Peak Everything
Waking Up to the Century of Declines
By: Richard Heinberg
Published: July 15, 2010
Format: Paperback, 240 pages
ISBN: 9780865716452
Publisher: New Society Publishers
"We really have reached Peak Everything...but we've barely had a chance to enjoy the view; how brief was our moment at the apex! From here on, it's going to be a bumpy, downward roller-coaster ride", writes leading educator on Peak Oil and Senior Fellow-in-Residence at Post Carbon Institute, Richard Heinberg, in his provocative and thought provoking book Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines. The author describes how in the light of diminishing global resources, that traditional concepts of economic growth will have to be reassessed, and replaced with fresh thinking on how society and the global economy will operate in the twenty-first century.
Richard Heinberg paints a dismal picture of how all resources are in decline, and how current rates of consumption are unsustainable even over the short term. Growth in those rates of resource use is simply not possible, according to the author. In a series of perceptive and self-contained essays, Richard Heinberg describes the resource shortage problem in several critical industries, and how the end of the oil and resource era will usher in a new paradigm based on sustainability. The author offers a glimpse of a grim future for all of humanity, if the current course is not changed dramatically. Throughout the book, Richard Heinberg presents alternative ways of thinking, acting, and living that are both sustainable and respect the dignity of everyone on this planet.
Richard Heinberg (photo left) provides the numbers and graphic evidence of resource decline, and the twenty-first century will experience crises in the following areas unless steps are taken now to change consumption rates:
* Oil, natural gas, and coal extraction
* Yearly grain harvests
* Climate stability
* Economic growth
* Fresh water
* Minerals and ores, such as copper and platinum
While Peak Oil attracts the vast majority of the headlines, the author points to the other resources that are also experiencing decline. Fresh water and food are even more essential to human life than oil and minerals, and unsustainable practices threaten their availability, and will create shortages. While Richard Heinberg stresses that not all peaks will occur at once, they are all close or have already passed their apex. For the author, without a dramatic change in attitudes toward the planet and its resources, the twenty-first century will be a very dismal place for almost every person on earth.
For me, the power of the book is how Richard Heinberg describes the rapidly escalating problem of resource shortages in a matter of fact, and non-sensational manner. He provides evidence of decline, and shares the wisdom of others regarding the development of a new era of sustainability and respect for the environment and for all people. The book is formatted from a series of stand alone essays, covering technology, agriculture, and the arts in the first group. The second grouping of essays focuses on nature's limits and the human condition. The third section describes the end of one era and the beginning of another new era. Taken together, the three sections and their subsidiary essays provide a solid overview of the growing problem or resource decline, how they affect the increasing global human population, and what must happen to prevent a catastrophic future for all humanity.
The book is a well structured, convincingly argued, and very eye opening account of the challenges facing every person in the world. The author invites readers to examine their own lives and attitudes, as the age of excess slips into the past, and how the age of sustainability can be ushered in successfully. The various essays can all be read in any order, and each one contains a warning, and an opportunity for fresh thinking and action. The future doesn't have to be a nightmare, but first everyone must recognize and understand the severity of this onrushing crisis. The author does a good job in conveying those concepts to the reader.
I highly recommend the important and must read book Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines by Richard Heinberg, to anyone who is serious about understanding the challenges posed by peak everything. Anyone who wants to create a better, cleaner, more just, and sustainable world would do well to read this book.
Read the enlightening and complacency shattering book Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines by Richard Heinberg, and discover how the future will happen with or without your cooperation and support. This book offers the choice to become part of the solution, rather than remain a part of the problem.
