The end of oil : on the edge of a perilous new world

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Where to find it

Davis Library (6th floor)

Call Number
HD9650.6 .R63 2004 c. 2
Status
Available

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Summary

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 the most powerful forces in the world: companies and governments that depend on oil revenues; the developing nations that see oil as the only means to industrial success; and a Western middle class that refuses to modify its energy-dependent lifestyle. But within thirty years, by even conservative estimates, we will have burned our way through most of the oil that is easily accessible. And well before then, the side effects of an oil-based society -- economic volatility, geopolitical conflict, and the climate-changing impact of hydrocarbon pollution -- will render fossil fuels an all but unacceptable solution. How will we break our addiction to oil? And what will we use in its place to maintain a global economy and political system that are entirely reliant on cheap, readily available energy?
Brilliantly reported from around the globe, The End of Oil brings the world situation into fresh and dramatic focus for business and general readers alike. Roberts talks to both oil optimists and oil pessimists, delves deep into the economics and politics of oil, considers the promises and pitfalls of alternatives, and shows that, although the world energy system has begun its epoch-defining transition, disruption and violent dislocation are almost assured if we do not take a more proactive stance. With the topicality and readability of Fast Food Nation and the scope and trenchant analysis of Guns, Germs, and Steel, this is a vitally important book for the new century.

Contents

  • Prologue p. 1
  • Part I The Free Ride
  • 1 Lighting the Fire p. 21
  • 2 The Last of the Easy Oil p. 44
  • 3 The Future's So Bright p. 66
  • 4 Energy Is Power p. 91
  • 5 Too Hot p. 116
  • Part II On the Road to Nowhere
  • 6 Give the People What They Want p. 143
  • 7 Big Oil Gets Anxious p. 165
  • 8 And Now for Something Completely Different p. 188
  • 9 Less Is More p. 213
  • Part III Into the Blue
  • 10 Energy Security p. 237
  • 11 The Invisible Hand p. 259
  • 12 Digging In Our Heels p. 281
  • 13 How Do We Get There? p. 307
  • Notes p. 335
  • Bibliography p. 350
  • Acknowledgments p. 359
  • Index p. 361

Sample chapter

Prologue I was standing on a sand dune in Saudi Arabias "Empty Quarter," the vast, rust-red desert where one-quarter of the worlds oil is found, when I lost my faith in the modern energy economy. It was after sundown and the sky was dark blue and the sand still warm to the touch. My Saudi hosts had just finished showing me around the colossal oil city theyd built atop an oil field called Shayba. Engineers and technicians, they were rattling off production statistics with all the bravado of proud parents, telling me how many hundreds of thousands of barrels Shayba produced every day, and how light and sweet and sought-after the oil was. Saudi oilmen are usually a taciturn bunch, guarding their data like state secrets. But this was post 9/11 and Riyadh, in full glasnost mode, was wooing Western journalists and trying to restore the Saudis image as dependable long-term suppliers of energy -not suicidal fanatics or terrorist financiers. And it was working. Id arrived in the kingdom filled with doubts about a global energy order based on a finite and problematic substance-oil. As wed toured Shayba in a spotless white GMC Yukon, though, my hosts plying me with facts and figures on the worlds most powerful oil enterprise, my worries faded. Id begun to feel giddy and smug, as if I had been allowed to peek into the garden of the energy gods and found it overflowing with bounty.Then the illusion slipped. On a whim, I asked my hosts about another, older oil field, some three hundred miles to the northwest, called Ghawar. Ghawar is the largest field ever discovered. Tapped by American engineers in 1953, its deep sandstone reservoirs at one time had held perhaps a seventh of the worlds known oil reserves, and its wells produced six million barrels of oil a day-or roughly one of every twelve barrels of crude consumed on earth. In the iconography of oil, Ghawar is the eternal mother, the mythical giant that makes most other fields look puny and mortal. My hosts smiled politely, yet looked faintly annoyed-not, it seemed, because I was asking inappropriate questions, but because, probably for the thousandth time, Ghawar had stolen the limelight. Like engineers anywhere, these men took an intense pride in their own work and could not resist a few jabs at a rival operation. Pointing to the sand at our feet, one engineer boasted that Shayba was "self-pressurized"-its subterranean reservoirs were under such great natural pressure that, once they were pierced by the drill, the oil simply flowed out like a black fountain. "At Ghawar," he said, "they have to inject water into the field to force the oil out." By contrast, he continued, Shaybas oil contained only trace amounts of water. At Ghawar, the engineer said, the "water cut" was 30 percent.The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. Ghawars water injections were hardly news, but a 30 percent water cut, if true, was startling. Most new oil fields produce almost pure oil, or oil mixed with natur Excerpted from The End of Oil: On the Edge of a Perilous New World by Paul Roberts All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.

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