Customer Reviews

Plan C: Community Survival Strategies for Peak Oil and Climate Change

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this book just came out and there are no customer reviews yet, so i thought i'd add more info for potential purchasers. my field is peak oil and this was the 69th book i've read on the subject; i believe it to be the best book yet written on peak oil and "where do we go from here". as americans, what are our real options now (that gasoline is more than $22 per gallon if you remove u.s. subsidies and the era of cheap energy is leaving us for good, never to return)?

the best book of the last century on this subject was, hands down, william r. catton's 1982 masterpiece, "overshoot: the ecological basis of revolutionary change" which, with joseph tainter's 1990 "the collapse of complex societies", gave the reader a taste of where the united states is heading. fossil fuels allowed the world's population to surpass one billion and now that we have used up one half of the world's supply of oil (around 2005) the rest will be harder and more expensive to get -so either everyone starts having one child families or nature will force a die-off this century (as the rest of us compete or cooperate for the remaining fossil fuels).

plan c is about cooperating instead of competing for the remaining supply of fossil fuels and each of us curtailing our energy usage (he shows you why a whopping 90% reduction is needed) on behalf of our children and future grandchildren. in 20 years, most of implied threat of peak oil will be obvious to the average american citizen because our leaders cannot keep it a secret for much longer, present high gas prices are just the tip of the iceberg; it's the end of our "non-negotiable way of life", the end of the growth economy, and the return of the community and localization (supporting the local economy, staying near home, work and our food source). i don't mean to be alarmist here and neither does pat murphy. politicians and corporations want you to stay in your seat believing that business will solve everything but that is the most dangerous thing you can do and think.

hey, i'd love to read fiction (i loved tolkien too) but while we are enjoying even informed escapism our consumer culture is destroying our planet for our kids and in 20 years few of us will be unaffected, let alone flying in airplanes. so let's take a look at pat murphy's book and what sets it apart from others like it:

chapter one: fossil fuel depletion & climate change
chapter two: peak oil-peak economy
chapter three: peak-oil peak empire
chapter four: peak america-is our time up?
chapter five: peak technology and the private car
chapter six: peak technology and electric power
chapter seven: corporations, media and disinformation
chapter eight: plan c: curtailment & community
chapter nine: post-peak: change starts with us
chapter ten: the energy impact of buidings
chapter eleven: the smart jitney - rapid realistic transport
chapter twelve: food, fuel and CO2
chapter thirteen: food, health & survival
chapter fourteen: changing practices
chapter fifteen: kicking the media habit
chapter sixteen: localization
chapter seventeen: reviving & renewing community

on the back are glowing reviews from peak oil's and climate change's leaders, david orr, richard heinberg, bill mckibben, albert bates, and david korten. they have all written great books of the subject yet they all recognize that pat murphy has done a brilliant job of putting everything together artfully in a single book for the first time. pat shows you why efficiency is not enough (jevon's paradox), why technology will not save us (it doesn't exist without fossil fuels - a one time non-renewable gift from nature) why buildings use 50% of u.s. electricity (and how we personally can help), how each american uses 57.8 barrels of oil (the equivalent) per year, the perils of innumeracy, the amount of waste each american creates, embodied energy costs, 10 calories of oil creates each calorie of food (what we eat is swimming in petroleum), false solutions to the energy crisis, the relationship between empire & financial inequity and the current problem before us, what to do, how to re-create community and why re-localize to save the remaining energy for future generations.

hey, i know i'm over-simplifying "Plan C" but that's the drawback of writing a review of any book that is great. there is simply no replacement for reading this amazing book. i know the subject is depressing but pat's solution is hopeful, so rush to buy this for yourself and a copy for everyone you know. there is power in knowing where the exit signs are in a theatre when people start shouting fire; and in this case people have already begun shouting so don't be the last one to look up. this book will dramatically minimize your shock later on and tells you very clearly what to do now for the inevitable tightening of everyone's energy belts.

every year there will be 2.7% more demand for energy (due to incresed consumerism) and 2.7% less energy than the year before (due to hitting peak oil in 2005). even someone mathematically challenged (innumerate) when faced with the simple facts of supply and demand can, upon reading Plan C, realize that waiting for our leaders to respond to the approaching crisis (without any leadership it will be bigger and longer than the Great Depression) will be the biggest mistake of their life. read, roll up your sleeves and get to work changing your own life, then educating others. as eleanor roosevelt said, "you must do things you think you cannot." with pat's advice you will be able to follow the old kenyan proverb "a dog that sees the shore, does not drown". please don't drown; empower yourself, your children and those you love now by reading this timely important book.

