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Afterburn: Society Beyond Fossil Fuels
Essential, visionary essays about our post-carbon future Climate change, along with the depletion of oil, coal, and gas dictate that we will inevitably move away from our profound societal reliance on fossil fuels; but just how big a transformation will this be? While many policy-makers assume that renewable energy sources will provide an easy "plug-and-play" solution, author Richard Heinberg suggests instead that we are in for a wild ride; a "civilization reboot" on a scale similar to the agricultural and industrial revolutions. Afterburn consists of 15 essays exploring various aspects of the 21st century migration away from fossil fuels From the inevitability and desirability of more locally organized economies, to the urgent need to preserve our recent cultural achievements and the futility of pursuing economic growth above all, Afterburn offers cutting-edge perspectives and insights that challenge conventional thinking about our present, our future, and the choices in our hands.
224 pages, Paperback
First published March 16, 2015
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179 people want to read
About the author
Richard Heinberg
51 books95 followersRichard William Heinberg is an American journalist and educator who has written extensively on energy, economic, and ecological issues, including oil depletion. He is the author of 13 books, and presently serves as the senior fellow at the Post Carbon Institute.
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September 22, 2015
Once upon a time, Richard Heinberg was a mild-mannered college professor in northern California. In 1998, he happened to read an article in Scientific American that revealed the peak oil theory. A small clan in the lunatic fringe had been discussing the notion, but it was now being yanked out of the closet by a number of retired petroleum geologists — respectable experts having front line experience with an increasingly ominous reality.
Peak oil was terrifying. The geologists were telling us that our way of life was racing toward the cliff. Dignified ladies and gentlemen naturally swept it under the carpet, because the notion was certainly impossible in this age of techno-miracles. Anyway, the anticipated calamity was still 20 or 30 years away, so there was no need to think about it.
In 2003, Heinberg published The Party’s Over, which explained peak oil to a general audience. Since then, he’s made a career out of exposing the dark side of growth, progress, and other mischief. Eventually, he left the university and joined the Post Carbon Institute. His message is that resource depletion, climate change, and economic meltdown will blindside our way of life in this century. He suggests that now is a great time to pay closer attention to reality.
Decades of explosive economic growth were only possible because of cheap and abundant energy, abundant high quality mineral resources, and highly productive oil-powered agriculture. Today, the perpetual growth monster is kept on life support by pumping it up with trillions of dollars of debt. Back in the 1960s, a dollar of debt boosted the GDP by a dollar. By 2000, a dollar of debt boosted GDP by just 20 cents. Today, the tsunami of debt is creating a new stock market bubble, and its collapse may be worse than the crash of 2008. The notion that “growth is over” inspires the titans of finance leap from tall buildings.
Well-paid goon squads of spin-doctors are effectively conjuring doubts about peak oil. What they don’t mention is the energy returned on energy invested (EROEI). A century ago, it took one calorie of energy to produce 100 calories of petroleum. The EROEI was 100:1. Today, the EROEI of U.S. production has plummeted to 10:1. Tar sands, oil shale, and biofuels all are less than 5:1. Most fossil energy will be left in the ground forever, because of low or negative EROEI. Imagine having a job that paid $100 a day, but the bridge toll for getting there was $105.
It’s already too late to cleverly pull the plug on climate change and live happily ever after. Our current strategy, ignoring the problem and denying it exists, is the preferred policy of our glorious leaders. It might be possible to soften the worst-case scenario if we reduced our fossil fuel consumption by 80 to 90 percent by 2050, a daunting challenge. The transition to renewable energy will be turbulent, because of its numerous shortcomings. For example, trucks, planes, and agriculture cannot run on electricity. Many uses of oil have no substitute.
Welcome to the subject matter of Heinberg’s latest book, Afterburn. We’re living in the final decades of a one-time freak-out in human history, the Great Burning. For two centuries, we’ve been extracting and burning staggering amounts of sequestered carbon, for no good reason. What were we thinking? It’s nonrenewable, so using it as the core energy source for industrial civilization could only have a crappy ending. For thousands of years, Arab herders traveled across regions containing oceans of oil, left it alone, and enjoyed a good life. Self-destruction is not mandatory.
