[I_Like_Plants]

ISBN 0-14-017660-8 got it used, Penguin softcover today, looks good, maybe "Tainter-lite" but still plenty in there.

Haven't read it yet, but it looks like a goodie, looks more worth grabbing if you have a chance than some of the lightweight books out there.

[qwanta]

I thought it was a good book too, read it some time ago...but nothing about peak oil though!

Another aspect of the book that is a little outdated is on the subject of climate variation...recent scientific advances - such as ice core analysis, and plant pollen deposits in sedimentary layers - have made it possible to reconstruct past climate variations in different regions. It is then possible to compare this data with the historical record, and interpolate the impact on human societies.
Clive Ponting tends to see the climate as pretty stable, but there are many things that make more sense against a backdrop of continuous climate variations.

For anyone interested in this kind of thing there is an excellent book on the subject by Robert Fagan called The Long Summer (2004)

[I_Like_Plants]

He does mention peak oil, just in passing, and also global climate and how humans are changing it.

I finished reading it, there's a LOT in there, I highly recommend this book! A lot of Peak Oil books make it sound like we were being nice to the planet say in the 1800s but this book points out that we were decidedly not. In fact, cases of really bad industrial pollution go back into the 1600s.

His overall point about how humans live on the planet are that our downfall was the shift from hunting/gathering to agriculture.

It was written in 1992 so the data cited goes up through the 80s and most only to the early 80s but it's a very good read. And you can get it used for a few bucks.

[Sophia]

In general, this is a nice book and the subject is attractive. But when I read it, it is not that enjoyable as I expected , if the readers want to know the world history in this aspect, then you choose the right book. However, there is too much blabla...and some parts, in some chapters, overlap. And some evidences are contradictory to each other. Too much complains and even a bit too radical toward the technological development. Besides, some of the figures are not convincable - how did the author calculate it in order to make that conclusion? And where are his references?

In addition, with regard to the environmental problems in the industrial countries and the Third World, some of his arguments confused me too.

But anyway, it worths reading, but not enough to make peeple convinced.