There are two aspects to this book. One is a sober economic analysis and a practical way of dealing with diminishing energy sources. If, as the authors claim, alternative energy sources will not make up for dwindling use of fossil fuels (Plan B), then it makes sense that we can no longer live in spawling surburbs and commute large distances to work. We will have to spend more time living, working and playing near home and will have to relinquish some of our more costly consumer goods.

The other aspect of the book is a critique of our current consumption oriented society. I should say that emotionally I am totally in agreement with what the authors say, but some may feel otherwise. The book says that there is something wrong with a stressful competitive society where people do not know their neighbors and spend inordinate amounts of time fiddling with electronic devices of one sort or another. Although the book stops short of explicitly saying it, one gets the feeling that to the authors the coming economic crunch is something of a blessing in disguise, returning us to communal living where people spend time with and look out for the interests of their neighbors.

In the final chapter, the authors contrast current society to the communally centered societies of the past. This strikes a responsive chord in me, but I am concerned that there may be a bit of fantasizing going on. There was and still is a tendency for small communities to distrust outsiders and people who do not conform to narrow community standards. There tends to be a loss of privacy, with everyone into the business of everyone else. Before the Industrial Revolution, wealth was based on land and in much of the world there was a sharp division between wealthy landlords and impoverished peasants. It may be that future communities will be better than those of the past. For one thing, since communication is relatively inexpensive, we may be able to keep in touch with the outside world even if we are limited to how much of it we can actually visit. This would help assure dissemination of new ideas and differing points of view.

I definitely recommend the book, but I caution the reader to be a bit skeptical of some of the claims about how bright and rosy the future that they imagine would be.

This book should probably be titled, "A REALLY Inconvenient Truth." Most Americans won't be too excited to hear that to avoid the worst impacts of climate change we must reduce our overall consumption of all resources in the 80-90% range. The author does an excellent job detailing how we got here, where we're likely to go if we stay on our current track, and how we can choose a different path leading to a better future. However, this shift will require great courage and leadership and will involve the dreaded S-word (Sacrifice). Look what happened the last time a leader uttered that word (James Carter).

In addition, it is clear that current efforts to "green" our economy won't make much of a difference, although they may make us feel better in the mean time. Green comsumption is only incrementally better than traditional consumption, and what we need is FAR LESS consumption. Of course, this doesn't fit into our generally accepted thinking of "growth is good" and anything else is socialism or worse. The neo-liberal economic model is at the heart of our problem, and painting the toenails of the beast and changing it's tee shirt won't make much of a difference in the end.

Our problem is much like that of the alcoholic - total denial that anything's wrong. Change happens one of two ways by either intervention or hitting rock bottom. We may cause irreparable harm if we pull the rip cord 10 feet before hitting ground but we may still have time but we're approaching ground quickly!

Nothing short of a complete transformation of our economic system, our mindset, our consumption patterns and overall population will make a significant impact. It's a pretty simple formula...multiply the number of people (growing every day) times the amount they consume (also growing) to arrive at total ecological impact (growing exponentially). The numbers don't lie, and anything short of a massive cultural shift will likely lead to an unhappy ending involving war, starvation and death as population overshoots our ability of a waning resource base to support it. Sounds fun, huh? Hey, grandkids. We love you, but are sorry to report that we mortgaged your future and left you a debt of pollution and despair. Sorry about that. Oh, hold on a second...my iPhone is ringing.

The author does a good job clarifying how energy is categorized and differentiates between embedded energy and operating energy. Good examples include our cars and homes which are where we use most of our energy. Cars and homes take about 10% of their lifetime energy to be built (embedded) but 90% to heat/cool and fuel (operating). Even if we implement green building techniques and hybrids we are only having an impact on a small percentage of a huge (and growing) problem.

Anyone who cares one iota for the health of our planet and the future of our children should read this book. Buy copies for friends, family and send copies to your elected officials. The time to act is now!

This is the book that changed the course of my quest for knowledge about post-industrial civilization and peak oil. It also changed my life and prompted me to rid my brain of the cobwebs surrounding the mystery of the future of our delicate and fragile civilization. Mr. Murphy's book astounded me by putting into words what I've observed everyday in "modern" industrialized America.

