Life after Fossil Fuels

Life after Fossil Fuels PDF Author: Alice J. Friedemann
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030703355
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
This book is a reality check of where energy will come from in the future. Today, our economy is utterly dependent on fossil fuels. They are essential to transportation, manufacturing, farming, electricity, and to make fertilizers, cement, steel, roads, cars, and half a million other products. One day, sooner or later, fossil fuels will no longer be abundant and affordable. Inevitably, one day, global oil production will decline. That time may be nearer than we realize. Some experts predict oil shortages as soon as 2022 to 2030. What then are our options for replacing the fossil fuels that turn the great wheel of civilization? Surveying the arsenal of alternatives – wind, solar, hydrogen, geothermal, nuclear, batteries, catenary systems, fusion, methane hydrates, power2gas, wave, tidal power and biomass – this book examines whether they can replace or supplement fossil fuels. The book also looks at substitute energy sources from the standpoint of the energy users. Manufacturing, which uses half of fossil fuels, often requires very high heat, which in many cases electricity can't provide. Industry uses fossil fuels as a feedstock for countless products, and must find substitutes. And, as detailed in the author's previous book, "When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation," ships, locomotives, and heavy-duty trucks are fueled by diesel. What can replace diesel? Taking off the rose-colored glasses, author Alice Friedemann analyzes our options. What alternatives should we deploy right now? Which technologies merit further research and development? Which are mere wishful thinking that, upon careful scrutiny, dematerialize before our eyes? Fossil fuels have allowed billions of us to live like kings. Fueled by oil, coal, and natural gas, we changed the equation constraining the carrying capacity of our planet. As fossil fuels peak and then decline, will we fall back to Earth? Are there viable alternatives?

Life after Fossil Fuels

Life after Fossil Fuels PDF Author: Alice J. Friedemann
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030703355
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 205

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book is a reality check of where energy will come from in the future. Today, our economy is utterly dependent on fossil fuels. They are essential to transportation, manufacturing, farming, electricity, and to make fertilizers, cement, steel, roads, cars, and half a million other products. One day, sooner or later, fossil fuels will no longer be abundant and affordable. Inevitably, one day, global oil production will decline. That time may be nearer than we realize. Some experts predict oil shortages as soon as 2022 to 2030. What then are our options for replacing the fossil fuels that turn the great wheel of civilization? Surveying the arsenal of alternatives – wind, solar, hydrogen, geothermal, nuclear, batteries, catenary systems, fusion, methane hydrates, power2gas, wave, tidal power and biomass – this book examines whether they can replace or supplement fossil fuels. The book also looks at substitute energy sources from the standpoint of the energy users. Manufacturing, which uses half of fossil fuels, often requires very high heat, which in many cases electricity can't provide. Industry uses fossil fuels as a feedstock for countless products, and must find substitutes. And, as detailed in the author's previous book, "When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation," ships, locomotives, and heavy-duty trucks are fueled by diesel. What can replace diesel? Taking off the rose-colored glasses, author Alice Friedemann analyzes our options. What alternatives should we deploy right now? Which technologies merit further research and development? Which are mere wishful thinking that, upon careful scrutiny, dematerialize before our eyes? Fossil fuels have allowed billions of us to live like kings. Fueled by oil, coal, and natural gas, we changed the equation constraining the carrying capacity of our planet. As fossil fuels peak and then decline, will we fall back to Earth? Are there viable alternatives?

After Oil

After Oil PDF Author: Imre Szeman
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780995042001
Category : Petroleum
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
After Oil explores the social, cultural and political changes needed to make possible a full-scale transition from fossil fuels to new forms of energy. Written collectively by participants in the first After Oil School, After Oil explains why the adoption of renewable, ecologically sustainable energy sources is only the first step of energy transition. Energy plays a critical role in determining the shape, form and character of our daily existence, which is why a genuine shift in our energy usage demands a wholesale transformation of the petrocultures in which we live. After Oil provides readers with the resources to make this happen.

