PEAK OIL BOOKS

This page features all the best peak oil books as well as books about the politics of peak oil, alternative energy sources as they relate to peak oil/peak energy, and general books about energy that would be of interest to those interested in peak oil.

World Made by Hand   (by James Howard Kunstler)

James Howard Kunstler's novel World Made By Hand places us a couple of decades into the future, when today's globalized high-energy techno-industrialism is gone, replaced by a hyper-local, low-energy, low-tech existence—an uninvited, unwanted change borne of natural limits, pandemic losses of life, and the general ineptitude of today's leaders. Weather or not you're a Peak Oiler, World Made By Hand is a good book to try—it shows just how much things would change in a world without global supply chains keeping stores stocked using just-it-time delivery systems. Read full GP review of review of World Made By Hand.

Peak Everything

Waking Up to the Century of Declines   (by Richard Heinberg)

The 20th century saw unprecedented growth in energy availability, food production, and population. The 21st century will be the era of declines—in oil, natural gas, and coal availability; in critical minerals and ores, such as copper and platinum; in fresh water availability and grain harvests; in climate stability; in economic growth; and, ultimately, in global population. To adapt to this profoundly different world, we must begin now to make radical changes to our attitudes, behaviors, and expectations. A combination of wry commentary and sober forecasting on subjects as diverse as farming and industrial design, this book tells how we might make the transition from The Age of Excess to the Era of Modesty with grace and satisfaction, while preserving the best of our collective achievements.

The Last Oil Shock   (by David Strahan)

A Survival Guide to the Imminent Extinction of Petroleum Man

Draining the lifeblood of industrial civilization, the terminal decline of oil and natural-gas production will spark a crisis far more dangerous than international terrorism, and just as urgent as climate change. World leaders know it, so why aren't they telling? The last oil shock is the secret behind the crises in Iraq and Iran, the reason your gas bill is going through the roof, the basis of a secret deal cooked up in Texas between George Bush and Tony Blair, and the cause of an imminent and unprecedented economic collapse. David Strahan explains how we reached this critical state, how the silence of governments, oil companies and environmentalists conspires to keep the public in the dark, what it means for energy policy, and what you can do to protect yourself and your family from the ravages of the last oil shock.

Untapped   The Scramble for Africa's Oil

With crude oil supplies tightening and prices skyrocketing, Africa has become the scene of a competition between major powers that recalls the nineteenth-century scramble for colonization there. Already the United States imports more of its oil from Africa than from Saudi Arabia; and China, too, looks to the continent for its energy security. John Ghazvinian explains what this giddy new oil boom means—for America, for the world, and for Africans themselves. (by John Ghazvinian)

Eating Fossil Fuels   Oil, Food, and the Coming Crisis in Agriculture

For decades now, cheap fossil fuels have increased crop yields by providing artificial fertilizer, pesticides, irrigation, and mechanization. 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. The book explores the problem and urges a transition to a sustainable, re-localized agriculture plus adoption of measures to address overpopulation. (by Dale Allen Pfeiffer)

The Oil Depletion Protocol   (by Richard Heinberg)

A Plan to Avert Oil Wars, Terrorism, and Economic Collapse

Since oil is the primary fuel of global industrial civilization, its imminent depletion is a problem that will have a profound impact on every aspect of modern life. Without international agreement on how to manage the decline of this vital resource, the world faces unprecedented risk of conflict and collapse. The Oil Depletion Protocol proposes a unique accord whereby nations would voluntarily reduce their oil production and oil imports according to a consistent, sensible formula, enabling our energy transition to be planned and managed over the long term.

The End of Fossil Energy and the Last Chance for Survival

This book is a concise overview of the critical dilemma facing modern civilization as the world depletes the remaining geological inventory of finite fossil-fueled energy. The few possible honest and realistic solutions are discussed, as are today's diversionary dead-ends, which are wasting critical time and encouraging continued consumption at unsustainable levels. (by John G. Howe)

A Thousand Barrels a Second   The Coming Oil Break Point and the Challenges Facing an Energy Dependent World   (by Peter Tertzakian)

In 2005, world oil consumption for the first time reached 1,000 barrels per second. In this book, Peter Tertzakian explains the issues behind the world's striking dependence on oil, explores the ramifications of this insatiable consumption for developed nations and emerging powers alike, and predicts the most likely scenarios arising out of the volatile struggle between supply and demand.

