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On Oil
144 pages, Paperback
Published April 22, 2025
About the author
Don Gillmor
33 books39 followersAuthor and journalist Don Gillmor was born in Fort Frances, Ontario in 1959 and presently lives in Toronto, Ontario. Don possesses a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from the University of Calgary. He has worked for publisher John Wiley & Sons, and has written for a number of magazines including Rolling Stone, GQ, Premiere, and Saturday Night.; where he was made a contributing editor in 1989.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
August 13, 2025
On Oil offers a concise state-of-the-horror appraisal of humanity’s addiction to petroleum products, combining first-hand experience, historical research, and interviews with petroleum experts.
It begins in the early 1970s, when the author, Don Gillmor, moved to Calgary to take advantage of the good pay offered to oilrig roughnecks. Ten years before Gillmor’s arrival, an enormous oil field was discovered in Alberta, and Calgary became a boomtown. "The first rig we stopped at had a sign that read “This rig has worked 0 accident-free days.” A man in his twenties sat on a forty-gallon drum, head down, hand wrapped in gauze, blood staining his jeans. So, a job opening." His coworkers were disaffected men twice his age and older, drunk, bitter, frustrated, and divorced: all the feed an English major could hope to dine on in summers before, during, and after college, performing dangerous labor over long shifts, unprotected from the weather and drunken coworkers.
The dangers posed by gas and petroleum to the environment—specifically, in its ability to heat the planet—had been accurately forecast by the end of the 19th century, was verified by the CIA (of all organizations) in the 1970s. Other individuals and groups also predicted throughout the 20th century environmental disasters triggered by rising heat, with the period of 2025-2050 given as the equivalent of environmental end times. Accompanying the environmental disasters suffered around the world has been the economic devastation done to dying, former boomtowns (such as Calgary) from job loss and cleanup efforts.
Complicating reform efforts is the fact that many early oil producers were also evangelical Christians, for whom oil was God’s gift of eternal bounty. President Ronald Reagan, twice elected in the early 1980s, appointed evangelicals who eliminated as many environmental regulations as possible, setting back for eight years, in the U.S., serious efforts to reign in and clean up toxins from the earth, water, and air. The Reagan administration was then followed by four years under oilman George H. W. Bush, who was advised that, although the environmentalists had been right all along, it was too late now to undo the damage caused, so full speed ahead into the apocalypse.
So much for the environment. How about life for the average citizen in countries dominated by oil production? "Political scientist Tery Lynn Karl coined the term petrostate, and in her seminal study of oil-producing nations in the 1970s, she concluded that while oil brought wealth, it tended to erode democracy and contribute to inequality. Authoritarian governments in oil-producing countries often neglect health, education, and social services, and put a disproportionate amount of money into fuel subsidies."
Sound familiar?
"Low taxes are one of the hallmarks of petrostates, a way to placate its citizens (Texas, Wyoming, and Alaska have no tax, Saudia Arabia has no personal tax, the United Arab Emirates has the lowest taxes in the world, Alberta has no sales tax and the lowest corporate taxes in Canada). . . Louisiana, another low-tax petrostate (10 percent of US oil production), has the second-highest poverty level in the country, and a long, very colorful history of political corruption."
Oil-producing countries quickly find themselves co-opted by oil production interests, which include enforced deletion from official documents all evidence of the harms and corruption inflicted by vested economic interests. Although Gillmor doesn’t discuss this, as declining industries take longer to pay off bank loans (because of diminishing returns on investment), fewer and fewer banks will be willing (or able) to loan money to those industries. Meanwhile, countering these trends, the Chinese government has focused on both reducing its petroleum dependence on other countries and making the environment cleaner for its citizens. It has quickly become the world leader in EV production, and solar and wind power development and deployment.
