For a minute there I thought I had to get off my couch, when all the while the fact is we don't have to do anything much but keep things afloat for just a few decades more! In fact, we'd best shut up about PO, because if our offspring finds out we knew about it all along, they'll turn and wring our necks come 2036!
Joined: Apr 28, 2005 Posts: 3431 Location: West shore Lake Eire, MI, USA
Posted: Thu Jan 05, 2006 1:13 am Post subject: Re: [Top 5 Peak Oil Books?]
Leanan wrote:
I like Ken Deffeyes (Hubbert's Peak) and David Goodstein (Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil). IMO, they complement each other. Deffeyes knows geology. He explains how we find oil, where we find oil, and why we know we will not make any major new oil discoveries. Goodstein is a physicist, and takes a thermodynamic view. He runs the numbers, and shows why solar, nuclear, wind, coal, etc., will not be enough to replace oil.
These books are not as fun to read as Kunstler's tales of pirate attacks, but IMO they are very useful in understanding the scope of the problem.
More generally, I recommend Jared Diamond's Collapse, and Joseph Tainter's The Collapse of Complex Societies. Diamond's book is easier to read, and blames societal collapse largely on depletion of natural resources. Tainter is more theoretical, and makes what is basically a thermodynamic argument: that complexity has an energy cost, and that increasing complexity requires increased energy resources. A great book to read if you're wondering if technology can save us again.
As a history nut I loved Matt Simmon's Twilight In The Dessert for its detailed history of how and where the Saudi Arabian oil miracle came to be. For Christmas I received Dr. Deffeyes The View From Hubberts Peak and started reading it Monday. Abaout half done so far, very good book at least up through the Natural Gas section. _________________ Oxygen: - An intensely habit-forming accumulative toxic substance. As little
as one breath is known to produce a life-long addiction to the gas, which addiction invariably ends in death.--Isaac Asimov
Half Gone: Oil, Gas, Hot Air and the Global Energy Crisis
Jeremy Leggett
The Limits to Growth: The 30-year Update
Donella H. Meadows, Jorgen Randers, Dennis L. Meadows
Hubbert’s Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage
Kenneth S. Deffeyes
Plan B: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble
Lester R. Brown
Party’s Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies
Richard Heinberg _________________ "Everything is proceeding as I have foreseen." The Emperor (Return of the Jedi)
The Oil Drum: Europe
Joined: Jul 29, 2005 Posts: 252 Location: Show-Me State
Posted: Wed Mar 22, 2006 8:38 am Post subject: Re: [Top 5 Peak Oil Books?]
Good day from Pheba:
The problem I find with peak oil books is that they are like potato chips. You can't read just one. The entire concept hits like a freight train, so you have to keep reading.
The entire concept seems surreal at first. Then as it sinks in, it becomes like a bad habit. You have to keep reading.
All of it seems like some bad dream that has burst the bubble of our make-believe world.
Daniel Quinn's "Ishmael" was actually the first book I read that began my awakening.
The second book I read was "Taliban" by Rashid. What a hard read. I had to read the book twice because I just did not understand, no, that's not right. I refused to comprehend what was really happening.
My next book was "The Party's Over". My world finally crumbled. I felt like Alice, crawling back out of the rabbit hole.
Personally, I don't think reading just Peak Oil books can accurately give a person the grasp of what is really going on.
Here is a list of books I have read, and how they have helped me grasp the concept in a bigger way.
"Oil, Power and Empire": Iraq and the U.S. Global Agenda" by Larry Everest. A very good book, easy to read.
"Party's Over and Powerdown. Make sure and get the 2nd edition of Party's Over. Heinberg had some errors in first edition that he corrected in second edition. My hubby and I are farmers. He had errors on farming corn acreage in first edition. We e-mailed him and asked him about them. He was so gracious, a delightful, modest, honest person. He explained that 2nd edition is updated with correction.
"the Stork and the Plow" by Ehrlich and Daily. A necessary book to understand the impact of population on our energy problems.
