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The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies Paperback – June 1, 2005
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The world is about to run out of cheap oil and change dramatically. Within the next few years, global production will peak. Thereafter, even if industrial societies begin to switch to alternative energy sources, they will have less net energy each year to do all the work essential to the survival of complex societies. We are entering a new era, as different from the industrial era as the latter was from medieval times.
In The Party’s Over, Richard Heinberg places this momentous transition in historical context, showing how industrialism arose from the harnessing of fossil fuels, how competition to control access to oil shaped the geopolitics of the twentieth century and how contention for dwindling energy resources in the twenty-first century will lead to resource wars in the Middle East, Central Asia and South America. He describes the likely impacts of oil depletion and all of the energy alternatives. Predicting chaos unless the United States—the world’s foremost oil consumer—is willing to join with other countries to implement a global program of resource conservation and sharing, he also recommends a “managed collapse” that might make way for a slower-paced, low-energy, sustainable society in the future.
More readable than other accounts of this issue, with fuller discussion of the context, social implications and recommendations for personal, community, national and global action, Heinberg’s updated book is a riveting wake-up call for human-kind as the oil era winds down, and a critical tool for understanding and influencing current US foreign policy.
Richard Heinberg, from Santa Rosa, California, has been writing about energy resources issues and the dynamics of cultural change for many years. A member of the core faculty at New College of California, he is an award-winning author of three previous books. His Museletter was nominated for the Best Alternative Newsletter award by Utne in 1993.
- Print length288 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherNew Society Publishers
- Publication dateJune 1, 2005
- Dimensions6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
- ISBN-100865715297
- ISBN-13978-0865715295
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Review
The world is about to run out of cheap oil and change dramatically. Within the next few years, global production will peak. Thereafter, even if industrial societies begin to switch to alternative energy sources, they will have less net energy each year to do all the work essential to the survival of complex societies. We are entering a new era, as different from the industrial era as the latter was from medieval times.
In The Party's Over, Richard Heinberg places this momentous transition in historical context, showing how industrialism arose from the harnessing of fossil fuels, how competition to control access to oil shaped the geopolitics of the 20th century, and how contention for dwindling energy resources in the 21st century will lead to resource wars in the Middle East, Central Asia, and South America. He describes the likely impacts of oil depletion, and all of the energy alternatives. Predicting chaos unless the U.S.-the world's foremost oil consumer-is willing to join with other countries to implement a global program of resource conservation and sharing, he also recommends a "managed collapse" that might make way for a slower-paced, low-energy, sustainable society in the future.
More readable than other accounts of this issue, with fuller discussion of the context, social implications, and recommendations for personal, community, national, and global action, Heinberg's updated book is a riveting wake-up call for humankind as the oil era winds down, and a critical tool for understanding and influencing current U.S. foreign policy.
Listen to an interview with Richard Heinberg from WRPI.
(2004-11-30)About the Author
Richard Heinberg is widely acknowledged as one of the world's foremost Peak Oil educators. A journalist, educator, editor, lecturer, and a Core Faculty member of New College of California where he teaches a program on "Culture, Ecology and Sustainable Community, he is the author of six previous books including The Party's Over and Powerdown.
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Product details
- Publisher : New Society Publishers; 2nd edition (June 1, 2005)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 288 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0865715297
- ISBN-13 : 978-0865715295
- Item Weight : 1 pounds
- Dimensions : 6 x 0.8 x 9 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #2,290,731 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,854 in Economic Policy
- #2,354 in Economic Policy & Development (Books)
- #6,037 in Environmentalism
- Customer Reviews:
About the author

Richard Heinberg is the author of fourteen books including most recently "Power: Limits and Prospects for Human Survival" (2021, New Society). He is Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute and is widely regarded as one of the world's most effective communicators of the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels. Heinberg has given hundreds of lectures on our energy future to audiences around the world. He has been published in Nature and other journals and has been featured in many television and theatrical documentaries. He lives in California.
More information about Richard can be found on his website: richardheinberg.com
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I chose this book for my second read on this subject because it has the highest ratings (on subject) on Amazon. Heinberg has done a thorough job of discussing every aspect of the coming problems to society due to a lack of petroleum - most of which I had never considered. Literature about this are from the point of view of either the politician, the economist, or the geologist. He takes the view of the geologist and the future does not look good.
I hold a more positive view: that human ingenuity will prevail - but I could easily be wrong. In any case, this is a worthwhile read for anyone. Of particular interest is the chapter that deals with alternate energy sources. The next time you read about an alternate energy source in the news, you'll remember the real pro's and con's from an expert.
Quick synopsis of 41 page alternative fuel chapter from "Party's Over:"
Natural Gas: Cannot be shipped from overseas easily like oil - is more difficult to extract economically every year - is being depleted like oil. In view of the precarious status of North American gas supplies, any attempt to shift to NG as an intermediate fuel would waste time and capital in the enlargement of an infrastructure that will soon be obsolete.
Coal: Shortage not so much a problem, however, its EROEI (Energy Return On Energy Invested) and pollution are a problem. As the richer seams are exhausted, it may cease to be a useful energy source within only 2-3 decades.
Nuclear: Electricity from existing nuclear plants is inexpensive, but only if direct costs are considered. When adding in plant construction, safety, reactor decommissioning, and waste storage - nuclear power is very expensive indeed. There are currently 442 reactors operating worldwide. France in the only country in Europe still building them. Only Asia expects to expand significantly. Only a few of the highly touted fast breeder reactors have been built, and they have proven to be prohibitively expensive. The US currently processes enough uranium to fuel existing US reactors for the next 40 years. The mining process is wasteful, polluting, and dangerous. When all things are considered, the EROEI on nuclear energy is fairly low and there is significant intangible downside.