Despite laws and regulations requiring them to do so, oil companies do not set aside enough financial reserves for environmental clean-up after wells have been abandoned or for the destruction done while oil is being produced, because the laws and regulations are not enforced. Small petrostates find that much or all the royalties paid from oil reserves ends up in the coffers of a single nation leader, who uses the money on European spending sprees for luxury goods. When corporations leave a country after the wells have dried, they tend to leave behind a country with a devastated environment, populated by uneducated people living in dire poverty.
Fracking, the latest development in oil production is a financial and environmental disaster, costing more to produce than it gains in sales, poisoning water wells, decreasing life expectancy among those who live near fracking operations, and worse. Unlike oil wells, which may produce steadily for decades, the bulk of fracked oil is released within the first year, sharply dropping off during the second year.
Death, destruction, and money—all part of God’s plan, apparently. What’s not to like?
For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...
It begins in the early 1970s, when the author, Don Gillmor, moved to Calgary to take advantage of the good pay offered to oilrig roughnecks. Ten years before Gillmor’s arrival, an enormous oil field was discovered in Alberta, and Calgary became a boomtown. "The first rig we stopped at had a sign that read “This rig has worked 0 accident-free days.” A man in his twenties sat on a forty-gallon drum, head down, hand wrapped in gauze, blood staining his jeans. So, a job opening." His coworkers were disaffected men twice his age and older, drunk, bitter, frustrated, and divorced: all the feed an English major could hope to dine on in summers before, during, and after college, performing dangerous labor over long shifts, unprotected from the weather and drunken coworkers.
The dangers posed by gas and petroleum to the environment—specifically, in its ability to heat the planet—had been accurately forecast by the end of the 19th century, was verified by the CIA (of all organizations) in the 1970s. Other individuals and groups also predicted throughout the 20th century environmental disasters triggered by rising heat, with the period of 2025-2050 given as the equivalent of environmental end times. Accompanying the environmental disasters suffered around the world has been the economic devastation done to dying, former boomtowns (such as Calgary) from job loss and cleanup efforts.
Complicating reform efforts is the fact that many early oil producers were also evangelical Christians, for whom oil was God’s gift of eternal bounty. President Ronald Reagan, twice elected in the early 1980s, appointed evangelicals who eliminated as many environmental regulations as possible, setting back for eight years, in the U.S., serious efforts to reign in and clean up toxins from the earth, water, and air. The Reagan administration was then followed by four years under oilman George H. W. Bush, who was advised that, although the environmentalists had been right all along, it was too late now to undo the damage caused, so full speed ahead into the apocalypse.
So much for the environment. How about life for the average citizen in countries dominated by oil production? "Political scientist Tery Lynn Karl coined the term petrostate, and in her seminal study of oil-producing nations in the 1970s, she concluded that while oil brought wealth, it tended to erode democracy and contribute to inequality. Authoritarian governments in oil-producing countries often neglect health, education, and social services, and put a disproportionate amount of money into fuel subsidies."
Sound familiar?
"Low taxes are one of the hallmarks of petrostates, a way to placate its citizens (Texas, Wyoming, and Alaska have no tax, Saudia Arabia has no personal tax, the United Arab Emirates has the lowest taxes in the world, Alberta has no sales tax and the lowest corporate taxes in Canada). . . Louisiana, another low-tax petrostate (10 percent of US oil production), has the second-highest poverty level in the country, and a long, very colorful history of political corruption."
Oil-producing countries quickly find themselves co-opted by oil production interests, which include enforced deletion from official documents all evidence of the harms and corruption inflicted by vested economic interests. Although Gillmor doesn’t discuss this, as declining industries take longer to pay off bank loans (because of diminishing returns on investment), fewer and fewer banks will be willing (or able) to loan money to those industries. Meanwhile, countering these trends, the Chinese government has focused on both reducing its petroleum dependence on other countries and making the environment cleaner for its citizens. It has quickly become the world leader in EV production, and solar and wind power development and deployment.
