Synopsis
This may be the most important book you or anyone else will read in the next fifty years. Assuming humanity survives that long. Draining the lifeblood of industrial civilization, the terminal decline of oil and gas production will spark a crisis far more dangerous than international terrorism, and just as urgent as climate change. World leaders know it, so why aren't they telling? The last oil shock is the secret behind the crises in Iraq and Iran, the reason your gas bill is going through the roof, the basis of a secret deal cooked up in Texas between George Bush and Tony Blair, the cause of an imminent and unprecedented economic collapse, and the reason you may soon be kissing your car keys and boarding pass goodbye. David Strahan explains how we reached this critical state, how the silence of governments, oil companies and environmentalists conspires to keep the public in the dark, what it means for energy policy, and what you can do to protect yourself and your family from the ravages of the last oil shock.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An absolute must for the intelligent reader,
By
This review is from: The Last Oil Shock: A Survival Guide to the Imminent Extinction of Petroleum Man (UK Paperback) Strahan (Paperback)
I did this review for a New Zealand newspaper, but it applies worldwide.
We all know it is coming, don't we? Petrol prices escalating, Maui fields producing less and less, Government trying to fire up a coal-fired power plant at Marsden Point to substitute for increasingly expensive oil, Australia going to nuclear-based power generation - obvious, isn't it? This exceptionally informative book will explain why this is happening and what to expect in the future. Mr. Strahan is a British investigate journalist who has undertaken the task of becoming extremely well-informed about what is referred to as "peak oil" - the point at which oil and gas recovery reaches a maximum and then goes into irreversible decline. This is no breathless "conspiracy book" but a factual resume by an author who has that unusual knack of making the complex easier to understand. His massive bibliography of source material goes on for 25 pages, so those want to debate his facts can easily find the source. This is not an opinionated book but one crammed with objective information and intelligent analysis. Mr. Strahan starts out with the science of petroleum exploration then continues with a fascinating history of how information is gathered about present supplies and future reserves. He adds detail as to how governments and oil companies have reacted to what should be obvious, discusses the ramifications of international politics and oil depletion, then finishes with a critique of the hard-core realities of substituting various other sources for power generation as petroleum products inevitably run dry. One can argue climate change, its causes, and possible solutions, but there is no argument here - oil recovery has hit "peak" in most areas and is declining everywhere but the Mideast, and even here the reserve figures may be deliberately overrated. Please buy this book - educated people simply must understand the full dynamics of this apparently insoluble problem.
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Shakes you up and makes you want to do something good for the planet,
By Marcus Crowley "MC" (Sydney, Australia) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Last Oil Shock: A Survival Guide to the Imminent Extinction of Petroleum Man (UK Paperback) Strahan (Paperback)
This book is a serious read. The first chapter or so looks at oil as the rationale for the war in Iraq. Seems like good investigative reporting by the author who seems to know a lot more than most politicians about a really important and worrying issue.
The majority of the book is spent explaining - in some statistical detail - the fact that the world's oil production will start to fall inexorably within the next decade or so. The last part of the book was more digestible but alarming, talking about the consequences and necessary / probable solutions to the oil fields running dry. I'd recommend this book as a good follow up to "The Weather Makers" which explains the dangers of global warming and focusses on coal rather than oil. It looks like we are all in for some big changes ahead, and those of us that have read up on these issues are going to be able to help save the planet, or at least cope better than most.
7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Important book,
By acerbas (Ventura, CA USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Last Oil Shock: A Survival Guide to the Imminent Extinction of Petroleum Man (UK Paperback) Strahan (Paperback)
For once the blurb is accurate. This is the best of the spate of books on Peak Oil. Ignore it at your peril.
However, the version through the Amazon reseller is much too expensive. You can purchase it for less from Amazon Canada, where the book was published.
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