The book takes readers on an up-to-date tour of the unintended consequences of the Great Burning, and presents reasonable arguments for why it’s moving into the sunset phase. The final chapters of Afterburn contemplate life after the burn. What can intelligent people do to prepare for a way of life that will be far smaller, simpler, and slower?
In the 1930s, a Nazi control freak named Joseph Goebbels revolutionized mind control via high-tech propaganda. This was made possible by the latest consumer fad, radio. One person spoke, and millions listened, day after day. Today, with the internet, and hundreds of TV channels, many millions are speaking at once, presenting a fantastic variety of viewpoints. Truth (if any) can become a needle in the haystack.
Many huge ideas have been born in the lunatic fringe, presented by heretics like Galileo and Darwin. At the same time, the fringe produces oceans of idiotic balderdash. At the opposite end of the spectrum is the mainstream world, where the one and only thing that matters is ongoing economic growth. Other issues, like climate change and resource depletion, are nothing more than annoying distractions that must be stepped around.
Heinberg is interesting because he camps in the no-man’s-land between shameless mainstream disinformation and the wacko hysteria of the fringe. He’s a likeable lad, and a clear writer who makes an effort to be respectful and fair-minded. Until recently, it’s been compulsory for eco-writers to include hope and solutions, even if they’re daffy, because bummer books gather dust. It’s encouraging to see an emerging trend, in which the emphasis on hopium is becoming unhip, and readers are served larger doses of uncomfortable facts with no sugar coating.
Afterburn includes small servings of magical thinking, but overall it lays the cards on the table. A way of life can only be temporary if it is dependent on nonrenewable resources, or on consuming renewables at an unsustainable rate. An economy requiring perpetual growth is insane. Nature will fix our population excesses and eliminate overshoot. The lights will go out. All civilizations collapse. Ours will too. We won’t be rescued by miraculous paradigm shifts. The biggest obstacle to intelligent change is human nature. Folks with food, money, and a roof don’t worry about threats that are not immediate. There is a possibility that humankind will no longer exist by the end of this century. And so on.
Yes, things can look a little bleak, but don’t surrender to cynicism and give up. We can’t chase away the storm, but we can do many things that make a difference. Learn how to do practical stuff, like cook, sew, and garden. Become less reliant on purchased goods and services. Develop trusting relationships with your neighbors.
Today is a paradise for folks interested in changing the world. Imagine cool visions of a new and improved future where we could nurture cooperation, eliminate inequality, mindfully manage population, and minimize environmental injuries. Unfortunately, visioning is limited by the fact that the future is certain to be radically different. What can we say for sure about 2050? I remain stubbornly confident that there will be sun and moon, mountains and oceans, bacteria and insects.
When civilizations die, most or all of their cultural information also dies. Today, much of this information is stored in electronic media, or printed on acidic paper that has a short lifespan. Heinberg believes that it’s essential to protect our books, because they are vital for cultural survival. He fears that the amazing achievements of the Great Burning will be forgotten. “Will it all have been for nothing?”
A far better question is, “What cultural achievements would we want to be remembered by?” During the Great Burning, we’ve learned so much about environmental history and human ecology. We are coming to understand why almost every aspect of our way of life is unsustainable. (Our schools should teach this!) The most valuable gift we could give to new generations is a thorough understanding of the many things we’ve learned from our mistakes, and the mistakes of our ancestors. They need a good map of the minefield.
Peak oil was terrifying. The geologists were telling us that our way of life was racing toward the cliff. Dignified ladies and gentlemen naturally swept it under the carpet, because the notion was certainly impossible in this age of techno-miracles. Anyway, the anticipated calamity was still 20 or 30 years away, so there was no need to think about it.