Despite laws and regulations requiring them to do so, oil companies do not set aside enough financial reserves for environmental clean-up after wells have been abandoned or for the destruction done while oil is being produced, because the laws and regulations are not enforced. Small petrostates find that much or all the royalties paid from oil reserves ends up in the coffers of a single nation leader, who uses the money on European spending sprees for luxury goods. When corporations leave a country after the wells have dried, they tend to leave behind a country with a devastated environment, populated by uneducated people living in dire poverty.
Fracking, the latest development in oil production is a financial and environmental disaster, costing more to produce than it gains in sales, poisoning water wells, decreasing life expectancy among those who live near fracking operations, and worse. Unlike oil wells, which may produce steadily for decades, the bulk of fracked oil is released within the first year, sharply dropping off during the second year.
Death, destruction, and money—all part of God’s plan, apparently. What’s not to like?
For more of my reviews, please see https://www.thebookbeat.com/backroom/...
May 1, 2026
This is a short but very comprehensive examination of the oil business and our addiction to it.
The author is Canadian, so there is a discussion of the tar sands at Fort McMurray in northern Alberta.
There is also an examination of the oil industry in the U.S. and the Gulf States. The deterioration of the environment since the use of fossil fuels continues to increase, much to the detriment of our planet. China, unlike the U.S. and Canada, is transitioning to alternative energy sources with its increasing use of E.V.s.
The author also discusses the connection between the use of fossil fuels and evangelicals in both the U.S. and Canada. This is not a good combination – evangelicals believe earth’s resources are there to be plundered and are hardly concerned about the impending environmental disasters like climate change and pollution caused by fossil fuels, particularly from fracking and the extraction of oil from the tar sands. Evangelicals see the approaching rapture as solving all of earth’s problems.
There was also an interesting analysis on all the abandoned oil wells in North America, which are health and fire hazards. These number in the thousands – and theoretically should have been cleaned up but weren’t due to bankruptcies and lack of government enforcement. The author also points out that the oil industry in both Canada and the U.S. has been highly subsidized with tax exemptions, far more than renewable energy projects.
As an aside, the author suggests, because of poll predictions at the time the book was published, that Pierre Poilievre of the Conservative Party would be the next Canadian Prime Minister. This didn’t happen. Poilievre was seen as a populist, mimicking Donald Trump and MAGA rhetoric. After Trump was elected and started talking about annexing Canada as a 51st state, Canadians swung their vote to the Liberal Party, which was seen as far more protective of Canada’s identity and sovereignty.
This book packs a wallop. We need to move away from our oil dependence – but this is much easier said than done.
The entire quandary of fossil fuels and their environmental impact and global economic significance is best summed up by the quote Don Gillmor took from Alice in Wonderland
“If I had a world of my own… Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?”
The author is Canadian, so there is a discussion of the tar sands at Fort McMurray in northern Alberta.
There is also an examination of the oil industry in the U.S. and the Gulf States. The deterioration of the environment since the use of fossil fuels continues to increase, much to the detriment of our planet. China, unlike the U.S. and Canada, is transitioning to alternative energy sources with its increasing use of E.V.s.
The author also discusses the connection between the use of fossil fuels and evangelicals in both the U.S. and Canada. This is not a good combination – evangelicals believe earth’s resources are there to be plundered and are hardly concerned about the impending environmental disasters like climate change and pollution caused by fossil fuels, particularly from fracking and the extraction of oil from the tar sands. Evangelicals see the approaching rapture as solving all of earth’s problems.
There was also an interesting analysis on all the abandoned oil wells in North America, which are health and fire hazards. These number in the thousands – and theoretically should have been cleaned up but weren’t due to bankruptcies and lack of government enforcement. The author also points out that the oil industry in both Canada and the U.S. has been highly subsidized with tax exemptions, far more than renewable energy projects.