"The Official Guide to the X-Files". Volumes 1-6. When all of this reality gets to be too much.
"Entropy" or "Entropy Into the Greenhouse World" by Jeremy Rifkin. Both out of print, but on E-Bay. The absolute most important basic information to learn: The first and second law of thermodynamics.
"The Geography of Nowhere" by Kunstler. Sorry folks, but I like this book better than Kunstler's "Long Emergency". I like Kunstler, but I did not like his pro-war stance in Long Emergency, and I feel he tried to cover too much in one book with Long Emergency, so he just fell short.
"Hubbert's Peak by Deffeyes, and "The View From Hubbert's Peak"
"Earth Odyssey" by Mark Hertsgaard. Not an oil book, but an eye opener of the natural consequences of our energy sucking world. heart-wrenching
"Twlight In the Desert". An eye opener, but I wish somebody would have explained to Mr. Simmons that most people are not in the oil business and would have a difficult time understanding his technical terms. A glossary would have made all the difference in the world.
"This Place On Earth" by Alan Thein Durning. A beautiful book. In one chapter Durning describes the energy used just to give him his cup of morning coffee. A real eye opener.
"Blowback" by Chalmers Johnson and "The Sorrows of Empire" by Chalmers Johnson. "Blowback" is an awesome book.
"High Noon For Natural Gas" by Julian Darley
"Resource Wars" by Michael T. Klare. For some reason this book is often overlooked in a list of peak oil books. Written in 2001, this book still paints a very clear picture of our growing conflicts over natural resources, mainly oil and water.
I have read tons more, but can't remember them right now. Just pick five.
Personally , I found it necessary to also read books on politics and population and global warming. All of these problems tie in.
Just remember to take time out to read X-Files, or whatever, when it all gets to be too much.
Pheba
Posted: Sun Mar 26, 2006 10:19 pm Post subject: Re: [Top 5 Peak Oil Books?]
I'm still waiting for Jack U. Dumbas' long-awaited book that is supposed to leave all other peak oil books toasted and left to the dusts:
"When the Sh*t Hits the Fan" is the apt name of the long-awaited book! Cost $25 for hardcover. The author have been working on this book since he worked under Hubbert. Kinda slow, you know?
Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 4:50 am Post subject: Re: [Top 5 Peak Oil Books?]
I would recommend 'The Great New Game' as an interesting investigative journalism piece into the volatile area of 'last remaining disputed stock' areas of the world.
It's not purely about Peak Oil argumentation per se, but rather (as any sane approach) takes it as basically already proven. It shows the countries, their leaders, global energy giants and the coalitions working to try to seize them. It's not going to pretty in the years to come.
As for not recommended, 'End of Oil' falls firmly in that category. The writer has no concept of EROEI in the book, talks about hydrogen economy as something useful and to me cannot separate a proper scientific argument from an advocate rant, when he's quoting his sources. Avoid, not a good book overall, imho.
I'd really like to see a book written by a group consisting of a physicist, a macroeconomist, a biologist and a geologist together. They'd only use scientific data and scientific arguments. No 'crystal ball' approach, just saying what is happening now and how the systemic forces of nature, energy resources, energy economy and macroeconomics are playing together, without saying what the consequences will be in the end (nobody really knows that).
Joined: Oct 16, 2004 Posts: 1195 Location: Brisbane, Australia
Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 5:23 am Post subject: Re: [Top 5 Peak Oil Books?]
"The Last Days of Ancient Sunlight" Thomm Hartman
Covers basics of oil depletion and then heads off into some social implications. _________________ Kind regards, Katkinkate
"The ultimate goal of farming is not the growing of crops,
but the cultivation and perfection of human beings."
Masanobu Fukuoka
Posted: Sun Apr 09, 2006 6:49 am Post subject: Re: [Top 5 Peak Oil Books?]
clv101 wrote:
The single best peak oil book I've read (well I'm half way through it at the moment) and I've read most of them is Half Gone: Oil, Gas, Hot Air and the Global Energy Crisis by Jeremy Leggett (in the US the same book has a different title, The Empty Tank : Oil, Gas, Hot Air, and the Coming Global Financial Catastrophe).