In 2003, Heinberg published The Party’s Over, which explained peak oil to a general audience. Since then, he’s made a career out of exposing the dark side of growth, progress, and other mischief. Eventually, he left the university and joined the Post Carbon Institute. His message is that resource depletion, climate change, and economic meltdown will blindside our way of life in this century. He suggests that now is a great time to pay closer attention to reality.
Decades of explosive economic growth were only possible because of cheap and abundant energy, abundant high quality mineral resources, and highly productive oil-powered agriculture. Today, the perpetual growth monster is kept on life support by pumping it up with trillions of dollars of debt. Back in the 1960s, a dollar of debt boosted the GDP by a dollar. By 2000, a dollar of debt boosted GDP by just 20 cents. Today, the tsunami of debt is creating a new stock market bubble, and its collapse may be worse than the crash of 2008. The notion that “growth is over” inspires the titans of finance leap from tall buildings.
Well-paid goon squads of spin-doctors are effectively conjuring doubts about peak oil. What they don’t mention is the energy returned on energy invested (EROEI). A century ago, it took one calorie of energy to produce 100 calories of petroleum. The EROEI was 100:1. Today, the EROEI of U.S. production has plummeted to 10:1. Tar sands, oil shale, and biofuels all are less than 5:1. Most fossil energy will be left in the ground forever, because of low or negative EROEI. Imagine having a job that paid $100 a day, but the bridge toll for getting there was $105.
It’s already too late to cleverly pull the plug on climate change and live happily ever after. Our current strategy, ignoring the problem and denying it exists, is the preferred policy of our glorious leaders. It might be possible to soften the worst-case scenario if we reduced our fossil fuel consumption by 80 to 90 percent by 2050, a daunting challenge. The transition to renewable energy will be turbulent, because of its numerous shortcomings. For example, trucks, planes, and agriculture cannot run on electricity. Many uses of oil have no substitute.
Welcome to the subject matter of Heinberg’s latest book, Afterburn. We’re living in the final decades of a one-time freak-out in human history, the Great Burning. For two centuries, we’ve been extracting and burning staggering amounts of sequestered carbon, for no good reason. What were we thinking? It’s nonrenewable, so using it as the core energy source for industrial civilization could only have a crappy ending. For thousands of years, Arab herders traveled across regions containing oceans of oil, left it alone, and enjoyed a good life. Self-destruction is not mandatory.
The book takes readers on an up-to-date tour of the unintended consequences of the Great Burning, and presents reasonable arguments for why it’s moving into the sunset phase. The final chapters of Afterburn contemplate life after the burn. What can intelligent people do to prepare for a way of life that will be far smaller, simpler, and slower?
In the 1930s, a Nazi control freak named Joseph Goebbels revolutionized mind control via high-tech propaganda. This was made possible by the latest consumer fad, radio. One person spoke, and millions listened, day after day. Today, with the internet, and hundreds of TV channels, many millions are speaking at once, presenting a fantastic variety of viewpoints. Truth (if any) can become a needle in the haystack.
Many huge ideas have been born in the lunatic fringe, presented by heretics like Galileo and Darwin. At the same time, the fringe produces oceans of idiotic balderdash. At the opposite end of the spectrum is the mainstream world, where the one and only thing that matters is ongoing economic growth. Other issues, like climate change and resource depletion, are nothing more than annoying distractions that must be stepped around.
Heinberg is interesting because he camps in the no-man’s-land between shameless mainstream disinformation and the wacko hysteria of the fringe. He’s a likeable lad, and a clear writer who makes an effort to be respectful and fair-minded. Until recently, it’s been compulsory for eco-writers to include hope and solutions, even if they’re daffy, because bummer books gather dust. It’s encouraging to see an emerging trend, in which the emphasis on hopium is becoming unhip, and readers are served larger doses of uncomfortable facts with no sugar coating.