As an aside, the author suggests, because of poll predictions at the time the book was published, that Pierre Poilievre of the Conservative Party would be the next Canadian Prime Minister. This didn’t happen. Poilievre was seen as a populist, mimicking Donald Trump and MAGA rhetoric. After Trump was elected and started talking about annexing Canada as a 51st state, Canadians swung their vote to the Liberal Party, which was seen as far more protective of Canada’s identity and sovereignty.
This book packs a wallop. We need to move away from our oil dependence – but this is much easier said than done.
The entire quandary of fossil fuels and their environmental impact and global economic significance is best summed up by the quote Don Gillmor took from Alice in Wonderland
“If I had a world of my own… Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn’t. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn’t be. And what it wouldn’t be, it would. You see?”
May 19, 2025
The latest in Canadian publisher Biblioasis’ Field Notes series, journalist and author Don Gillmor’s On Oil delivers everything you need to know about the fossil fuels industry, all in 125 pages. In the book’s 10 chapters, Gillmor tackles everything from the Alberta oil sands’ evangelical genesis and environmental destruction to fracking and how Europe and China are beating the U.S. and Canada at transitioning to renewables. Throughout it, Gillmor shows how governments have bought into the mythology that oil produces jobs, boosts the economy, and protects national security, ultimately becoming so co-opted that they serve the industry’s interests, not the public’s. Tackling the history and dynamics of this pivotal industry with such concise clarity is an admirable feat. Says Biblioasis, quoting Voltaire: “Twenty-volume folios will never make a revolution. It’s the little pocket pamphlets that are to be feared.” Indeed!
May 10, 2026
A brutal, intelligent and stunning look at humanity's relationship with fossil fuels. From some initial anecdotes about his time working in the oil industry Gillmor gradually unfurls an exploration of that industry as a whole, the way it's developed in different areas of the world, its deep relationship with politics and religion (the latter especially in America), and what its declining future could entail. That he manages to cover so much ground in so few pages is pretty incredible. Feels like an excellent starting point for this subject (I haven't read too much further on it, but would definitely also recommend Fire Weather by John Vaillant and, for a more personal narrative, Ducks by Kate Beaton.)
June 8, 2025
Simultaneously disturbing and incredibly interesting. It will be interesting to see what happens in years to come and whether places producing oil will find that renewable resources will yield more profit.
January 30, 2026
Recants oil's dramatic rise to global prevalence, dives into the dark history of fossil fuels and ties it into the present day, presenting humanity with the most important questions of our generation.
May 29, 2025
A read that’s very relevant to these times, especially with wildfires raging across the country. Recommend if you want to learn more about our relationship with oil and its future.
June 4, 2025
“It gave us freedom, warmth, hope, and ruin”
July 28, 2025
Captivating, readable, disturbing.
January 3, 2026
Everyone should read this! Short and impactful, with hard facts properly cited. Loved loved loved it
February 22, 2026
A concise rendering of the history and politics of oil. What I especially liked was its focus on Canada.
Read
April 7, 2026“Alberta is this crucible for all the problems facing society in the next century,” says a University of Calgary researcher in journalist Don Gillmor’s new book. “And some of those problems are in conflict with one another.” That researcher works to reduce the carbon footprint of the oil sands—no easy task, given that every year Alberta produces ever more oil to heat homes, power cars and make everything from plastics to fertilizers to pharmaceuticals. And yet, as a fuel for climate change, oil is also a threat to social and ecological stability. Collectively we have to wean ourselves off it. Gillmor doesn’t tell us how to do that. But in a short, incisive, at times rollicking book, he takes us from the drilling floor (he was a roughneck in the 1970s) to the capitulation of our government to industry under premiers Klein and Smith (most notably) to a glimpse of “the road to a viable future.”
More reviews at: https://albertaviews.ca/category/book...
More reviews at: https://albertaviews.ca/category/book...
May 21, 2026
An informative and interesting short book on the history and politics of the oil industry, focusing mainly on Alberta, where the author worked as a roughneck as a young man during the 1970s boom. His personal anecdotal material really enlivens the book.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews