Peak Oil News >> Geology; Reserves; Oil Fields >> PowerDown review by Bruce Thomson

Moderator Bruce Thomson reviews 'PowerDown' (Richard Heinberg's upcoming book) on the EnergyResources Yahoo group.
Summary: he likes it.

New Society Publishers sent me a draft of 'PowerDown' (Richard Heinberg's upcoming book) to preview. It's good, so I'll send out this recommendation of it to the main egroups. A GOOD COVERAGE, A VERY USEFUL BOOK FOR BRIEFING ANYONE QUICKLY It seems to speak the truth, in very plain ordinary language, and without much reticence. Lucid, factual, quantitative. E.g. he mentions that 25% of US fertilizer companies have permanently closed. Another 25% are closed indefinitely. All because of natural gas decline, and the resultant crippling rises in prices. He even strongly draws attention to the word 'depletion' (the ultra-taboo, no-no word in this domain). And goes on to give some irrefutable, formidable facts about the depletion of oil and gas in the US, North Sea. He's brave enough to speculate about a 'coming demographic holocaust'. So far it seems much better than 'The Party's Over', which I thought was too pedestrian, and had kindly go-back-to-sleep optimism. The responses to the energy decline are also much more clear-headed, specific and practical. The book would be a good one to give as a briefing to any elected representative or any significant decision-maker. I'm wondering now if this book may soon be the best primer yet on the subject because it encapsulates the whole situation so very well in 190 pages of easy reading, for anyone. Here is a good 'kit' of favourite tools of educating people fast might currently be RUNNINGONEMPTY SLIDE SHOW (VERY FAST, INFO-PACKED BRIEFING, MAYBE 30 MINS) (Ready-made slide show about the exhaustion of the world's oil and gas reserves as the wells finally empty, the likely impacts, and suggested ways of coping.) If you are interested in downloading the RunningOnEmpty slide show so that you can customize it and use it to present the energy decline story to any group, download it from : http://www.renewableenergy.org.nz/resources/oilcrash/RunningOnEmptyNZ.ppt (By the kind cooperation of Andrew Groom, andrew@a... ) POWERDOWN (BOOK) BY RICHARD HEINBERG (180 PAGES OF PAPERBACK READING) Contact is New Society Publishers. www.newsociety.com or sara@n... Easy to read for beginners or even those who already 'know'. Up-to-date (2004) book about the decline of oil and gas. Full of good statistics and references that are very persuasive. Nice balance of pragmatic honesty and humane good-manners. ULTRA-CHEAP BRIEFING HANDOUT - INFO-TICKET 500 CARS IN ONE HOUR FOR $5 Briefing 'ticket' (ten per sheet, each is business card sized item). Very cheap way of alerting people. Put under windshield wiper of cars. Can do 500 cars in a couple of hours (6 seconds per car, about an hour to do the lot, and at about $5 for the whole lot.) http://groups.yahoo.com/group/RunningOnEmpty2/files/ FACT SHEET The two-page 'Fact Sheet' leaflet summary of the oil and gas decline situation, handy for giving out at meetings. http://www.geocities.com/RunningOnEmptyNZ/_FactSheet.doc READY-MADE TEMPLATES FOR OFFICIAL SUBMISSIONS TO CITY COUNCILS, ETC From that same website you can download example documents that make it really easy to create a submission about the energy decline, to a local council or any institution. Look for 'submission' in the list of files at.. http://www.geocities.com/RunningOnEmptyNZ/_FactSheet.doc SLIDE SHOW - IN OTHER FORMATS The slideshow is dowloadable for easy use by anyone in two different formats other than the PowerPoint .ppt file. http://www.renewableenergy.org.nz/resources/oilcrash/RunningOnEmptyNZ.sxi - Open Office Impress format (similar tool to Powerpoint) http://www.renewableenergy.org.nz/resources/oilcrash/RunningOnEmptyNZ.swf - Flash file, most people have this running in their web browsers. Feel free to grab copies of these. Both of the above versions are only about 2MB, so this might make life a bit easier. Because it took years of thinking and hours of PC work to create it, I will be especially interested in feedback about success downloading and running it and using it. CAUTION ABOUT BRIEFING PEOPLE ON THE ENERGY DECLINE Remember the slide show contains material that's depressing to deal with. To prevent them being paralysed, focus on them and their strengths to respond well: 'Invite' your audiences to 'help you' deal with the energy decline. 'Offer' to them the ideas it contains. 'Ask' them/highlight what their particular strengths might be in dealing with the situation. 'Ask' them what they think is best to do. and how they can. If they show signs of distress, back off, and leave it to another time. Talk about something else. Good luck. Bruce Thomson Moderator, RunningOnEmptyNZ group Palmerston North New Zealand bthomson@e... www.geocities.com/RunningOnEmptyNZ ----------------------------------------------------------------- Bruce Thomson bthomson@e... 20 Lyndhurst Street, Palmerston North, New Zealand Tel. 64-6- 3577-773 or 3577-889 Mobile 021-176-9711 (omit that 0 if overseas) -----------------------------------------------------------------