New Book: Powerdown by Richard Heinberg

July 30, 2004

David Room of the Post Carbon Institute writes:

We just got our shipment of Richard Heinberg’s latest book, Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World in yesterday. I had been anticipating it for several days as we received quite few advance orders and I was looking forward to reading it myself. Last night, I was up reading to 4am.

Powerdown is a brilliant analysis of the options available to a civilization facing resource depletion, biosphere collapse, and financial insolvency. Differentiating his book from the slew of peak oil books that have recently appeared on shelves, he makes a cogent, impassioned proposal for a strategy of self limitation, sharing, and cooperation while preparing for the possibility of collapse. I file Powerdown in the must read category for the “walking worried” – that is, anyone concerned about what is happening and wondering what can be done to avert worst case scenarios.

Julian Darley (Post Carbon Institute) writes:

Powerdown is the only sane response to the world’s increasingly grave problems of energy depletion, environmental degradation, and over-population. Richard Heinberg truly understands the nature, scale, and urgency of our global situation. As we briefly rest on the plateau of world oil production peak, Heinberg first outlines the possible unpleasant paths our society may take through energy decline. He then makes it devastatingly clear that a humane post-carbon future depends on urging our governments to powerdown, while we start to relocalise our economies and build community lifeboats.

I suggest you buy the book from your local independent bookstore; I’d call first to see if they have it. If they do not have it, ask them to order some copies whether you intend to wait on them or not – someone else will be happy to find them in stock; tell the store you’ve heard it is an excellent book. If you don’t want to wait and you appreciate the work we are doing, please pick it up from our site: store.postcarbon.org. You can also get it from his publisher, New Society.


Tags: Fossil Fuels, Oil