Life Without Oil

Life Without Oil PDF Author: Steve Hallett
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1616144025
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 460

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Book Description
By the end of the 21st century, our oil and natural gas supplies will be virtually nonexistent, and limited coal supplies will be restricted to only a handful of countries. The authors - an environmental scientist and veteran journalist - make abundantly clear that we must plan for a future without reliance on oil. They make a compelling case that the key determinant of our global economy is not so much the invisible hand of the marketplace but the inexorable laws of ecology. Although the coming decades will be a time of much disruption and change of lifestyle, in the end we may learn a wiser, more sustainable stewardship of our natural resources. This timely, sobering, yet constructive discussion of energy and ecology offers a realistic vision of the near future and many important lessons about the limits of our resources.

Life After Oil

Life After Oil PDF Author: Mirza H. Alqassab
Publisher: Troubador Publishing Ltd
ISBN: 1838595023
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 312

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Book Description
The Gulf Arab states became rich by accident. Their golden ticket was oil, which has become the lifeblood of their social and economic systems. But they are prone to become a ‘vanishing Eden’, if the oil curse endures further and economic transformation remains a mirage. LIFE AFTER OIL highlights the economic vulnerability of the Gulf states after the oil party ends. The region depends heavily on imports financed by petrodollars. So, when demand for oil sinks and prices plummet, or when oil and gas reserves ultimately vanish, their survival will be extremely challenged. LIFE AFTER OIL raises the alarm to the impending survival challenges to face the burgeoning Gulf societies in the post-oil era, and tackles the ultimate question: what will the future look like?

World Made by Hand

World Made by Hand PDF Author: James Howard Kunstler
Publisher: Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
ISBN: 1555848370
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
In this “richly imagined” dystopian vision, mankind must find a way to survive as modern civilization slowly comes apart (O, The Oprah Magazine). When Earth ran dry of oil, the age of the automobile came to an end; electricity flickered out. With deprivation came desperation—and desperation drove humanity backward to a state of existence few could have imagined. In the tiny hamlet of Union Grove, New York, every day is a struggle. For Mayor Robert Earle, it is a battle to keep the citizens united. As the bonds of civilization are torn apart by war, famine, and violence, there are some who aim to carve out a new society: one in which might makes right—a world of tyranny, subjugation, and death. A world Earle must fight against . . . In his shocking nonfiction work, The Long Emergency, social commentator James Howard Kunstler explored the reality of what would happen if the engines stopped running. In World Made by Hand, he offers a stark glimpse of that future in a work of speculative fiction that stands as “an impassioned and invigorating tale whose ultimate message is one of hope, not despair” (San Francisco Chronicle). “Brilliant.” —Alan Cheuse, Chicago Tribune “It frightens without being ridiculously nightmarish, it cautions without being too judgmental, and it offers glimmers of hope we don’t have to read between the lines to comprehend.” —Baltimore City Paper

After Oil

After Oil PDF Author: John Michael Greer
Publisher: Founders House Publishing LLC
ISBN: 9780984376452
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 268

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Book Description
Author John Michael Greer, host of the blog "The Archdruid Report," a weekly peak oil blog, brings together twelve original tales selected from among his readers. Each story offers glimpses into possible futures where oil scarcity and lower energy availability spell the end of modern industrial society.

Oil Culture

Oil Culture PDF Author: Ross Barrett
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 1452943958
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 519

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Book Description
In the 150 years since the birth of the petroleum industry oil has saturated our culture, fueling our cars and wars, our economy and policies. But just as thoroughly, culture saturates oil. So what exactly is “oil culture”? This book pursues an answer through petrocapitalism’s history in literature, film, fine art, wartime propaganda, and museum displays. Investigating cultural discourses that have taken shape around oil, these essays compose the first sustained attempt to understand how petroleum has suffused the Western imagination. The contributors to this volume examine the oil culture nexus, beginning with the whale oil culture it replaced and analyzing literature and films such as Giant, Sundown, Bernardo Bertolucci’s La Via del Petrolio, and Ben Okri’s “What the Tapster Saw”; corporate art, museum installations, and contemporary photography; and in apocalyptic visions of environmental disaster and science fiction. By considering oil as both a natural resource and a trope, the authors show how oil’s dominance is part of culture rather than an economic or physical necessity. Oil Culture sees beyond oil capitalism to alternative modes of energy production and consumption. Contributors: Georgiana Banita, U of Bamberg; Frederick Buell, Queens College; Gerry Canavan, Marquette U; Melanie Doherty, Wesleyan College; Sarah Frohardt-Lane, Ripon College, Matthew T. Huber, Syracuse U; Dolly Jørgensen, Umeå U; Stephanie LeMenager, U of Oregon; Hanna Musiol, Northeastern U; Chad H. Parker, U of Louisiana at Lafayette; Ruth Salvaggio, U of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Heidi Scott, Florida International U; Imre Szeman, U of Alberta; Michael Watts, U of California, Berkeley; Jennifer Wenzel, Columbia University; Sheena Wilson, U of Alberta; Rochelle Raineri Zuck, U of Minnesota Duluth; Catherine Zuromskis, U of New Mexico.