The Empty Tank   (by Jeremy K. Leggett)

Oil, Gas, Hot Air, and the Coming Global Financial Catastrophe

The inhabitants on planet earth are about to be caught between the twin hammers of peak oil and global warming, with coming global turmoil being the result. Leggett outlines the corporate/government cover-up that masks the problem, details the true status of our oil reserves, and proposes a new Manhattan Project for energy that can save us.

Oil Crisis   (by Colin J. Campbell)

Why has oil tripled in price—with Goldman-Sachs predicting more than $100 a barrel soon? Why has Shell repeatedly re-stated its oil reserves? Why did America invade Iraq, and why is central Asia in turmoil? It's because there is an oil CRISIS. Colin Campbell, the grand old man of oil-depletion studies, describes the crisis and explains why enthusiasm for renewables and hydrogen will be seen as the false promises they are when the wells start running dry.

Twilight in the Desert   (by Matthew R. Simmons)

The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy

Twilight in the Desert reveals a Saudi oil and production industry that could soon approach a serious, irreversible decline. And when Saudi oil peaks, so will world oil. In this exhaustively researched book, veteran oil industry analyst Matthew Simmons uncovers the story about the Saudi's troubled oil industry—not to mention Saudi Arabia's political and societal instability—which differs sharply from the globally accepted Saudi version.

The Party’s Over   (by Richard Heinberg)

Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies

The world is about to run out of cheap oil. Even if we begin to switch to alternative energy sources, we will have less net energy each year to do all the work essential to the survival of a complex society. The Party's Over puts this momentous transition in historical context and outlines the drastic change we are about to undergo. (Revised edition, 2005)

Petrodollar Warfare: Oil, Iraq and the Future of the Dollar

Petrodollar Warfare argues that the US war that began in Iraq in 2003 was not a response to terrorism or weapons of mass destruction but rather was precipitated by the imminent peak in global oil production and the ascendance of the euro currency. Iraq had started doing oil transactions in euros—rather than US dollars—and the Bush administration wanted to prevent further OPEC momentum towards the euro. The author warns that without changing course, the American experiment will end the way all empires end—with military overextension and subsequent economic decline. (by William R. Clark)

The Collapsing Bubble   Growth And Fossil Energy

Contending that the energy debate should not be framed as "What energy sources will be available to replace fossil fuels?" but rather as "What population can be supported at a decent standard by the energy sources that will be available after the transition from fossil fuels?" Grant argues that we can create a more harmonious balance with the rest of the biosphere—but at much lower population levels with less consumptive habits. (Lindsey Grant)

The Long Emergency   (by James Howard Kunstler)

Surviving the Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century

The depletion of nonrenewable fossil fuels is about to radically change life as we know it, and much sooner than we think. The Long Emergency tells us just what to expect after the honeymoon of affordable energy is over, preparing us for economic, political, and social changes of an unimaginable scale. The Long Emergency brings new urgency to the critical issues that will shape our future.

The Final Energy Crisis   (by multiple authors; A. McKillop, editor)

A cadre of international experts contributed to this book to provide a truly global perspective on the dangers inherent in our over-consumption of oil, gas and coal. Without fossil fuels, mass-produced food and clothing, international travel, cars, and many more things become rare or impossible. The authors provide details of the problem for a variety of countries, including the US and China, as well as those in Europe and the developing world.

Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak

Beyond our primary oil supply, what fuels and energy technologies will be available to meet rising global energy demands and counterbalance depleting oil supplies? Deffeyes, a geologist who was among the first to warn of the coming oil crisis, reviews the potential for natural gas, coal, tar sands, heavy oils, oil shale, uranium, hydrogen, conservation, diesel, wind-generated electricity, and more. (by Kenneth S. Deffeyes)

Over a Barrel: A Simple Guide to the Oil Shortage

Over a Barrel provides a balanced and factual picture of the medium-to-long range role of oil in supplying the world's energy needs, as well as an understanding of the many technical and social implications of the alternatives to oil. Suggestions are given for actions the reader can take to support R&D efforts and fuel conservation to extend the time we have to accomplish the identification and building of industries for alternatives to oil. (by Tom Mast)

Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World

If the US continues with current policies, the next decades will be marked by war, economic collapse, and environmental catastrophe. Resource depletion and population pressures are about to catch up with us, and no one is prepared. The alternative is to "powerdown," a strategy that envisions lower per-capita resource usage in wealthy countries, more alternative energy, and a humane but systematic lowering of human population over time. Change is coming; can we manage it sanely? (by Richard Heinberg)

When Technology Fails

A Manual for Self-Reliance and Planetary Survival   (by Matthew Stein)

When Technology Fails provides information that will help the average person become more self-reliant, outlining survival strategies for dealing with changes that affect food, water, shelter, energy, health, communications, and essential goods and services. In an era of super-storms, burgeoning population, massive earth-quakes, global warming, and record-breaking floods and droughts, more and more people are seeking to prepare themselves to deal with the difficult times that may lie ahead.

Peak Oil Survival   Preparation for Life After Gridcrash

Oil and energy are not limitless resources, and someday the supply will be depleted. Peak Oil Survival shows readers how to plan for the future: how to survive and thrive when the food, transport, and energy industries sputter out. Aric McBay gives an essential crash course, complete with instructions easy-to-read and diagrams. Learn how you can protect your family and strengthen your community in advance of the crisis—and live comfortably off the grid. (by Aric McBay)

Emergency Food Storage & Survival Handbook

Everything You Need to Know to Keep Your Family Safe in a Crisis

Do you have a plan in the event that your power, telephone, water and food supply are cut off during a relatively short-term emergency? What about for an extended amount of time? How prepared are you? With this guide by your side, you and your family will learn how to plan, purchase, and store a three-month supply of all the necessities—food, water, fuel, first-aid supplies, clothing, bedding, and more—simply and economically. (by Peggy Layton)

Storey's Basic Country Skills

A Practical Guide to Self-Reliance   (by John and Martha Storey)

This is the book for anyone who wants to become more self-reliant, from suburbanites with 1/4 of an acre to country homesteaders with several. The information is easily understood and readily applicable. More than 150 of Storey's expert authors in gardening, building, animal raising, and homesteading share their specialized knowledge and experience in this ultimate guide to living a more independent, satisfying life.

Food Not Lawns   (by Heather C. Flores)

Turn Your Yard into a Garden And Your Neighborhood into a Community

Activist and urban gardener Heather Flores shares her nine-step permaculture design to help farmsteaders and city dwellers alike build fertile soil, promote biodiversity, and increase natural habitat in their own "paradise gardens." This joyful permaculture lifestyle manual inspires readers to apply the principles of the paradise garden—simplicity, resourcefulness, creativity, mindfulness, and community—to all aspects of life. Flores shows us how to reclaim the earth one garden at a time.

The Post-Petroleum Survival Guide and Cookbook

Recipes for Changing Times   (by Albert Bates)

Over the coming years, we will necessarily move from a globalized culture that is addicted to cheap, abundant petroleum and material goods to a culture of greater austerity, conservation, and localization. This book provides practical advice for preparing your family and community to make the transition. Topics covered include: water supply and waste disposal; energy and transportation; equipment and tools; first aid; food storage; and recipes using basic, wholesome foods.

Gardening When It Counts

Growing Food in Hard Times   (by Steve Solomon)

In hard times, families can be greatly helped by growing a highly productive food garden. Gardening When It Counts helps readers rediscover traditional low-input gardening methods to produce healthy food, showing how a family can halve their food costs using a growing system requiring just an occasional bucketful of water, a couple hundred dollars worth of hand tools, and about the same amount spent on supplies, working just an average of two hours a day during the growing season.

Seed to Seed   (by Suzanne Ashworth)

Seed Saving and Growing Techniques for Vegetable Gardeners

Seed to Seed is a complete seed-saving guide that describes specific techniques for saving the seeds of 160 different vegetables. This book contains detailed information about siting plants, plant population sizes, isolation distances, pollination, and proper methods for harvesting, drying, cleaning, and storing the seeds of each variety. Seed to Seed is widely acknowledged as the best guide available for home gardeners to learn effective ways to produce and store seeds on a small scale.

