[deconstructionist]

A broad look at the oil industry, from the beginning of the formation of hydrocarbons to speculation about the impending endpoint... This book is not about Peak Oil, though it does devote a chapter or so to discussing it. Shah begins by describing how oil is formed and gives a very basic bio-geology lesson. She then goes into the history of oil's uses and the practices of the companies who have profited from the exploitation of petrolium. Much of the book is spent exposing the unthinkably horrible practices of global oil companies--both politically (take Nigeria for example) and operationally (FPSO disisters and lack of oil tanker regulations). She also gives pretty clear evidence that the current war in Iraq is about oil and nothing else by telling the little-known story of the Caspian Sea debacle.

Again, this book is not an over-the-top Peak Oil diatribe, which makes it more accesible and I think very useful in disseminating important information without scaring people with the doomsday approach of a lot of other texts. Recommened for laypeople who want more info about the oil industry and for those trying to get their friends and families past the denial phase and into some sort of understanding about what's really going on here.

"Sonia Shah is the editor of the critically acclaimed Dragon Ladies: Asian American Feminists Breath Fire and Between Fear and Hope: A Decade of Peace Activism. A former editor at South End Press and Nuclear Times magazine, Shah is an independent jouranlist whose writing has appeared in the Nation, the Ecologist, Orion, Salon, and elsewhere."

[BabyPeanut]

Interview on Global Public Media
http://www.globalpublicmedia.com/transc ... ory_of_oil

and review on INTHEFRAY Magazine

http://inthefray.com/html/article.php?s ... ad&order=0

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')b]The crunch

Fortunately, we may not have hundreds of years of oil to fuel our wager with global warming. Shah’s expose joins no less than five other major books published in the last few years, such as The End of Oil by Paul Roberts, Out of Gas by David Goodstein, The Party’s Over by Richard Heinberg, Blood and Oil by Michael Klare, and The Coming Oil Crisis by C. J. Campbell, warning of the inevitable peak in oil production. The oil peak, as Shah explains, is the point at which we have consumed more oil than is left in the ground. Even with better technologies for extracting the remaining oil, the law of diminishing returns will rule the days until we truly run out of oil. Estimates for the world oil peak range from 2005 to 2050 for the more concerned experts, and as consumption continues to grow worldwide, the crash is not something we can ignore for much longer. Regardless of when the crunch comes, the years leading up to the end of oil will be characterized by violent geopolitical struggles for the remaining resources, so long as we remain tied to petroculture. Michael T. Klare gives a thorough account of the reality of these coming resource wars in Crude Awakenings from the November 11, 2004 issue of The Nation.