An Overly Optimistic Approach to a Pessimistic Scenario

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	• Peak Oil Survival: Preparation for Life After Gridcrash Aric McBay The Lyons Press, 2006 - 128 pages average customer review:based on 13 reviews view larger image
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Grim reading

Not for sensitive souls. Recommended either for tough survivors or the profoundly un-imaginative, who will not loose sleep. I certainly did. Pick myself up and start moving. Let the die fall as it must.

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The work of Thomas Gold, comments of wildcatter HL Hunt, and the fact that trillions of gallons have been burning off for millions of years have left many of us doubting that oil is at all the product of decaying fossils viz., peak oil is not so. That said, this book is an excellent source for surviving without fuel, electricity and running water. Compact and well-illustrated, as good as any Army survival manual I've read.

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An Overly Optimistic Approach to a Pessimistic Scenario

McBay foresees converging crises (depletion of freshwater supplies, devastation of fish in the oceans, destruction of topsoil, and global warming - combined with the end of cheap oil) perhaps as early as 2010. "Peak Oil Survival" provides a number of hopefully practical approaches to then obtain and treat water, dispose human waste, keep food cool, etc.

Unfortunately, the "flies in the ointment" are not addressed - the earth cannot support anywhere near its current population without the availability of cheap energy, nor would civil order long be maintained in the face of disruption such as McBay envisions (look at New Orleans after Katrina). Thus, while McBay's approaches may be valid in theory, we need to focus more on resource conservation and developing alternative energy sources.

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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...

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Peak Oil Survival

As an introduction to some new (to consumer) concepts, this book is decent enough. There are many other books that delve into each of the subject areas with the necessary information to utilize the concept. If you can only buy one book on the subject, skip this one. If you already have many books on the subject you probably won't need this one. This one will "peak" a newcomer's interest and covers more ground than other survival intro books.

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