Confronting Collapse: The Crisis of Energy & Money in a Post Peak Oil World [Paperback]

You do not read an article or book by Micheal C. Ruppert & dismiss it easily. There is a lot of unnerving information to digest in this book. He has a track record of getting it right & that being so, we should be banging pots & pans until more people in power get it - that oil is running out while the West (& now the emerging Eastern economies) is rapidly using up the planets resources in the name of growth. Meanwhile world population is out of control & everybody wants what the US has had for decades - mass consumerism! Are alternative fuels a panacea or just giving us false hope? Can we hope for future mass transportation in the light of rapidly dwindling crude oil? No.

Read this book & start preparing for the localized economy as they have been forced to do in Cuba. I couldn't put it down & neither will you!

I enjoyed this book, and believe it is an important addition to the rapidly growing body of literature on the subject of Peak Oil and the current energy crisis. The author seems to me to be honest, independently-minded and politically-aware (although thankfully not party political), and is clearly passionate about his subject, sometimes to the point of hysteria. The first few chapters are quite short, which adds to the feeling of breathlessness, and suffers from a problem shared by other books on this subject in that events are happening so quickly that the book can feel out-of-date very quickly - although the author's journalistic style does manage to cope with this.

The author does a fine job of describing the schizophrenic, Alice-in-Wonderland reality of the oil economy, its non-linearity, its paradoxes, with price spikes leading to `unconventional' oil becoming economic but also leading to irreversible demand destruction and to price collapse, leading to supply contraction, leading to ... well, who knows how the cycle will be broken?

The book provides excellent examples of how the numbers bandied around by various governments and corporations simply do not add up - all of which can be found elsewhere, but when collected together make a very powerful argument. The role of the media in helping these organizations hide the truth is also well illustrated, and quite shocking even to those like me who have already very low expectations of the mass media.

The chapters on the role of fossil fuels in food production are the bleakest of all. The `meat' of Chapter 8 is an article by Dale Allen Pfeiffer which paints a stark picture for the future for this industry, and only those with a vested interest will be able to claim that "business as usual" is still an option. If you don't buy this book, it might still be a good idea to find this important article on the net.

I should mention a few (relatively minor) criticisms I have of this book. First of all, the chapters devoted to Renewable Energy are quite insubstantial, albeit pretty scathing, and only seems to be repeating what others have said better, more constructively, and in more detail elsewhere (see, for instance, David JC MacKay's "Sustainable Energy - without the hot air"). By the time we get to the chapter on the modern monetary system, the author does begin to sound unhinged, when a more grounded, subtle critique of the fractional reserve banking system and the concept of fiat currency, and more pertinently its link to energy, would have served a better purpose. The author's dalliance with various conspiracy theories is entertaining but might overshadow some of the more important points that the book is trying to make. Finally, although the author begins by at least attempting to be inclusive, by the end of the book it is clear that the author's viewpoint is very much US-centric, culminating in the "25-Point Programme for Action" which is directed almost entirely to the government and population of the USA.

All in all, I enjoyed reading this book, which generally benefitted from the authors passionate style, and would recommend it to anyone interested in Peak Oil, the future of our energy system and the complex links between energy and the financial system that we currently rely on.

I can not explain as well as Mike Ruppert can on this subject, but it was the most amazing book I have ever read, period.

This book explains how "Peak-Oil" is the biggest present danger to our global civilisation that mankind has ever faced.

What happens when we start to run out of the stuff (oil)? Which we all take for granted every day.

From reading this book you will come to understand how totally blind and unprepared we all are as a species from dealing with this threat, and the only way to save ourselves, is to learn and adapt. This cannot happen if you are living in ignorance about the subject.

So whether you are a believer, or not, in "Peak-Oil", or even if you have no clue as to what it is... Read this book. I guarantee you that it will change your life and your mind for the better.