Imagine living in a third world country where a great percentage of your day consists of gathering twigs and sticks or animal dung to use for in preparing the food and keeping your family warm during cold weather.  Are you aware that one and a half billion people around the world exist in such abominable circumstances?  You can be pretty sure that such people must out of necessity carefully weigh the merits of every ounce of the energy they consume each day.  Now contrast this with the way that we in the United States utilize our energy resources.  The U.S. Constitution guarantees every American the freedom to be foolish.  And there is no doubt that a large percentage of us are.

Here in the land of the 30 minute shower, oversized SUVs that get 10 miles to the gallon and houses three times the size of the ones we grew up in, we Americans are squandering energy at an ever increasing rate.  In "The End of Oil:  On the Edge of a Perilous New World" Paul Roberts argues that this must change....and soon.  During the energy crisis of the mid 1970's most Americans began to slowly but surely wean themselves away from oil.  Jimmy Carter, not a particularly effective President but a man with considerable moral authority convinced the American people that conservation was both the moral and the patriotic thing to do.  The people followed the President's lead and in an incredibly short time cut back their consumption of oil dramatically.  But market forces took hold and oil prices plummeted.  Suddenly there was a glut of oil on the market again.  Gradually we got back to our old habits and subsequent administrations actually encouraged our short-sightedness.  Roberts argues that  George W. Bush administration continued to lead us down a treacherous path.  By totally dismissing conservation, failing to fund R&D for alternative fuels and encouraging increased production and consumption of fossil fuels, our government is setting us up for disaster.

According to Paul Roberts, the world is rapidly depleting stocks of fossil fuels.  Within the next 5-15 years the world is likely to reach peak production of oil.   Once that happens the world could be in for a very rough ride.  The oil that remains will be increasing harder to get to and as a result considerably more expensive.  Add to that the rapidly increasing demand in places like China and India and suddenly we have a much bigger problem to deal with.  Are not the people of China and India and other such nations entitled to their fair share of the worlds resources?  And even if many Americans couldn't care less about people halfway around the world do they not worry about their own children and grand-children? And what about the increased pollution that comes from our continued reliance on fossil fuels?  It seems to me that we are taking an awful lot for granted here.

In his incredibly well-research book, Roberts discusses the myriad facets of this most complicated problem.  Learn all about the current status and the prospects for alternative fuels like hydrogen, wind and solar among others.  A good bit of the book also delves into the politics of energy and who the important players are.  On a personal note I can tell you that as a result of reading "The End of Oil:  On the Edge of a Perilous New World" I am even more acutely aware of the energy I personally consume. This is an important book that needs to be read and digested by as many people as possible.     Very highly recommended!