessible and eloquent, this book is critical reading for our times. Dave Kimble 18 May 2006 www.PeakOil.org.au Home page DK's Home page You can support my not-for-profit causes by making a donation by secure on-line transaction. 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