Emergency
A Dry Dipstick Book Review
Author: Neil Strauss
418 pages
ISBN 0060898771
2009, Harper Collins
Buy It Now!
The cover text says: "This book will save your life". I don't believe it. But it will make you aware of a lot of possibilities, both good and bad. And that awareness, and the resulting actions you might take, could save your life.
Scenarios imagined by various Peak Oil observers range from an apocalyptical Mad Max, dog-eat-dog world to one of communal and blissful togetherness on a green, healthy and sustainable planet. Neil Strauss saw Peak Oil as just one of many looming disasters, all designed to bring down the Empire with him in it.
He started his journey in this book with the decision to prepare a safe retreat for life after the Collapse of the Empire. He chose an island in the Caribbean along with a second passport and a Swiss bank account. He also decided that he needed to learn the skills that would help him fight, connive, sneak and otherwise escape from the United States and reach the safety of his island sanctuary.
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Blind Spot
A Dry Dipstick Movie Review
88 minute DVD
Filmmaker:Adolfo Doring
www.blindspotdoc.com
Blind Spot is a powerful presentation of the state of the planet, with a primary focus on Peak Oil, but including overpopulation, global warming, and the worldwide economic infrastructure. The film is well-made, with excellent photography, editing and narration, and the choice of talking heads much more interesting than the average Peak Oil film.
I was especially pleased to see perceptive observations and commentary from Joseph Tainter, the historian author of The Collapse of Complex Societies, and from sociologist William Catton, author of Overshoot: The Ecological Basis for Revolutionary Change. Both placed the planet's current situation in its proper historical and evolutionary content—which is basically more of the same except much, much worse, since we now have a global society rather than a local or regional one.
One of the more memorable quotes in the movie was from author Derrick Jensen:
"The world is saying, 'Look you have a choice. You can either fix it or I can fix it, and if I fix it you are not going to like it because I'm going to throw everything away.' And everything means most of us."
But I'll have to admit my favorite quote was from economist Max Fraad Wolff:
"Wal-Mart is basically the distribution arm of the Peoples Republic of China."
Blind Spot is the creation of Adolfo Doring, and was funded by the Wallace Global Fund, one of the more farsighted foundations that supports worthwhile groups concerned about the planet and the human family. The film would be an excellent introduction to friends who aren't yet familiar with Peak Oil which, if our experience is typical, still includes almost everyone in the United States.
Collapse +11 Years
The Napa Valley Today
Napa Valley Life Magazine
Winter Holiday Issue 2008
Journal of Mick Winter—December 15, 2020
As I sip my morning espresso, I have a brief moment of longing for an earlier time when I could make my stovetop coffee quickly on a gas burner. It takes a lot longer using this electric one. Little did we know that gas was right behind oil in peaking. Fortunately we finally have plenty of solar-produced electricity and, once again, access to coffee. So it's a minor inconvenience, but just another reminder of things we used to take for granted.
Today's one of the two days a week when I work at the office instead of home. It's a little late to go by bike so I check my cell phone. The streetcar is due in 10 minutes. If I lived much further from the trolley stop, I'd probably flag a jitney or autorickshaw and take it all the way to work. Although they cost a little more, they get you exactly where you want to go. But I've got time to walk to the trolley, so I'll ride the rails this morning.
I'm happy to see my streetcar is one of the old-fashioned designs. I prefer them over the new, ultramodern style. They're just as comfortable but in a more homey kind of way. Aboard the trolley, I see many of my usual fellow riders. There are also a few people with suitcases. They're probably connecting with the train to the Vallejo Ferry. Streetcars are a great way to travel in town. Every town in the valley has them. Except Yountville, which is very walkable and compact.
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Reinventing Collapse
The Soviet Example and American Prospects
A Dry Dipstick Book Review
Author: Dmitry Orlov
176 pages
ISBN 0865716064
2008, New Society Publishers
Buy It Now!
Well, first of all, it's funny. Really. I don't mean it's filled with jokes, but Dmitry Orlov has a very humorous and biting style. This humorous approach serves two important purposes:
- It makes the book enjoyable to read.
- It helps the reader develop a certain healthy detachment from the subject matter. If you can see the humor in the situation, it can lessen the melodrama of the Cold War in the past, and the collapse of both the Soviet Union (past) and its mirror twin the United States (very current).
Orlov observes that the citizens of both the U.S. and the S.U. were targets of marketing campaigns that successfully developed intense brand loyalty. In each country, it was forbidden (either legally or through intense peer pressure) to advocate for the other brand. The U.S. was for capitalists (Yes, we're #1), and the S.U. for communists (Da, we're #1), and never the twain shall meet.