Energy and Civilization

Energy and Civilization PDF Author: Vaclav Smil
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262536161
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 564

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Book Description
A comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society throughout history, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. "I wait for new Smil books the way some people wait for the next 'Star Wars' movie. In his latest book, Energy and Civilization: A History, he goes deep and broad to explain how innovations in humans' ability to turn energy into heat, light, and motion have been a driving force behind our cultural and economic progress over the past 10,000 years. —Bill Gates, Gates Notes, Best Books of the Year Energy is the only universal currency; it is necessary for getting anything done. The conversion of energy on Earth ranges from terra-forming forces of plate tectonics to cumulative erosive effects of raindrops. Life on Earth depends on the photosynthetic conversion of solar energy into plant biomass. Humans have come to rely on many more energy flows—ranging from fossil fuels to photovoltaic generation of electricity—for their civilized existence. In this monumental history, Vaclav Smil provides a comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. Humans are the only species that can systematically harness energies outside their bodies, using the power of their intellect and an enormous variety of artifacts—from the simplest tools to internal combustion engines and nuclear reactors. The epochal transition to fossil fuels affected everything: agriculture, industry, transportation, weapons, communication, economics, urbanization, quality of life, politics, and the environment. Smil describes humanity's energy eras in panoramic and interdisciplinary fashion, offering readers a magisterial overview. This book is an extensively updated and expanded version of Smil's Energy in World History (1994). Smil has incorporated an enormous amount of new material, reflecting the dramatic developments in energy studies over the last two decades and his own research over that time.

A Little Pot of Oil

A Little Pot of Oil PDF Author: Jill Briscoe
Publisher: Multnomah Books
ISBN: 1590522346
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 95

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Book Description
A guide for readers who believe that their resources are overextended explains how when we are most overwhelmed, God's greatest blessings are nearest, inviting Christians to open themselves to the empowerment of the Holy Spirit in times of stress.

Life in Oil

Life in Oil PDF Author: Michael L. Cepek
Publisher: University of Texas Press
ISBN: 147731508X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 303

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Book Description
Oil is one of the world’s most important commodities, but few people know how its extraction affects the residents of petroleum-producing regions. In the 1960s, the Texaco corporation discovered crude in the territory of Ecuador’s indigenous Cofán nation. Within a decade, Ecuador had become a member of OPEC, and the Cofán watched as their forests fell, their rivers ran black, and their bodies succumbed to new illnesses. In 1993, they became plaintiffs in a multibillion-dollar lawsuit that aims to compensate them for the losses they have suffered. Yet even in the midst of a tragic toxic disaster, the Cofán have refused to be destroyed. While seeking reparations for oil’s assault on their lives, they remain committed to the survival of their language, culture, and rainforest homeland. Life in Oil presents the compelling, nuanced story of how the Cofán manage to endure at the center of Ecuadorian petroleum extraction. Michael L. Cepek has lived and worked with Cofán people for more than twenty years. In this highly accessible book, he goes well beyond popular and academic accounts of their suffering to share the largely unknown stories that Cofán people themselves create—the ones they tell in their own language, in their own communities, and to one another and the few outsiders they know and trust. Their words reveal that life in oil is a form of slow, confusing violence for some of the earth’s most marginalized, yet resilient, inhabitants.