Description

Table of Contents

Introduction

Interview

Endorsements

"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 filePowerdown 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." David Room, 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." Julian Darley, Post Carbon Institute

"Powerdown is a fearless, no-holds-barred view of our prospects in the post fossil fuel world. Courageous, clear . . . essential reading." David Orr, author of Earth in Mind, The Nature of Design, and The Last Refuge

"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." Stephanie Mills, author of Epicurian Simplicity

"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." William E. Rees, PhD, author of Our Ecological Footprint

"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." Mike Ruppert, publisher and editor, www.fromthewilderness.com