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Post Carbon Cities:
Planning for Energy and Climate Uncertainty
A Guidebook on Peak Oil and Global Warming for Local Governments
A Dry Dipstick Book Review
Author: Daniel Lerch
100 pages
ISBN 0-9767510-5-4
2008, Post Carbon Press
Buy It Now!
When I read this book, I was impressed with the attractive layout, the clarity of writing, and the quality of the information it contained. However, I felt it was a bit too basic, too simplistic. While it was a good introduction to the problems of Peak Oil and climate change that are facing communities, I felt it didn't provide the depth of detail necessary for towns to deal with the multitude of effects we can likely expect. In short, I felt it wasn't enough for what is needed.
Then reality straightened me out.
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World Made by Hand - a Novel
A Dry Dipstick Book Review
Author: James Howard Kunstler
336 pages
ISBN: 0-87113-978-2
2008, Atlantic Monthly Press
www.worldmadebyhand.com
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This book could more precisely, but less poetically, be named "World Made by Kunstler". Author and Peak Oil commentator James Howard Kunstler has written a novel that brings to life a community and world that Kunstler himself has created. It's not just any creation, however, because what he has created is informed by his many years of study of our society, its built environment, and the Peak Oil threat.
As a novel it's entertaining and interesting. As a demonstration of Kunstler's vision for the post-Peak Oil future, it's vivid and compelling. Kunstler imagines a world where all systems have broken down because of Peak Oil, climate change, economic collapse, apparent nuclear war—a number of U.S. cities are gone—and, of course, famine and pestilence. In short, it's a world ravaged by the Four Horsemen and a bunch of their close friends.
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After the Peak - The End of Cheap Oil
A Dry Dipstick Movie Review
by Mick Winter
27 minute DVD
Filmmaker: Jim McQuaid
www.afterthepeak.com
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After the Peak is a mock-TV news program. It's presented as if live from a local television station in North Carolina, with anchors in the studio reporting and talking to reporters in the field. And, yes, there's even the obligatory sports guy.
The time is "one year from today". Worldwide oil production has peaked and is declining. It's still early in the Peak Oil saga with gasoline usually available, but prices are going up. Oil is now $195 a barrel and prices at the pump average $10.29 a gallon, seriously affecting people's lives, their businesses and their commutes.
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There's a Choo-Choo Train A-Comin'
There's a train speeding toward me. Toward all of us, actually. I'm aware of the train. A number of people are. Far more people aren't. But it is coming, regardless of awareness or non-awareness.
I can see it coming. So how do I deal with this approaching train? I have a comfortable chair and a computer and I sit in the middle of the tracks with a cup of coffee and I read about the speeding train.
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What a Way to Go -
Life at the End of Empire
A DryDipstick Movie Review
Documentary - 123-minute DVD
What a Way To Go DVD
A two-hour poem of great power and beauty. The story of a personal journey; yet a journey that is also deeply universal. As humanity rushes towards a nexus of catastrophe, is there a world beyond denial and despair? The film suggests the possibility.
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Escape from Suburbia
A DryDipstick Movie Review
95 minute DVD
www.escapefromsuburbia.com
"Sit, be still, and listen
for you are drunk and we are at the edge of the roof."
- Rumi, Sufi mystic
Thus begins "Escape from Suburbia", a film that suggests ways to start sobering up and moving back from the roof's edge.
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Energy Crossroads
A DryDipstick Movie Review
Energy Crossroads
54 minute DVD
www.energyxroads.com
In a society where most people take energy for granted and assume life will go on just as it is, this film is a cold shower of fact.
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WAG YOUR BELL for GWOPO*
People love acronyms, particularly in the United States where acronyms like GWOT (Global War on Terror) are household words—at least if your house is a big white one.
Other popular acronyms are YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary), WAG (Wild Ass Guess), RTFM (Read the F--- Manual), BYOB (Bring Your Own Beer) and my personal favorite TEOTWAWKI (The End Of The World As We Know It). Acronyms are good for time-saving shorthand and as memory devices. They also often help avoid the need for real thought and communication.
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Book Review The Last Oil Shock
A DryDipstick Book Review
Author: David Strahan
ISBN: 978-0-7195-6423-9
2007, John Murray - U.K.
The last thing I needed to do was read yet another book about Peak Oil. I've been reading extensively about it since 2003. But I promised the publisher I would read it. So I finally did.
I'm glad I carried out my promise.
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