After the Sands by Gordon Laxer - Book Report #260

This is a timely book to consider an Alberta economy beyond oil.

I know, saying things like that are blasphemy in a province so dedicated to an extraction economy.  But, one of the things the author promotes is Canadian energy independence by stopping the export of our resources.  This would mean constructing the Energy East pipeline, something Quebec blocked, instead of expanding the Keystone XL line.

East of Ottawa oil products are imported from the Middle East.  This makes for a vulnerable situation if some kind of interruption in supply should happen.

All countries will ultimately protect their own citizens first, but Canada is unprepared to do so.  It would be better to set the stage now instead of waiting for a crisis to force our hand.

It is astonishing to learn how little proven reserves remain of Alberta’s natural gas.  I for one think of this when my furnace kicks in on a cold February morning.

This book is largely a big-picture, government-programs exploration on how to first, secure our current energy supply and then to transition off of carbon fuels to do our part in addressing climate change.

The last three chapters dig into a possible path for Canada.  It points to many other books and groups who are doing a lot of thinking on the subject.  Nothing will change overnight but it is important to explore the ways available to us.

Change is coming.  Will it be a disaster or a new era for humanity?

It’s scary and exciting to contemplate.

Highly recommended.

Gordon Laxer's website - https://www.gordonlaxer.com/

Gordon Laxer

Book Report 3 of 26 - Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller by Jeff Rubin

Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller by Jeff Rubin.

Anybody who knows me knows that I am fascinated by peak oil.  My dad lived in fear of losing his job, I fear the decline of oil production and how that is going to effect everything!

The book is sobering but still has and under-current of optimism.  Rubin believes that we will find a way to live with expensive energy and food prices by going local.  He predicts the end of globalization which was only possible with cheap oil.

I thought he did not spend enough time discussing what life would look and feel like post-oil and I thought he could have expanded on alternative sources of power.  But he's not a social scientist or an expert in alternative energy, he's an economist, so he stuck to writing about what he knows.

After reading the book I went downstairs and unplugged the deep-freeze which sits nearly empty nearly all the time.  A tiny reduction in my carbon foot-print.

The book is not all gloom and doom as most other books on the subject are.  It's the first one that has taken the time to look at what life would be like after we reach the oil production peak.

The other consequence that he neatly left out of the book is the possibility that we won't get off the oil bus in an orderly fashion.  The basic assumption he takes is that everybody will simply shrug at higher fuel costs, leave the car in the driveway and either take the bus, bike or simply walk to work.   But the very real possibility is that countries will go to war over access to oil reserves.  Society could easily turn into a pack of wolves fighting over a bone.  But that's another subject.

If you've never thought about the subject of peak oil then I would suggest reading this book.  It's very informative and hopeful.