The Final Energy Crisis

by Sheila Newman (Editor)

With oil reaching $100 a barrel in January 2008 and the U.S. facing challenges to dollar hegemony, few people would now deny that there is an energy crisis and that it is linked to economic uncertainty. However, the mainstream lacks a theory to explain this apparently sudden challenge to optimistic expectations of long-term economic growth and an end to world poverty. The Final Energy Crisis provides political explanations to fill that gap.
The authors engage with depletion trends in oil, gas, coal, uranium, soil, and biodiversity. Taking an interdisciplinary approach, they study energy trends, prospects, assets, and liabilities in different political systems and regions, including the U.S., Venezuela, China, Africa, the ex-Soviet Union, North Korea, Japan, France, and Australia. Far from being a doom-laden work on peak oil, this book offers practical suggestions for readers keen to be part of the solution to resource depletion.
This comprehensively updated edition includes 13 new chapters and thorough revisions of existing material.
Sheila Newman is an environmental sociologist and editor of articles on energy, population, land-use planning and resources. She co-edited the first edition of The Final Energy Crisis. Her blog is at http://candobetter.org/sheila/. She is also an environmental film-maker.

Genres: Peak Oil

336 pages, Paperback

First published July 20, 2008

Reviews

[Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

Worth the 'price of admission' for a handful of particularly excellent essays which are featured in this anthology, with "Battle of the Titans" in taking the prize. Some of the other entries left much to be desire, however, such as "Chinese Car Bomb".

I would recommend this Peak Oil anthology to those who already have explored most of the more popular Peak Oil publications. These essays are academic resources, not popular introductions to Peak Oil theory, which tend to be redundant after you've read a half-dozen of them or more. I would NOT recommend this to those who are looking for an introduction to Peak Oil theory.

For the demographic to whom this anthology does appeal to, I recommend giving it a read. However, I must mention that I am critical of the general tone of the concluding chapters, which I find to be unrealistically hopeful and optimistic, with the final chapter being almost insufferable in this regard.