Blackout: Coal, Climate and the Last Energy Crisis
by Richard Heinberg. New Society. 2009. 200 pages. Paperback. $18.95.
Momentum is growing to combat climate change, but the use of the fossil fuels continues to rise, reports Post Carbon Institute scholar Heinberg. But he warns that in the next few decades, supplies of coal, oil, and natural gas will run low. Societies will have to expend more resources on extracting the remaining supplies, and quality of life will deteriorate. Over time, economic catastrophe and political anarchy may befall much of the industrialized world.
Only with proactive effort now to reduce energy consumption and limit further growth of cities and mass industry can we avert this future. More fundamentally, governments must measure economic growth in terms of human welfare and environmental stability rather than GDP.
These efforts require near-term sacrifices, while their payoff will not bear fruit until later in the future. Implementation thus defies conventional political thinking, which fixates on imminent risks and opportunities. As actual oil shortages and coal price increases become manifest, however, policy makers might rethink strategies they would not consider now.
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