The Backyard Orchardist   (by Stella Otto)

A Complete Guide to Growing Fruit Trees in the Home Garden

This book is for every gardener desiring to add apples, pears, cherries, and other 'tree fruit' to their landscape. Written by a professional horticulturist and experienced fruit grower, and tips on harvesting and storing fruit. Those with limited space will learn about growing dwarf fruit trees in containers. Appendices include a fruit-growers monthly calendar, a trouble-shooting guide for reviving ailing trees, and a resource list of nurseries selling fruit trees.

The Backyard Berry Book   A Hands-On Guide to Growing Berries, Brambles, and Vine Fruit in the Home Garden   (by Stella Otto)

Stella Otto explains how to raise lush crops of berries, with pointers on soil nutrition, plant nutrients and mulching that will make your home-grown berries the envy of folks who have only seen berries in containers at the supermarket.

The Solar Food Dryer   How to Make and Use Your Own High-Performance, Sun-Powered Food Dehydrator   (by Eben Fodor)

The Solar Food Dryer describes how to dry your food using solar energy instead of costly electricity. With your own solar-powered food dryer, you can quickly and efficiently dry all your extra garden veggies, fruits, and herbs to preserve their goodness all year long. Includes basic concepts of solar energy design; complete step-by step plans for building a high-performance, low-cost solar food dryer from readily-available materials; food drying tips and recipes; resources, references, solar charts, and more.

Backyard Market Gardening

The Entrepreneur's Guide to Selling What You Grow   (by Andrew W. Lee)

Discover how easy and profitable it is to grow and sell vegetables, fruits, flowers, herbs, and small livestock from your own backyard garden. Learn how to earn top dollar, with minimum effort and maximum profits; buy or build tools that speed your work and increase profits; enjoy a guaranteed salary from community supported agriculture or a membership garden. Though written in 1992, this book remains a very useful guide today.

Internal Combustion

How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives   (by Edwin Black)

Internal Combustion is the compelling tale of the corruption and manipulation that has subjected the United States and the world to an oil addiction that could have been avoided. It traces a continuum of rapacious energy cartels and special interests throughout history that killed electric vehicles a century ago and the mass transit systems in dozens of cities half a century later. The book further lays out how special interests have subverted synthetic fuels and other alternatives, showcasing overlooked compressed-gas, electric, and hydrogen cars on the market today.

The Secret History of the American Empire   (by John Perkins)

Economic Hit Men, Jackals, and the Truth about Global Corruption

In his stunning memoir, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, John Perkins detailed his former role as an “economic hit man” in the international corporate skullduggery of a de facto American Empire. Now, in The Secret History of the American Empire, Perkins zeroes in on hot spots around the world and, drawing on interviews with other hit men, jackals, reporters, and activists, examines the current geopolitical crisis. Instability is the norm—the world we’ve created is dangerous and no longer sustainable. How did we get here? Who’s responsible?

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man   (by John Perkins)

"Economic hit men," John Perkins writes, "are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder. They play a game as old as Empire but one that has taken on terrifying dimensions during this time of globalization." John Perkins should know—he was an economic hit man. Get the inside story on the greed, corruption, and little-known government and corporate activities that America has been involved in since World War II—and which have dire consequences for the future of democracy and the world.

Collapse

How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed   (by Jared Diamond)

What caused some of the great civilizations of the past to collapse into ruin? Moving from the Polynesian cultures on Easter Island to the flourishing American civilizations of the Anasazi and the Maya, and finally to the doomed Viking colony on Greenland, Diamond traces the fundamental pattern of catastrophe. How can our modern civilization avoid the same fate?

Crossing the Rubicon   (by Michael C. Ruppert)

The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil

REVIEW: Michael Ruppert makes a compelling case that peak oil is the beginning of the end for our industrial civilization and is driving the elites of American power to implement unthinkably draconian measures of repression, warfare, and population control. Though the fuse to Ruppert's argument is peak oil, the dynamite is the assertion (and wealth of evidence) that the war in Iraq—and even the attacks of 9/11—have been orchestrated by the neocon power players in the US to maintain access to the one thing that ensures their continued political control and wealth—oil. Though overly detailed at times, this is a powerful book, and it will forever change your view of "how things really work."

