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Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines Hardcover – October 16, 2007

by Richard Heinberg (Author)

28 customer reviews

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The twentieth century saw unprecedented growth in population, energy consumption, and food production. As the population shifted from rural to urban, the impact of humans on the environment increased dramatically.

The twenty-first century ushered in an era of declines, in a number of crucial parameters:

Global oil, natural gas, and coal extraction
Yearly grain harvests
Climate stability
Population
Economic growth
Fresh water
Minerals and ores, such as copper and platinum

To adapt to this profoundly different world, we must begin now to make radical changes to our attitudes, behaviors, and expectations.

Peak Everything addresses many of the cultural, psychological, and practical changes we will have to make as nature rapidly dictates our new limits. This latest book from Richard Heinberg, author of three of the most important books on Peak Oil, touches on the most important aspects of the human condition at this unique moment in time.

A combination of wry commentary and sober forecasting on subjects as diverse as farming and industrial design, this book tells how we might make the transition from the Age of Excess to the Era of Modesty with grace and satisfaction, while preserving the best of our collective achievements. A must-read for individuals, business leaders, and policymakers who are serious about effecting real change.

Richard Heinberg is a journalist, lecturer, and the author of seven books, including The Party’s Over, Powerdown, and The Oil Depletion Protocol. He is one of the world’s foremost Peak Oil educators.

Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines

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Product Details

Hardcover: 224 pages
Publisher: New Society Publishers; 1st edition (October 16, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 086571598X
ISBN-13: 978-0865715981
Product Dimensions: 6.3 x 0.8 x 9.3 inches
Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (28 customer reviews)
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #775,021 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #684 in Books > Politics & Social Sciences > Politics & Government > Public Affairs & Policy > Environmental Policy
- #971 in Books > Science & Math > Nature & Ecology > Natural Resources
- #1682 in Books > Business & Money > Economics > Environmental Economics

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Customer Reviews

3.6 out of 5 stars

5 star		47%
4 star		18%
3 star		7%
2 star		7%
1 star		21%

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Top Customer Reviews

The best book yet on this century of decline

ByEmilee LeBlancon January 12, 2008

Format: Hardcover

When I sat down to read this book I thought I knew quite a bit about "Peak Oil" and "Peak Energy" and about several other areas where we are now bumping up against the limits to growth. And since I had not only read The Party's Over and Powerdown but a number of Richard Heinberg's essays that I'd come across at the Energy Bulletin site, I thought I was pretty familiar with his insights regarding both the nature of the mess we now find ourselves in and the options available to us. So it was a pleasant surprise to find new and interesting insights in every chapter of this book.

One of the strengths of the book in my view is that it comes at the subject from so many different angles. I was impressed again and again by the scope of Heinberg's knowledge and the way he put the pieces together to make sense of the great challenges that we are facing.

As he himself says, "None of this is easy to contemplate. . . . [T]he suggestion that we are at or near the peak of population and consumption levels for the entirety of human history and that it's all downhill from here is not likely to win votes, lead to a better job, or even make for pleasant dinner banter."

But the better you understand the true nature of a problem, the better able you are to deal with it, and this book is the best yet in my opinion to help one awaken to the full implications of this "century of decline".

22 comments 66 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Thinking Straight in a Media of Hearsay and Misinformation

ByScott M. Kruseon June 25, 2008

Format: Hardcover

Heinberg explains how fossil fuels, primarily oil, permeate every aspect of our modern culture - from agriculture to cities and a long-term perspective. In the age of almost 7 billion people demanding more and more of limited resources, the media, politicians and governments tend to only report short-term perspectives and ignore Heinberg's Five Axioms of Sustainability to the extent that these concepts are taboo to be spoken, discussed or thought:

1) Any society that continues to use critical resources unsustainably will collapse.
2) Population growth, and, or, growth in the rates of consumption of resources cannot be sustained.
3) To be sustainable, the use of renewable resources must proceed at a rate that is less than or equal to the rate of natural replenishment.
4) To be sustainable, the use of nonrenewable resources must proceed at a rate that is declining, and the rate of decline must be greater than or equal to the rate of depletion.
5) Sustainability requires substances introduced into the environment from human activities be minimized and tendered harmless to biosphere functions.

The psychology of peak oil and climate change discussion is like Kubler-Ross' "On Death and Dying." This all lands on the shoulders of "boomers" or the "me" generation. How do you stay optimistic and move forward when most have been conditioned to expect continuous greater wealth and lower cost? Questions and anger are answered by a "A Letter From the Future" - a look back from 2107 CE.

