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Pfeiffer, Dale Allen: Eating Fossil Fuels: Oil, Food and the Coming Crisis in Agriculture
Book Number: 52666
New Society Publishers October 1, 2006 8vo softcover 125pp very good. The miracle of the Green Revolution was made possible by cheap fossil fuels to supply crops with artificial fertilizer, pesticides, and irrigation. Estimates of the net energy balance of agriculture in the United States show that ten calories of hydrocarbon energy are required to produce one calorie of food. Such an imbalance cannot continue in a world of diminishing hydrocarbon resources. Eating Fossil Fuels examines the interlinked crises of energy and agriculture and highlights some startling findings: • The worldwide expansion of agriculture has appropriated fully 40 percent of the photosynthetic capability of this planet. • The Green Revolution provided abundant food sources for many, resulting in a population explosion well in excess of the planet's carrying capacity. • Studies suggest that without fossil fuel-based agriculture, the United States could only sustain about two-thirds of its present population. For the planet as a whole, the sustainable number is estimated to be about two billion. Concluding that the effect of energy depletion will be disastrous without a transition to a sustainable, re-localized agriculture, the book draws on the experiences of North Korea and Cuba to demonstrate stories of failure and success in the transition to non-hydrocarbon-based agriculture. It urges strong grassroots activism for sustainable, localized agriculture and a natural shrinking of the world's population.nnAbout the AuthornDale Allen Pfeiffer is a novelist, freelance journalist and geologist who has been writing about energy depletion for a decade, building a reputation as a detailed but accessible science journalist.
Keywords: History American Eating Fossil Fuels Oil Food and the Coming Crisis in Agriculture Pfeiffer Dale Allen
Price: $12.00 |
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Kunstler, James Howard (Author, Afterword): The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century
Book Number: 52787
Grove Press March 2, 2006 8vo softcover 336pp very good. James Howard Kunstler's The Long Emergency was an underground hit, going into nine printings of the hardcover edition. His shocking vision for our post-oil future caught the attention of environmentalists and business leaders and was the subject of much debate, stimulating discussion about our dependence on fossil fuels. Now in paperback, with a new afterword, The Long Emergency is set to reach an even larger audience. The last two hundred years have seen the greatest explosion of progress and wealth in the history of mankind, much of it based on the exploitation of cheap, nonrenewable fossil-fuel energy. But the oil age is at an end. Life as we know it is about to change radically, and much sooner than we think. The Long Emergency tells us just what to expect after we pass the point of global peak oil production and the honeymoon of affordable energy is over, preparing us for economic, political, and social changes of an unimaginable scale. Riveting and authoritative, The Long Emergency is a devastating indictment that brings new urgency and accessibility to the critical issues that will shape our future, and that we can no longer afford to ignore.
Keywords: Politics/International Relations The Long Emergency Surviving the End of Oil Climate Change and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty First Century Kunstler James Howard (Author Afterword)
Price: $12.00 |
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Goodstein, David: Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil
Book Number: 52879
W. W. Norton & Company February 17, 2005 8vo softcover 144pp near fine. Science tells us that an oil crisis is inevitable. Why and when? And what will our future look like without our favorite fuel? Our rate of oil discovery has reached its peak and will never be exceeded; rather, it is certain to decline—perhaps rapidly—forever forward. Meanwhile, over the past century, we have developed lifestyles firmly rooted in the promise of an endless, cheap supply. In this book, David Goodstein, professor of physics at Caltech, explains the underlying scientific principles of the inevitable fossil fuel shortage we face. He outlines the drastic effects a fossil fuel shortage will bring down on us. And he shows that there is an important silver lining to the need to switch to other sources of energy, for when we have burned up all the available oil, the earth's climate will have moved toward a truly life-threatening state. With its easy-to-grasp explanations of the science behind every aspect of our most urgent environmental policy decisions, Out of Gas is a handbook for the future of civilization.
Keywords: Nature/Ecology Out of Gas The End of the Age of Oil Goodstein David
Price: $10.00 |
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Ajani, Judith: The Forest Wars
Book Number: 52943
MUP 2007 Trade paperback. Very good. 362pp. After four decades, the wars over Australia's forests continue to collect scalps and to make strange bedfellows of politicians. The forest debate played a role in ending the political careers of Paul Keating and Mark Latham, and led to the extraordinary instance of John Howard embracing the leaders of the CFMEU's Forestry Division in the lead-up to the 2004 election. And yet, as forest expert Judith Ajani contends, Australia is in the enviable position of being able to meet nearly all its wood needs from economically superior plantations. We have the potential to benefit fully from the value of native forests as carbon sinks, water catchments and wildlife habitat. There is no irreconciliable conflict between development and environment. So why do the major parties not have coherent forest policies? Ajani reveals that standing in the way are silenced plantation interests, failing bureaucracies, destructive union behaviour and government-created super-profits from native forest woodchipping. Forests will again play a major role in the 2007 federal election campaign. The Forest Wars explains why there is an urgent need to end the conflict, and shows us the way forward.
Keywords: Politics, renewable resources, wood chipping
Price: $18.00 |
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Attali, Jacques: A Brief History of the Future
Book Number: 53715
Allen and Unwin, 2009 8vo. softcover. 290pp. index. Very good.
Keywords: future history
Price: $15.00 |
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