Oh good. My non-peaker SO took this to work a couple days ago... I got it from the library and hadn't gotten to it yet. He came home pretty gloomy, so I figured it would be a good read.
The Long Emergency may not be the best, but I think it's the most accessible for people new to this. The Party's Over was pretty good. I'd like to read his second book now, since I'm getting bored with the "convince me" books and looking for the "now what" things to read.
The Great New Game is going on my list; thanks, halcyon.
Joined: Mar 09, 2005 Posts: 46 Location: Gdynia, Poland
Posted: Thu Aug 31, 2006 2:51 pm Post subject: Re: [Top 5 Peak Oil Books?]
Hi,
As odd as it may sound I was wondering if any of you would be eager to help a poor polish student keen on the Peak Oil Theory - particularly by contributing a book or two (I'll try to compensate the costs of shipping) on the subject known to us all. Besides, most of the books are not available in Poland (I could order them from the UK but they're insanely expensive), not even at my University's Library :/ so by sending me the book you'd eventually help Uniwersytet Gdanski where I study
Should any of you suddenly become intensively enthusiastic about my idea let me know by sending me a msg
Cheers, Palkerss.
Hi,
As odd as it may sound I was wondering if any of you would be eager to help a poor polish student keen on the Peak Oil Theory - particularly by contributing a book or two (I'll try to compensate the costs of shipping) on the subject known to us all. Besides, most of the books are not available in Poland (I could order them from the UK but they're insanely expensive), not even at my University's Library :/ so by sending me the book you'd eventually help Uniwersytet Gdanski where I study
Should any of you suddenly become intensively enthusiastic about my idea let me know by sending me a msg
Cheers, Palkerss.
Hey Palkerss,
I have a few that you may be interested in. I will be glad to lend them to you. I am hoping to visit family in Gydnia soon. I just need to get the Kunstler book back from someone I lent it to in Warsaw.
I'll contact you via PM when I know my travel dates to Gydnia.
Regards _________________ Remember, with globalisation "everyone is a winner" in the "race to the bottom". - rogerhb
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. A.C. Clarke
Posted: Mon Nov 06, 2006 7:32 pm Post subject: Re: [Top 5 Peak Oil Books?]
HonestPessimist wrote:
I'm still waiting for Jack U. Dumbas' long-awaited book that is supposed to leave all other peak oil books toasted and left to the dusts:
"When the Sh*t Hits the Fan" is the apt name of the long-awaited book! Cost $25 for hardcover. The author have been working on this book since he worked under Hubbert. Kinda slow, you know?
Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 1:52 am Post subject: Re: [Top 5 Peak Oil Books?]
I have only read 3 so far but they are ranked in this order...
1. Half Gone by Jerremy Legget (very good overall explainantion)
2. Twilight in the Desert (skim technical bit and rest is very interesting)
3. The Long Emergency (scary but not out of the question)
I am now looking to read The Party's Over. _________________ Sometimes I wish that I too could live in blissful ignorance... but then I realise, knowing is my only advantage.
Posted: Fri Dec 01, 2006 2:02 am Post subject: Re: [Top 5 Peak Oil Books?]
Phebagirl, everything you say is tinged by the wisdom, depth, and earthiness of your life. thankyou. _________________ ree rah rip ram. sunofabitch godamn. hidey didey christ almighty. rah rah crap
All times are GMT - 6 Hours Goto page Previous1, 2, 3Next
Page 2 of 3
You cannot post new topics in this forum You cannot reply to topics in this forum You cannot edit your posts in this forum You cannot delete your posts in this forum You cannot vote in polls in this forum
News
Discussions
Resources
Members
Forum FAQ
Search
Usergroups
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
ree rah rip ram. sunofabitch godamn. hidey didey christ almighty. rah rah crap 