Many of us think, "If only I could be rational and think objectively in light of too much hyperbole and misinformation." I keep this book close at hand and constantly reread specific chapters. I need to keep my head on straight and provide others with constructive, objective, logical, forward thinking in light of the current shift to "peak everything" (oil, coal, water, food, transportation, housing, . . .) and not succumb to emotional, short-term, greed and power struggles. This is excellent.

33 comments 40 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Don't judge by its title

ByA. Friedmanon October 5, 2008

Format: Hardcover

It's a good book and a great title, but the title does not match the content.

Richard Heinberg is an excellent author, and I HIGHLY recommend that everyone read his (other) book "Party's Over" for a riveting & sobering understanding of peak oil! With that under our belts, many of us are now coming to recognize peak population, peak food, peak pollution, peak global temperature, peak fresh water, peak arable land, peak mineral resources, peak ocean fisheries, peak species diversity, peak uranium, peak weaponry, peak resource wars, peak wealth disparity, peak waste, peak life expectancy, etc. Peak Everything! That's what I THOUGHT this book would address.

Instead, he has cobbled together a collection of essays on aesthetics, psychology, language, and other aspects of peaking. Oh, it's okay stuff, but it's not at all what I expected nor hoped to read--and he warns of that in the first page of the introduction. The intro is sprinkled with charts showing peaks, but they're not really discussed in much detail.

This book is for those who already know a lot about peak everything and just can't stop reading about it. Discussions of Art Nouveau, Freud, and wild parrots were just too tangentially abstract for my expectations. I wanted hard facts and numbers for forceful arguments, proposed plans of action, and glimpses of hope in promising new breakthroughs.

It's hard to rate this fairly because it was so disappointing due to the misleading title. Chapters 8, 9, & 10 won me over to the fourth star. Chapter 8, "Bridging Peak Oil and Climate Change Action," was my long sought acknowledgement of the 800 pound gorilla: discussion of the two topics from a single perspective.

Please, Mr. Heinberg, now write the book on Peak Everything!

2012 UPDATE: Toss in "Peak Growth". Heinberg has now written a book worthy of the title Peak Everything, but it's title is The End of Growth. Great book! Read it instead of this one.

0Comment 20 people found this helpful. Was this review helpful to you?YesNo

Most Recent Customer Reviews

Seems like technology and economics have again improved our lives and ...

Heinberg has been proved dead wrong one more time. Seems like technology and economics have again improved our lives and effectively enhanced and rationed supplies of scarce...Read more

Published 6 months ago by Chuck

Five Stars

Excellent!

Published 1 year ago by chung hsieh

There must be another way to live...

Richard has done an incredible job of documenting "This is how it is". We have built a complex and confusing world that is impossible to maintain.Read more

Published on August 27, 2013 by Mary Brown

Another apocalyptic gloom and doom book

Well, the author says we're going to run out of fossil fuels and revert to 18th century living (or worse).Read more

Published on June 12, 2013 by Amazon Customer

a narrated call to action

Have you heard of the term, peak oil? I hadn't, either. Peak oil is the term that essentially means that the world has hit its maximum rate of oil extraction.Read more

Published on December 19, 2012 by Yoni

Dated

Bummer about how fracking has utterly destroyed the peak oil theory, yeah?

I strongly suggest buying this book for your grandchildren to review fifty years from now.Read more

Published on December 5, 2012 by R. Iredale

The future as we anticipate it

A depressing book, but one that presents an accurate projection of our overuse of resources. Scares you into becoming a believer. An enjoyable, easy read.

Published on November 20, 2012 by Rick

Don't bother with this book

I bought this book hoping to learn where the critical shortages are and what solutions there might be to these problems.Read more

Published on November 5, 2011 by Concerned American

The forecasts blend with commentary to consider the changing world condition and future trends

PEAK EVERYTHING: WAKING UP TO THE CENTURY OF DECLINES documents the unprecedented growth of the world economy and why the 21st century will be the era of declines, from available...Read more

Published on January 18, 2011 by Midwest Book Review

Excellent Primer, Narrowly Focused, Provokes Reflection

I was tempted to limit this book to four stars because it fails to properly recognize, among many others, Buckminster Fuller, e.g.Read more

Published on October 16, 2009 by Robert David STEELE Vivas

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Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines Hardcover – October 16, 2007

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