The party's over : oil, war and the fate of industrial societies

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

Reviews 1

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

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

Available:*

On Order

Summary

Summary

Reviews 1

Choice Review

Table of Contents