Peak Oil Survival: Preparation for Life After Gridcrash

by Aric McBay

Book Overview

Oil and energy are not the limitless resources they were once thought to be, and at some point in the foreseeable future, these supplies will run out. This book is the ultimate guide to planning for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1592281273
• ISBN13: 9781592281275
• Release Date: January 2006
• Publisher: Lyons Press
• Length: 102 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.1" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

a very good book for getting through infrastructure/grid disruptions

First, on peak oil I recommend the writings of Vaclav Smil. We won't run totally out of oil-the most likely scenario is short to medium term supply/price crisis. This is an excellent book for that temporary disruption or transition that peak oil fanatics say is just around the corner. This book is the best illustrated I have seen on the topics it covers. It is also short and to the point. Why read 200 pages when 100 will cover it? This book covers water collection and filtration, heating and lighting, cooking and food storage. The techniques and tools presented in this book are simple, cheap, relatively easy, and do not require a machine shop to make or do. Very few people will be prepared for some crises that will come down the pike; this book will help those people make do with what they have.

Very good book, but is it realistic?

The premise of this book is more or less that we can all go back living on our little farm, cooking with our solar oven, composting our waste, storing our food without a fridge, etc. What I like about this book is how it portrays Peak Oil not as a cataclysm but as an event that can be dealt with, given a bit of resourcefulness and patience. It is certainly the most constructive, uplifting book on the subject and stands in stark contrast to some of the fearmongering that abounds elsewhere. But is this approach realistic? Can we really "downsize" to a simpler lifestyle this painlessly? I guess the problem is ascertaining if Peak Oil will be apocalyptic or if it will lead us to a simpler, more bucolic, and probably even healthier lifestyle. Was industrial civilization just a phase that we will eventually outgrow to our benefit? It is difficult to say, but perhaps just the idea that this uncertain future is something that can be managed on an individual basis is reassuring in itself. And if you don't think this is what the future will hold for us, treat the book as a history lesson about what people used to be doing _before_ our current (and perhaps quite fragile) technological bonanza...

The Best Description I've Seen

There are two parts to this book. The first is the Introduction which is only 16 or so pages long. But in these pages is as good a summary of what's going on as I have ever seen. The opening sentence: 'We live in an age of converging crises.' I've never heard it put better. Global Warming, freshwater, fishing, destruction of topsoil, all are headed our way. Our politicians ignore it, they are much more concerned about a non-binding resolution about Iraq. I've likewise never seen the description of the inadequacy of renewables described as well in as few pages. The introduction alone is worth the price of the book. After that the book is on what it will take to survive after the 'Grid' crashes. No electricity, no fuel, no food. Here is how to process your own water, how to grow your food and cook it without using your gas/electric stove. What he doesn't mention is that without oil, and with a true grid crash, the population of the world has to go back down to what it was before oil, say about the year 1900. And the population then was perhaps 1/4 what it is now.

Scary, Practical, A "Best in Class" Book

There is an entire literatue on Peak Oil (now, 30 years too late). Of the seven or eight that I have read, this is the single best most sensible book. Easy to read, to "connects the dots" and makes it clear just how tough urban and surban survival is going to be--imagine Baghdad at home. The author has really knocked the ball out of the park with common sense. This is not a book that states the obvious as much as it is a book that really drives home the importance of obtaining water, treating water, creating latrines and making best use of gray water, keeping food cool, heating for fuel (with a dramatic savings achievable for short-term fuel use augmented by hot box "sitting"), and then ending with lighting and heat. The layout of the book is first-rate, the diagrams are superb and easy to understand, and the practical list of tools and supplies needed for sustainment survival is explicit, not over-stated, and just plain serious. Absolutely a great book and a serious contribution to the good of any community. Other books: Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage Blood and Oil: The Dangers and Consequences of America's Growing Dependency on Imported Petroleum The Party's Over: Oil, War And The Fate Of Industrial SocietiesResource Wars: The New Landscape of Global Conflict With a New Introduction by the Author The Long Emergency: Surviving the End of Oil, Climate Change, and Other Converging Catastrophes of the Twenty-First Century The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism Crossing the Rubicon: The Decline of the American Empire at the End of the Age of Oil The Soul of Capitalism: Opening Paths to a Moral Economy The Broken Branch: How Congress Is Failing America and How to Get It Back on Track (Institutions of American Democracy) Breach of Trust: How Washington Turns Outsiders Into Insiders

Necessary reading.

This is a great read and will scare your socks off. Full of very useful information and a necessary read for informed people. While we might all argue a bit about just when the end of oil will occur, we know it will, and we better all be prepared. What I'd like to hear more of, however, and what is lacking in print, is practical concrete plans for surviving the post oil collapse. I keep coming back to Jerome FitzGeralds "Sea-Steading" as the best example of an optimistic vision out there.