Free E-Book: The Oil Age is Over

October 5, 2004

NOTE: Images in this archived article have been removed.

Matt Savinar of the website www.lifeaftertheoilcrash.net has made his book, The Oil Age is Over available for free download between now and the US presidential elections.

He writes:

October 5, 2004

3:30 PM, Pacific Time

Dear Reader,
If you check this site on a regular basis, in addition to any of the other fine Peak Oil related sites on the net, I don’t need to tell you how crucially important the next month is. So for the next month I am making The Oil Age is Over: What to Expect as the World Runs Out of Cheap Oil, 2005-2050 available in PDF format for free.
First, a note on the softcovers:
This morning I sent the final edition of my book to the printers via overnight mail. I originally sent the manuscript to the printers on September 10th. In the past three weeks I have uncovered several errors/omissions that I could not let go to print. So I canceled the order, revised the manuscript and have submitted a corrected copy.
I will have between 750-1250 softcover copies available in about 4-6 weeks. I’ve placed an order for 750 copies, but if I am financially able to do so I will ask for an additional 500. The printing turnaround time is 4-5 weeks plus a week for them to ship to me. If I have the resources to do so I will request faster shipping as the ship date approaches.
If you have preordered an edition, you will be receiving an email from me over the next few days explaining the delay, offering you a refund if you feel the delay is unreasonable, etc. . .  I have about 300-400 preorders to go through one-by-one. As I work unassisted it is going to take me a few days to get through them.
Back to the the next 30 days:
I am under no illusion that Kerry is fundamentally better than Bush or vice-versa. The importance of the next month is not so much who wins but that we try to get the candidates to mention the term, “Peak Oil.”
That alone would be a huge accomplishment.
For this reason I am making PDF versions of my book available free of charge until the election. The download links are below.
The files below are of what are called “press ready interior pages.” What you see when you print them out is exactly what you will see in the softcover edition with the exception the file below contains about half a dozen spelling/spacing errors. I’ll get the final file up eventually but I have to borrow a car, head down to Kinkos to convert the file, etc. So it will be a few days.
I give you full permission for the next month – from 10/5/2004 to 11/2/2004 – to print out as many copies as you want for educational and non-profit purposes only. This means you can ignore the copyright notice in the book until 11/2/2004. I ask that you not post the file to any file-sharing networks.
Now here’s the thing: my sole source of income (energy) since taking up this work has been sales of my book. I’ve earned enough to pay the rent and make somewhat of an inroads on my school loans, but not much else. I have no car, no furniture, etc . . . Without book sales, this whole project comes to an end.
People often email to ask, “Matt – this information is so important, why don’t you give it away for free?”
I usually respond by explaining to them that they need to understand “financial sustainability.” You can’t work 60 plus hours a week and not recieve compensation for it or pretty soon you won’t be able to do the work in which case nobody’s interests are served! So it’s either charge for the book (or for something else) or let the project die.
What this means is I am taking a huge risk by giving the whole thing away for free. The experiment will work only if about 1 out of 100 people make a contribution or preorder a copy of the print edition.
Thus, I ask that if you download a copy and find it useful you either preorder a copy of the secon edition or make whatever contribution you are able to make. You can make contributions in $10.00 increments via paypal by clicking the link below:
Good luck and let’s see if we can get either of the candidates to say the words “Peak Oil.”

Sincerely,

Matt Savinar

Contribute Via Paypal
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If the above links don’t work, it might be because so many people are downloading at once. Give the following ones a try:


Tags: Fossil Fuels, Oil