Peak Oil Survival: Preparation for Life After Gridcrash [Paperback]

Aric McBay (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1, 2006

How to survive after the oil runs out and there is no more "grid"

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Efforts like [PEAK OIL SURVIVAL] will serve as lifeboats. Generally speaking, it's better to build a lifeboat before the ship starts to list precariously, rather than wait for universal acknowledgment that it is in fact sinking.”
—Richard Heinberg, author of The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies

“Aric McBay is an extraordinary writer, thinker, and activist whose work is absolutely indispensible to the real work we all face of dismantling civilization and defending the places we love. ”
—Derrick Jensen, author of A Language Older than Words and The Culture of Make Believe

"PEAK OIL SURVIVAL is a solid, down-to-earth manual for human survival couched in a solid, down-to-earth analysis of why such means will be required. Get your hands on this volume."
—Chellis Glendinning, author of My Name Is Chellis and I'm in Recovery from Western Civilization, Off the Map, and Chiva: A Village Takes on the Global Heroin Trade

From the Back Cover

Oil and energy are not limitless resources, and someday the supply will be depleted. Peak Oil Survival shows readers how to plan for the future: how to survive and thrive when the food, transport, and energy industries sputter out. Author Aric McBay gives an essential crash course complete with clear, simple instructions and easy-to-read diagrams. Peak Oil Survival will explain how people can protect their families and strengthen their communities in the event of a crisis - and live comfortably off the grid.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 128 pages
• Publisher: Lyons Press (October 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1592281273
• ISBN-13: 978-1592281275
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #287,234 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

133 of 139 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars An extreme disappointment, November 21, 2007

By 

Scrod - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Peak Oil Survival: Preparation for Life After Gridcrash (Paperback)

If you have never read anything about peak oil or survival perhaps this book will get you thinking. If you have any knowledge of these topics you will find this book very high level and not informative. If Mr. McBay has an understanding of survival, or in a more relevant vein self-reliance, it does not make it to these pages.

Two quick examples: The book is a very light at under 100 pages and he spends 33 of those pages talking about cooling and cooking food. In his post crash world there is a big issue with cooling or cooking food but apparently after grid crash there is no problem actually getting the food. If there is, he does not address the issue. Personally I have become accustomed to eating.

Second, he spends less than 2 pages addressing heat (in the winter). If you live in the North one would hope Mr. McBay would address the topic as a lack of fuel would definitely have an effect. His suggestions are pitiful. Light a fire (great if you live on the third floor of an apartment with no fireplace) and put on more clothes. Brilliant! I need someone to remind me to get dressed. How about a simple suggestion to prepare yourself by getting a high quality sleeping bag that can keep you alive when the temperature goes sub zero. No such common sense suggestions are to be found.

If you want a book on survival then buy one on that specific topic. May I suggest "SAS Survival Handbook". If you want a book on Self-Reliance then buy one on that specific topic. I would suggest starting with "Storey's Basic Country Skills" or "The Self-sufficient Life and How to live It" or "The Big Book of Self-Reliant Living". All these books are tomes of knowledge that may actually help you if hard times come to pass.

73 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Scary, Practical, A "Best in Class" Book, February 7, 2007

By 

Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Peak Oil Survival: Preparation for Life After Gridcrash (Paperback)

There is an entire literatue on Peak Oil (now, 30 years too late). Of the seven or eight that I have read, this is the single best most sensible book. Easy to read, to "connects the dots" and makes it clear just how tough urban and surban survival is going to be--imagine Baghdad at home.

The author has really knocked the ball out of the park with common sense. This is not a book that states the obvious as much as it is a book that really drives home the importance of obtaining water, treating water, creating latrines and making best use of gray water, keeping food cool, heating for fuel (with a dramatic savings achievable for short-term fuel use augmented by hot box "sitting"), and then ending with lighting and heat.

The layout of the book is first-rate, the diagrams are superb and easy to understand, and the practical list of tools and supplies needed for sustainment survival is explicit, not over-stated, and just plain serious.

Absolutely a great book and a serious contribution to the good of any community.

Other books:

Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage

Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum

The Party's Over: Oil, War And The Fate Of Industrial SocietiesResource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict With a New Introduction by the Author

The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century

The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism

Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil

The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy

The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy)

Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders

56 of 62 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Description I've Seen, February 21, 2007

By 

John Matlock "Gunny" (Winnemucca, NV) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Peak Oil Survival: Preparation for Life After Gridcrash (Paperback)

There are two parts to this book.

The first is the Introduction which is only 16 or so pages long. But in these pages is as good a summary of what's going on as I have ever seen. The opening sentence: 'We live in an age of converging crises.'

I've never heard it put better. Global Warming, freshwater, fishing, destruction of topsoil, all are headed our way. Our politicians ignore it, they are much more concerned about a non-binding resolution about Iraq.

I've likewise never seen the description of the inadequacy of renewables described as well in as few pages. The introduction alone is worth the price of the book.

After that the book is on what it will take to survive after the 'Grid' crashes. No electricity, no fuel, no food. Here is how to process your own water, how to grow your food and cook it without using your gas/electric stove.

What he doesn't mention is that without oil, and with a true grid crash, the population of the world has to go back down to what it was before oil, say about the year 1900. And the population then was perhaps 1/4 what it is now.