Afterburn includes small servings of magical thinking, but overall it lays the cards on the table. A way of life can only be temporary if it is dependent on nonrenewable resources, or on consuming renewables at an unsustainable rate. An economy requiring perpetual growth is insane. Nature will fix our population excesses and eliminate overshoot. The lights will go out. All civilizations collapse. Ours will too. We won’t be rescued by miraculous paradigm shifts. The biggest obstacle to intelligent change is human nature. Folks with food, money, and a roof don’t worry about threats that are not immediate. There is a possibility that humankind will no longer exist by the end of this century. And so on.
Yes, things can look a little bleak, but don’t surrender to cynicism and give up. We can’t chase away the storm, but we can do many things that make a difference. Learn how to do practical stuff, like cook, sew, and garden. Become less reliant on purchased goods and services. Develop trusting relationships with your neighbors.
Today is a paradise for folks interested in changing the world. Imagine cool visions of a new and improved future where we could nurture cooperation, eliminate inequality, mindfully manage population, and minimize environmental injuries. Unfortunately, visioning is limited by the fact that the future is certain to be radically different. What can we say for sure about 2050? I remain stubbornly confident that there will be sun and moon, mountains and oceans, bacteria and insects.
When civilizations die, most or all of their cultural information also dies. Today, much of this information is stored in electronic media, or printed on acidic paper that has a short lifespan. Heinberg believes that it’s essential to protect our books, because they are vital for cultural survival. He fears that the amazing achievements of the Great Burning will be forgotten. “Will it all have been for nothing?”
A far better question is, “What cultural achievements would we want to be remembered by?” During the Great Burning, we’ve learned so much about environmental history and human ecology. We are coming to understand why almost every aspect of our way of life is unsustainable. (Our schools should teach this!) The most valuable gift we could give to new generations is a thorough understanding of the many things we’ve learned from our mistakes, and the mistakes of our ancestors. They need a good map of the minefield.
February 9, 2017
It s not bad but nowhere near as good as Heinbergs The end of growth, possibly because its a collection of essays. Also if you have investigated this area at all - end of growth, oil decline -there's not lot that is new. Heinberg seems to be just retreading old articles. Hes good, juts not this book.
July 7, 2017
Suffers from two major flaws: 1) very repetitive; and 2) preaches to the choir.
This is an accessible read that discusses some heavy topics, but can be summed up fairly easy in a few statements:
Consumerism is dying (including the financial basis of credit lending as a major cause);
Financial markets are going to crash (largely because of the increasing EROEI (energy returned on energy invested) ratio (more energy output for decreased gain and increase in price of cheap fuel;
and a few others.
I admit a gross oversimplification, but the book repeats these and similar themes too many times.
the second issue: you've heard it once, you're gonna hear it again... and again... ad nauseum. it's highly unlikely you will read this because you think fossil fuels are the way of the future. It doesn't really provide much balance, so it had limited readership (not that I wholly disagree with the essayists), but it tends to preach to a certain group and ignores the other half.
This is an accessible read that discusses some heavy topics, but can be summed up fairly easy in a few statements:
Consumerism is dying (including the financial basis of credit lending as a major cause);
Financial markets are going to crash (largely because of the increasing EROEI (energy returned on energy invested) ratio (more energy output for decreased gain and increase in price of cheap fuel;
and a few others.
I admit a gross oversimplification, but the book repeats these and similar themes too many times.
the second issue: you've heard it once, you're gonna hear it again... and again... ad nauseum. it's highly unlikely you will read this because you think fossil fuels are the way of the future. It doesn't really provide much balance, so it had limited readership (not that I wholly disagree with the essayists), but it tends to preach to a certain group and ignores the other half.
February 11, 2019
Attention Futurists! Author Richard Heinberg uses a series of essays and a commencement speech to discuss how the availability of easy-to-access, affordable fossil fuels is coming to an end and how that will affect society. Some concepts are reinforced when referred several times over the essays but from different perspectives which I found helped to tie the discussions together. A key point made is that the alternatives are not available enough or cost effective enough to maintain our standard of living or GDP and further questions the need for GDP-growth and mentions other measures of success we should consider using including a gross happiness index. Perhaps globalism isn't the answer either and we need to ensure that essentials like food and housing and energy are made available locally and that we should import extras only.
