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by Richard Heinberg
Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World
Richard Heinberg, a journalist and educator, is a member of the core faculty of New College of California, where he teaches a program on Culture, Ecology, and Sustainable Community.
David Room, Post Carbon Institute:
We just got our shipment of Richard Heinberg's latest book, Powerdown: Options
and Actions for a Post-Carbon World in yesterday. I had been anticipating it
for several days as we received quite few advance orders and I was looking forward
to reading it myself. Last night, I was up reading to 4am. Powerdown is a
brilliant analysis of the options available to a civilization facing resource depletion,
biosphere collapse, and financial insolvency. Differentiating his book from the slew
of peak oil books that have recently appeared on shelves, he makes a cogent, impassioned
proposal for a strategy of self limitation, sharing, and cooperation while preparing
for the possibility of collapse. I file Powerdown in the must read category
for the “walking worried” – that is, anyone concerned about what is happening and
wondering what can be done to avert worst case scenarios.
Julian Darley, Post Carbon Institute:
Powerdown is the only sane response to the world's increasingly grave problems
of energy depletion, environmental degradation, and over-population. Richard Heinberg
truly understands the nature, scale, and urgency of our global situation. As we briefly
rest on the plateau of world oil production peak, Heinberg first outlines the possible
unpleasant paths our society may take through energy decline. He then makes it devastatingly
clear that a humane post-carbon future depends on urging our governments to powerdown,
while we start to relocalise our economies and build community lifeboats.
David Orr, author of Earth in Mind, The Nature of Design
and The Last Refuge:
Powerdown is a fearless, no-holds-barred view of our prospects in the post
fossil fuel world. Courageous, clear . . . essential reading.
Stephanie Mills, author of Epicurean Simplicity:
Here's a firm, humane, extraordinarily well-written assessment of the likely realities
of life after fossil fuels, soon to begin on the planet nearest you. Powerdown is
an essential read if you care to understand the deep structure of the coming Dark
Age and to choose actions that will become us as a species.
William E. Rees, PhD, author of Our Ecological Footprint:
Richard Heinberg's Powerdown is a balanced hard-headed analysis of the politically
unthinkable, the coming implosion of contemporary techno-industrial society. Heinberg's
premise is simple: no factor has played a greater role in the explosive development
of global civilization since the 19th Century than abundant cheap fossil energy but,
while the human enterprise is committed to maintaining to its steep upward trajectory,
the rocket is running out of fuel. Powerdown provides a visionary response to the
coming energy famine, a clarion call to cooperative solutions based on the conviction
that realism must trump self-delusion in matters of cultural survival.
Mike Ruppert, publisher/editor, www.fromthewilderness.com:
Richard Heinberg is that rare combination of scholar and visionary who is intellectually
and emotionally unencumbered enough to ask the toughest questions; and to reconcile
a truth which no one wants to believe with an emerging world reality only a few are
brave enough to see. His compassion for mankind is obvious. Whenever I need a reality
check and to calibrate my own compass on what Peak Oil means, I check first with
Richard Heinberg.
| ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | |
| INTRODUCTION | |
| 1. | THE END OF CHEAP ENERGY |
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| 2. | LAST ONE STANDING: THE WAY OF WAR AND COMPETITION |
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| 3. | POWERDOWN: THE PATH OF SELF-LIMITATION, COOPERATION, AND SHARING |
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| 4. | WAITING FOR THE MAGIC ELIXIR: FALSE HOPES, WISHFUL THINKING, AND DENIAL |
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| 5. | BUILDING LIFEBOATS: THE PATH OF COMMUNITY SOLIDARITY AND PRESERVATION |
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| 6. | OUR CHOICE |
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| NOTES | |
| INDEX | |
| ABOUT THE AUTHOR |
More informations available at http://www.museletter.com/Powerdown.html.