Thanks to my buddy Doug for passing along this essay by Shepherd Bliss from Dissident Voice that is both a review of several recent books on peak oil, and a consideration of the concept itself. Bliss uses the volcanoes of his home state Hawaii as a metaphor for the growing crises that peak oil may well set in motion and/or accelerate, and ruminates on prophets from both history and myth that predicted life-altering change ahead. While he's critical of our general denial of the issue, particularly in the United States, he also sees potential for hope in a move towards lifestyles and communities that are “organic, small-scale, local, convivial, cooperative, slower paced, human-oriented rather than machine-oriented, agrarian, diverse, democratic, culturally rich, and ecologically sustainable.” A thought-provoking piece...
Technorati tags: peak oil, book review, prophecy, Hawaii
Books by James Howard Kunstler, Jared Diamond and Richard Heinberg at Powells.com