September 10, 2017
This is a collection of essays on fossil fuels, climate change and renewable energy. This was published in 2015, with articles from 2012-2014 before the oil price tanked and when renewable energy installation costs were significantly higher than today.
This is general, and a bit pedestrian - a collection of news articles, without deep rigour or analysis and often conclusions are drawn (negative ones) without being the whole story eg factoring rapidly changing technology in energy storage, electric vehicles, etc.
A good overview and introduction on what are the basic issues.
This is general, and a bit pedestrian - a collection of news articles, without deep rigour or analysis and often conclusions are drawn (negative ones) without being the whole story eg factoring rapidly changing technology in energy storage, electric vehicles, etc.
A good overview and introduction on what are the basic issues.
September 8, 2020
My first dip into the writing of Heinberg, and a fantastic introduction it was. To me he ranks alongside John Michael Greer as one of the most cogent and lucid writers on peak oil and the radical changes likely to be brought about by the "energy descent" of contemporary economies. Insightful and inspiring stuff. Well worth several readings.
June 24, 2018
series of essays on the subject of post-fossil fuel society. some positive things but a lot of scary pessimistic views. "only a crisis produces real change". chilling thought: "just as humans are shaping the future of Earth, Earth will shape the future of humanity".
July 23, 2018
Some really top-notch communications and ideas in here; dude cares way too much about overpopulation and not enough about the means of production though.
Read
December 9, 2021Just read a little of
August 15, 2022
Old hat for me. Collection is very repetitive, and Heinberg doesn't have much new insight into peak oil. I would read something else.
April 15, 2023
A good book on society beyond fossil fuels. Though fairly general it's still a pleasant read.
February 2, 2016
This is a very readable collection of essays on climate change. A lot of it may be things you have already read or heard but there is a lot here that bears revisiting if that is the case.
February 24, 2018
2015, Collection of Essays post Fracking
Notes
P.
38-9 Conclusions 1,2,3 spell it out: end of fossil fuels; end of growth
40 M. Jacobson says we can still grow!?; & Amory Levins sciencedirect.com/reinventingfire
51 Jacobson, Gail Tverberg, Charles Hall
54 Kevin Anderson, cut emissions 10%/yr
55 every politician wants growth or must clamor for growth to be electable
58 Stuart Ewen, "Captains of Consciousness" advertising & consumerism (1976); "PR" (1996)
59 1955, econ. Victor Lebow - we seek our spiritual satisfaction & our ego satisfaction in consumption
1899, Thorstein Veblen
60 writers re: consumerism
61 earth's natural resources are NOT capital
63 sufficiency economy, HPI: New Economics Foundation of Britain has begun publishing an annually updated Happy Planet Index (HPI),11 which ranks nations by the self-reported levels of happiness of their citizens and by the size of their
72 Marvin Harris, cultural Materialism
Notes
P.
38-9 Conclusions 1,2,3 spell it out: end of fossil fuels; end of growth
40 M. Jacobson says we can still grow!?; & Amory Levins sciencedirect.com/reinventingfire
51 Jacobson, Gail Tverberg, Charles Hall
54 Kevin Anderson, cut emissions 10%/yr
55 every politician wants growth or must clamor for growth to be electable
58 Stuart Ewen, "Captains of Consciousness" advertising & consumerism (1976); "PR" (1996)
59 1955, econ. Victor Lebow - we seek our spiritual satisfaction & our ego satisfaction in consumption
1899, Thorstein Veblen
60 writers re: consumerism
61 earth's natural resources are NOT capital
63 sufficiency economy, HPI: New Economics Foundation of Britain has begun publishing an annually updated Happy Planet Index (HPI),11 which ranks nations by the self-reported levels of happiness of their citizens and by the size of their
72 Marvin Harris, cultural Materialism
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews