The Party's Over

by Heinberg, Richard

• ISBN13: 9780865715295
• ISBN10: 0865715297
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-07-13
• Publisher: New Society Pub

Summary

The world is about to run out of cheap oil and change dramatically. Within the next few years, global production will peak. Thereafter, even if industrial societies begin to switch to alternative energy sources, they will have less net energy each year to do all the work essential to the survival of complex societies. We are entering a new era, as different from the industrial era as the latter was from medieval times. In The Party's Over, Richard Heinberg places this momentous transition in historical context, showing how industrialism arose from the harnessing of fossil fuels, how competition to control access to oil shaped the geopolitics of the twentieth century and how contention for dwindling energy resources in the twenty-first century will lead to resource wars in the Middle East, Central Asia and South America. He describes the likely impacts of oil depletion and all of the energy alternatives. Predicting chaos unless the United States-the world's foremost oil consumer-is willing to join with other countries to implement a global program of resource conservation and sharing, he also recommends a ;managed collapse ; that might make way for a slower-paced, low-energy, sustainable society in the future. More readable than other accounts of this issue, with fuller discussion of the context, social implications and recommendations for personal, community, national and global action, Heinberg's updated book is a riveting wake-up call for human-kind as the oil era winds down, and a critical tool for understanding and influencing current US foreign policy. Richard Heinberg, from Santa Rosa, California, has been writing about energy resources issues and the dynamics of cultural change for many years. A member of the core faculty at New College of California, he is an award-winning author of three previous books. His Museletterwas nominated for the Best Alternative Newsletter award by Utnein 1993.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	xi
Introduction	1	(8)
Energy, Nature and Society	9	(36)
Energy and Earth: The Rules of the Game	10	(4)
Energy in Ecosystems: Eating and Being Eaten	14	(6)
Social Leveraging Strategies: How to Gain an Energy Subsidy	20	(13)
Complexity and Collapse: Societies in Energy Deficit	33	(5)
Applied Socio-Ecohistory: Explaining the American Success Story	38	(7)
Party Time: The Historic Interval of Cheap, Abundant Energy	45	(40)
Energy in Medieval Europe	47	(5)
The Coal Revolution	52	(5)
The Petroleum Miracle, Part I	57	(3)
Electrifying the World	60	(4)
The Petroleum Miracle, Part II	64	(9)
Oil, Geopolitics, and the Global Economy: 1950 -- 1980	73	(5)
1980-2001: Lost Opportunities and the Prelude to Catastrophe	78	(7)
Lights Out: Approaching the Historic Interval's End	85	(52)
On to Mesopotamia	88	(4)
The Ground Giving Way	92	(3)
M. King Hubbert: Energy Visionary	95	(6)
Hubbert's Legacy	101	(10)
Zeroing In on the Date of Peak	111	(7)
Hubbert's Critics: The Cornucopian Argument	118	(15)
Who Is Right? Why Does It Matter?	133	(4)
Non-Petroleum Energy Sources: Can the Party Continue?	137	(48)
Natural Gas	139	(4)
Coal	143	(3)
Nuclear Power	146	(6)
Wind	152	(4)
Solar Power	156	(5)
Hydrogen	161	(7)
Hydroelectricity	168	(1)
Geothermal Power	169	(1)
Tides and Waves	170	(1)
Biomass, Biodiesel, and Ethanol	171	(4)
Fusion, Cold Fusion, and Free-Energy Devices	175	(3)
Conservation: Efficiency and Curtailment	178	(7)
A Banquet of Consequences	185	(40)
The Economy -- Physical and Financial	187	(3)
Transportation	190	(3)
Food and Agriculture	193	(5)
Heating and Cooling	198	(1)
The Environment	199	(2)
Public Health	201	(2)
Information Storage, Processing, and Transmission	203	(1)
National Politics and Social Movements	204	(6)
The Geopolitics of Energy-Resource Competition	210	(10)
Taking It All In	220	(5)
Managing the Collapse: Strategies and Recommendations	225	(38)
You, Your Home, and Your Family	228	(6)
Your Community	234	(8)
The Nation	242	(12)
The World	254	(5)
A Final Word	259	(4)
Afterword to the Revised Edition	263	(12)
The Saudi Enigma	264	(1)
Shell Game	265	(1)
Oil's Depressing Outlook	266	(1)
Significant New Reports	266	(2)
The Iraq Quagmire	268	(2)
The Curse of Free Energy	270	(4)
Where the Real Hope Lies	274	(1)
Notes	275	(14)
Bibliography	289	(8)
Index	297	(10)
About the Author	307