Blood and Oil   The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Petroleum Dependency   (by Michael T. Klare)

America's oil wells are drying up, even as our demand increases. By 2010, the United States will need to import 60% of its oil, mostly from chronically unstable, often violently anti-American zones such as the Persian Gulf. Blood and Oil delineates the United States' predicament and cautions that it is time to change our energy policies, before we spend the next decades paying for oil with blood.

Oil, Jihad and Destiny   (by Ronald R. Cooke)

Will Declining Oil Production Plunge Our Planet into a Depression?

World oil is transitioning from a market driven by consumer demand to one limited by producer capacity. The approaching oil crisis will impact the economic and cultural health of every nation. This research report examines oil reserves and production as well as cultural challenges in the Middle East. It explores four alternative oil depletion scenarios and outlines a proposed course of action to enable a "soft landing."

Empire of Debt   The Rise Of An Epic Financial Crisis

Empire of Debt confronts critical concerns about the position of the US as the world's leading economic and military power. But the US has quickly descended from being the world's largest creditor to its greatest debtor. The authors argue there will be a dramatic change in the economic power of the United States in the coming years that will inevitably impact every American. (by Bill Bonner, Addison Wiggin)

The Hype About Hydrogen   (by Joseph J. Romm)

Fact and Fiction in the Race to Save the Climate

A decade from now, will we be pulling into the local filling station to tank up with hydrogen fuel? Will we all be breathing super-clean air because our cars' exhaust will be just water? Not so fast, says Joseph Romm. Hydrogen technology has at least two decades of development time in front of it. Find out how we should be addressing our energy and pollution problems in the meantime.

High Noon for Natural Gas   The New Energy Crisis

Blackouts, rising gas prices, changes to the Clean Air Act, proposals to open wilderness to gas drilling—all are tied to our increasing dependence on natural gas for electricity generation. High Noon For Natural Gas discusses why this dependence has the potential to cause serious environmental, political, and economic consequences in the near future. (by Julian Darley)

Boomtown Blues: Colorado Oil Shale   (by Andrew Gulliford)

This book examines the remarkable 100-year history of oil shale development and chronicles the social, environmental, and financial havoc created by the industry's continual cycles of boom and bust.

Crude: The Story of Oil   (by Sonia Shah)

Crude is the unexpurgated story of oil, from the circumstances of its birth millions of years ago to the spectacle of its rise as the indispensable ingredient of modern life. It fuels our SUVs, paves our roads, and makes plastics possible. The modern world is drenched in oil. Crude explores how it came to be, as well as the great human drama of it—innovation, risk, riches, and greed.

Easy Ways To Save Gas & Save Money   (by Mel Leiding)

How To Fight High Gas Prices

There are many ways to get more driving miles out of that pricey petroleum product we pump into our tanks every week, and this book has them all. The author claims that by following his suggestions, you'll be able to get at least 30% better gas mileage than an average driver. (by Mel Leiding)

The End of Oil   (by Paul Roberts)

Petroleum is now so deeply entrenched in our economy, our politics, and our personal expectations that even modest efforts to phase it out are fought tooth and nail by companies and governments that depend on oil revenues, by developing nations that see oil as the only means to industrial success, and by a Western middle class that refuses to modify its energy-dependent lifestyle. How to break our addiction to oil? Answers within...

Out of Gas: The End of the Age of Oil   (by David Goodstein)

This book 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 another important reason to switch to other sources of energy: If we insist on burning up all of the available oil, the earth's climate will have moved toward a truly life-threatening state.

The Oil Factor   (by Stephen and Donna Leeb)

How Oil Controls the Economy and Your Financial Future

We need to worry about our energy future, but we also need to worry about our financial futures. This book combines the two notions, offering general investment advice based on the authors' analysis that an oil crisis is coming and that it will mean trouble for many stocks.

The Carbon War

Global Warming and the End of the Oil Era

Written by a former petroleum geologist; explains global warming and its impacts; recounts efforts by the fossil-fuel industries to stall and dilute government action on climate change. (by Jeremy K. Leggett, Jan-2001)

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