Wind: Of all renewables (not depletable), wind power usage on a global scale is being developed the fastest. Technology has advanced - it no longer kills birds because it uses slower fan speeds and the fans are mounted on a vertical axis. It can operate in more variable wind speeds and the cost is declining rapidly. Soon your own equipment could be bought and used on your own property. Wind has the best EROEI and Germany leads the world in its usage. On a large scale, wind power would require vastly new infrastructure, but it is the most practical alternative so far.
Problem: cannot easily be converted to fuel transportation and agricultural needs.
Solar: Technology advancing rapidly, photovoltaic the best so far. Research is advancing into diverse methods of collection, including such easy methods of application as solar buckyball collectors incorporated into house paint. Tremendous potential, would need new infrastructure.
Problem: cannot easily be converted to fuel transportation and agricultural needs.
Hydrogen: For now, the process of hydrogen production always uses more energy than the resulting hydrogen will yield. For one thing, hydrogen is not an energy source, but an energy carrier. It's production depends on continued usage of the dwindling supply of natural gas. There is new technology, however, and reason to be optimistic. As with wind and solar, a whole new infrastructure, requiring time and investments of huge amounts of money and energy technology are necessary. Like wind and solar, hydrogen fuel cells should be central features of our plans to phase out petroleum. We should be dramatically increasing these investments.
Hydroelectric: In many regions of the world - and especially in the US - it is already thoroughly exploited.
Geothermal power, tides, and waves: limited application in limited regions of the world.
Biomass: wood burning - pollution and limited resources in a world with 6 billion people - imagine the world being one big Easter Island.
Ethanol: costs more energy to produce than it eventually delivers to society. Brazil is the poster child, but is burning down rain forests to grow sugar cane.
Cold-Fusion: pseudoscience
Conservation - Efficiency and Curtailment: Will be crucial in cushioning impacts from the depletion of oil. But it is not a panacea - even when you ignore cheaters (individuals and countries).
Saudi saying: My grandfather rode a camel. My father rode in a car. I fly a jet airplane. My grandson will ride a camel.
The key point of the book is that the Earth's crust can provide mankind with an essentially finite amount of fossil fuel energy, with primary reference to oil. Drawing on the relatively unknown, and oft-misunderstood, concept of "peak oil," the book addresses the imminent shortfall of petroleum that will not be available on world markets. That day of reckoning is far closer than most people think. "Peak oil" is a global application of Geologist M. King Hubbert's (1903-1989) studies of oil production in "mature" exploration districts. That is, exploration for oil in sedimentary basins at first yields substantial discoveries, which are then produced. Additional exploration yields less and less "new" oil discovered, and that level of discovery coming at greater and greater effort. Eventually, absent additional significant discovery, production "peaks" and then commences an irreversible decline. This has already occurred in the U.S. in the 1970's, and is in the process of occurring in oil-producing nations such as Mexico, Britain, Egypt, Indonesia and Malaysia. Ominously, "peak" production can be forecast in the next few years in such significant producing nations as Saudi Arabia and Iraq (in addition to all of the other problems in those unfortunate nations.)
Much of the rise of industrial society was tied to increasing availability of high energy-density fuel, particularly oil. Western society, and its imitators in non-Western lands, is based upon access to large amounts of energy-dense fuel, and that fuel is oil. With respect to the U.S., the domestic decline in oil production has been made up, over the past thirty years, by increasing imports from other locales, with concomitant political risk. When the world production "peaks" in the next few years, the competition for energy sources will become more fierce than it already is. This book addresses issues related to what are commonly thought of as "substitutes" for oil, such as coal, natural gas and natural gas liquids, and shatters many myths. The author also delves deeply into energy sources such as "tar sand," "oil shale," nuclear and renewable sources. And thankfully, the author offers a number of proposals to address the looming problem (although these proposals are probably not what an awful lot of people want to hear.)
A book like this one could easily descend into a tawdry level of "chicken-little" squawks and utter tendentiousness. But thankfully it does not do so. This is a mature, well-reasoned and carefully footnoted effort. I could take issue with some of the author's points about "big business" and how decisions are made at high political levels, but not in this review. Instead I will simply congratulate Mr. Heinberg for writing an important contribution to social discourse. I hope that a lot of people read this book and start to look at and think about the world differently.
This volume represents THE wakeup call for a world society quite literally addicted to crude oil for its continuation, and, in most cases, it's very survival.
Heinberg has done his homework, and this volume should be required reading for anyone in an industrialized nation, or one just getting started down that road. It is a proven scientific fact that within a few years, we will begin to run out of oil, and it will be pretty much gone within 5 or 6 decades. Considering that we have built our entire society around an oil economy, the implications are dire - far, far beyond not being able to drive through the coffee shop with the kids in your SUV on the way home from the mall. Alternative energy sources? Dream on - read on.
The book is thoroughly researched, well-thought and organized and presents the often dissenting views at every side of this hugely important issue. It is also delightfully written and composed, and is fun and quick to read.
I highly recommend this book, and I hope at least one person reads what I'm writing and buys this book. And I hope they tell someone, too.
Top reviews from other countries
Despite the seriousness of the subject, the way the book is written puts across that the author is a person wanting to inform rather than lecture. This is demonstrated by the ease with which the text flows as well as other little quirks in the book that make it more enjoyable and easier to read than a textbook on the subject - I particularly like the quotes that are given at the beginning of chapters, which indicate to the reader the different attitudes that are taken by experts, critics and lay people in regard to the global problem of oil and its effects on society at large.
I would thoroughly recommend this book to any person who wishes to learn more about where our society has developed from, why society has such a dependency on oil and, most importantly, what can be done to change the world for the better.


