Afterburn
Subtitle: society beyond fossil fuels
By: Richard Heinberg
Publisher: New Society Publishers
Published: 2015
Language: eng
Number of pages: 205
ISBN-13: 9780865717886
Subjects: Social ecology; Social aspects; Environmental aspects; Economic development; Human ecology; Social change
Description: 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 fifteen essays exploring various aspects of the twenty-first century migration away from fossil fuels including: --Short-term political and economic factors that impede broad-scale, organized efforts to adapt --The origin of longer-term trends (such as consumerism), that have created a way of life that seems "normal" to most Americans, but is actually unprecedented, highly fragile, and unsustainable --Potential opportunities and sources of conflict that are likely to emerge 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. --Provided by publisher.
Notes: A collection of 15 essays written in the years 2011-2014 and previously published on the websites resilience.org, commondreams.org, and earthisland.org, and in Orion magazine.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 185-195) and index.