In short, this book challenged me. And that is the test of a great book peppered with great ideas and great writing.

The best part of this book was the chapter on media. Mr. Murphy points to various astounding facts on how much Americans spend in front the TV and internet (guilty as charged). It was like a bomb of realization hit me where I sat when I read this chapter and Mr. Murphy alluded eloquently on the simple truth of our internet age: the internet doesn't bring us together! I repeat! The internet does not bring us together! On the contrary, it keeps us very much apart. We're sitting in isolated apartments in wastelands of suburbia staring at black text on white screens (and posting reviews on Amazon). We are not actually interacting face to face. Facebook is taking us away from real interaction. If TV was sent to kill off human culture and community while teenagers stared before screens of visions of dancing Beatles on the Ed Sullivan Show, the internet was sent in after to kill off any weeds of human culture, art, literature or history that remained. The public squares are empty and they're owned by General Electric, anyway.

If Mr. Murphy seems a bit too eager for collapse to arrive it is because he is picking up on the general malaise that is a side effect of our present civilization. Ours is a civilization that offers miles and miles of congested traffic while sitting in grandiose isolation tanks and eating unhealthy fast food. These pursuits, the great accomplishments of modern civilization, have left us unsatisfied and longing for something wholesome nourishment. Mr. Murphy's longing for a mass return to the simple life is palpable and profound. What would life be like without 401ks, Social Security, baggage surcharges at the airport not to mention complex financial products resembling mild Ponzi schemes? It would be many things, Mr. Murphy suggests, but above all life post-industrialization would be simple. People alive in the post-cheap oil age would struggle to survive and all other previous priorities would fall away as easily as the disposable strip malls outside many of our communities fall to disrepair.

Mr. Murphy seems to wish collapse to happen as quickly as possible and suggests a myriad of ways to cope with it. For instance, Mr. Murphy suggests that instead of relying on business and markets to save us with innovation from our doom when the cheap oil runs out, as Thomas Friedman would have us to do, Mr. Murphy says we should give up our refrigerators. This was a VERY radical thought to me when I read this book in the summer of 2008. What? Give up refrigerators? How would I survive? What would I eat? How would I keep my pickle relish and left over Chinese? This is the kind of thing that we need to think about. Forget depending on the massive corporations to save us. Forget the Smart Grid and get real! Sure enough, as soon as I read Mr. Murphy's suggestion to give up our refrigerators, an article appeared on February 5, 2009 in the New York Times about a new wave of green folks who had done just that. Let me just state for the record that Pat Murphy suggested the idea first.

I would buy this book and give it to everyone I know, but as someone on Life After The Crash.net posted under the heading of "Telling People" wrote, "It isn't a good idea to tell sheeple about Peak Oil."

Nevertheless, this book is must read and should be approached not as a Thomas Friedman beach read, but with a even keel as this book will change your life.

Just reading in 'Plan C' some opinions stated as facts implying the US is responsible for as many as 2 million deaths in Iraq. They imply that it is American forces doing the killing, when the vast majority is Sunni/Shia conflict - the frequent suicide bombings, Iraqis killing Iraqis. I don't agree with the war, but that is sheer propaganda. The beginning 'shock and awe' campaign excepted, I didn't see any American aggression that wasn't in response to attacks by Iraqis. I'm don't doubt there were innocents killed by Americans, but to portray a 500 to 1 deaths comparison is unfair and inaccurate. I get the point, but exaggeration of this level undermines the point. Pat Murphy got these figures from sources stated in the book, but those sources are biased and present their figures accordingly. The wording is carefully put as "violent deaths since the US invasion" which is technically accurate, but ethically inaccurate by leading the reader to conclude it's Americans doing the killings.

That said, good book, worth reading if you're looking for a good overview of our issues.

I generally only review diet and health-related books because that's what I'm focused on in my writings. So what's up with a book about conservation, renewable sources of energy, and being environmentally aware? Plenty! While it wouldn't seem like the kind of book that is pertinent to nutrition and wellness, Plan C is actually ALL about finding ways to deal with the pending global food crisis that is upon us.

You may have noticed in recent years some of the things happening with the world food market, including major price increases on certain key staples, scarcity of food that has always been in abundance, an exponential rise in the world population, droughts, deforestation, global warming, and skyrocketing oil prices. There have been food riots breaking out as a result of this unrest and while things have calmed down somewhat because of the drop in oil prices over the past year, the United Nations is concerned there will be even more outrage as record-high prices are expected to return in the next decade.

This book outlines many of the issues impacting the sustainable food supply and offers solutions about what can be done regarding the problems that are on the horizon. There is grave concern that the food crisis will become inevitable by the year 2015 when global oil production will hit its peak. Why is this important for the food supply? Because most of the food is grown using these fossil fuels for energy. That's why Pat Murphy decided to write out his own "plan" for dealing with this BEFORE it happens.

I love this quote from Murphy in the book when he says "The understanding of good food and nutrition is also disappearing" and he's exactly right! People tend to take for granted that food will always be there, but food security is a very real concern that people need to take more seriously now while there's still time to do something about it. Preemptive measures if implemented deliberately and strategically to counteract this can be effective with a shift in our food culture. This includes eschewing those foods that are heavily subsidized by the U.S. government like corn and wheat and instead purchasing locally-grown fruits and vegetables and grass-fed beef at your neighborhood farmer's market, for example.

Murphy shares some key statistics in his book regarding how much energy is burned creating the food we eating, including the fact that it takes 10 calories of fossil fuels for every 1 calorie of food consumed by Americans, less than four percent of agricultural land in the United States is used to harvest fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes, and the price of fruits and veggies has sharply risen while HFCS-sweetened soda has dropped by nearly 25 percent. There's a little bit of vegetarian bias in the book as Murphy laments that it takes 25 calories of fossil fuel energy to create one calorie of "factory-raised beef protein" and that livestock produce 18 percent of the greenhouse gasses worldwide. But he does encourage buying local from farmers who aren't implementing these energy-wasting techniques and believes this is the wave of the future that needs to happen much sooner than later.

An intriguing aspect of this book that I think might be worth pursuing is the concept of "kicking the media habit." Murphy says there's a bit too much pro-corporation positive spin happening on television and in newspapers for people to be indoctrinated with the wrong messages. He encourages readers to give up some of our technological advances and get back to enjoying the life where we live by volunteering to give up a day, a week, or even a full month of Internet, television, radio, reading books, watching movies, etc. to see how you react to it. Instead, go out to hear local bands, spend long conversations with friends and family members, and get back to living life the way it used to be. I don't know if I'm ready to take that plunge just yet, but it certainly sounds enticing.

All in all, Plan C seems to be grounded in a reality that far too many Americans are utterly clueless about. For their sake, I hope they learn about it long before it's too late.

This book has an excellent core. It explains our predicament fairly well. And it has some good recipes for the future. But it does not dare to explain the need for action in two areas: A) reducing the world population and B) local defense. Overbreeding is certainly the Mother of Misery. And no community can prosper in a crowded world without any self defense. "As the crisis deepens, a one child family should become a key value for Americans and all other nations" is a neglecting way of treating the most important problem of all civilizations. Buy the book, read it, may be recommend it, but be aware of its serious deficiencies. Good wishful thinking, but the motto "Only tribes will survive" demands a covert Plan D.

I have to disagree strongly on "Plan C". Of all the books on the subject of Peak Oil, I found it preachy, dull, repetitious, and lacking new information. The only somewhat fresh ideas are the section on the 'smart jitney' and a little bit of the dissection of 'community' at the end. Just based on the tone of the book (dry, absolutist, heavily judgmental), I would NOT recommend it to a person unacquainted with peak oil, as it could turn them off from the whole subject.
It also has a strong leftist slant in places. While I'm no great fan of capitalism either, reading this book feels like being lectured by a dogmatic college professor.
Personally, I agree with most of the statements the author makes about depletion and curtailment, but there are ways to makes points: with tact, grace, metaphors, stories or humor. The author employs exactly none of those. His 'Power of Community' Cuba documentary was actually quite good, because it had real people with real stories and you can actually see some detailed solutions. This book lacks that.

Plan C gives a good overview of the problems that communities could potentially face in the near future. Murphy gives an overabundance of data supporting his concepts of global problems. The weakness of the book is the lack of solutions that he presents. I anticipated more details of his community plans. He is better at analyzing data than presenting workable "community" solutions.

Although some statistical errors Pat Murphy has put together a must read for anyone who is willing to be part of the solution and not the problem