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Carbon Shift: How the Twin Crises of Oil Depletion and Climate Change Will Define the Future [Hardcover]

Thomas Homer-Dixon (Author)

3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product Details

Hardcover: 240 pages
Publisher: Random House Canada (April 14 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 030735718X
ISBN-13: 978-0307357182
Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm
Shipping Weight: 454 g

Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.ca Sales Rank:: #63,587 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
#47 in Books > Outdoors & Nature > Environment > Weather
#43 in Books > Outdoors & Nature > Ecology > Rivers
#31 in Books > Science > Earth Sciences > Climatology > Climate Changes

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Product Description

Quill & Quire

In these early years of the 21st century there are two related challenges facing human civilization. As the global economy continues to grow and consume more energy, what happens when we start running out of non-renewable fossil fuels? And how do we find a safe way of burning these traditional fuels, given the negative effect they have on the environment? The six essays presented here by various experts in the field don’t even try to solve this double bind. Instead, the goal of the book is to view the issues “through the eyes of those who think about them rigorously.” The results are informative and the discussion stimulating, but the overall effect is mixed, because those who think about these subjects rigorously are by no means in agreement about them. In the first essay, for example, David Keith argues that climate change is the greater threat to our civilization, because we have plenty of energy resources to keep us going for centuries. Next, J. David Hughes flips this around and says that energy is the more urgent problem because in fact we are running out of cheap hydrocarbons. Keith sees coal-to-liquids technology as one solution to the problem; Hughes dismisses the same process as “a complete non-starter.” Hughes places heavy emphasis on an analysis of declining Energy Return on Investment (EROI), but in the next essay, by Mark Jaccard, this calculation is challenged with a different economic model. It’s hard to imagine working together on solutions when there is so little consensus about the exact nature of the problems. As Keith sees it, the twin carbon crises are characterized by high uncertainty and high inertia – the former represented by the mixed messages Carbon Shift delivers, and the latter exemplified by the dismal political response outlined in the final essay by Jeffrey Simpson. Homer-Dixon adds a conclusion that attempts to provide some coherence to the different points of view as well as suggest a very general plan for action. But while a case for radical change is made, Homer-Dixon admits that “logic alone isn’t going to cause us to act.” Things are going to have to get worse before they start getting better.

Review

"Homer-Dixon clearly sets the scene. He correctly argues that cheap oil has undermined our economic models, and business as usual is no longer an option."
–Andrew Nikiforuk, The Globe and Mail

"And that's why the brief collection of essays in Carbon Shift really matters. Edited by Thomas Homer-Dixon, an intellectual straight shooter, the book offers six distinct point of views about Canada's troublesome twins: climate change and peak oil and their central role in Canada's discordant future."
–Andrew Nikiforuk, The Globe and Mail

"This book works because it's a set of essays by six people from different backgrounds: two oil experts, two economists, and two from newspapers. Oil has a lot of angles (if a liquid can have angles), and it's a relief to see someone making an attempt to bring this variety."
–Tom Spears, The Ottawa Citizen

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index

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Customer Reviews

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3.5 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)

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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent collection - top experts on vital topics, May 26 2009

By	David Thompson (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Carbon Shift: How the Twin Crises of Oil Depletion and Climate Change Will Define the Future (Hardcover)

This is a must-read for anyone interested in energy policy or global warming policy.

It contains strong essays by top experts in their fields - economics, geology, etc.

The experts place different emphases on different sets of facts, and come to different conclusions about which is a more grave and urgent problem - the end of cheap oil, or global warming. Thus the reader will be required to think, and come to her/his own conclusions.

What they all agree on, though, is the urgent need for governments to adopt policies that will quickly and sharply reduce consumption of fossil fuels. This would address both challenges.

I would have given it five stars, but for two minor shortcomings. First, the essay by William Marsden is passionate and interesting, but doesn't really seem to fit with the other essays, which are more fact-based and less rhetorical. (Incidentially, I do agree with Marsden's general point about Alberta's headlong rush into uncontrolled tar sands development being incredibly short-sighted - see "Stupid to the Last Drop".) Second, I wish there could have been a chapter (or perhaps an associated online wiki) where the various experts have a brief exchange, and we see the analysis advanced further.

But these are truly quibbles. This is absolutely essential reading for anyone interested in these areas.

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5 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Confusing!, May 19 2009

By	J. Henry "anonymous public servant" (Ottawa, ON) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Carbon Shift: How the Twin Crises of Oil Depletion and Climate Change Will Define the Future (Hardcover)

So basically the idea is not a bad one, take a bunch of leading experts from different perspectives on the same issue and produce a volume.

I somehow expected more from this book. In the end it came across as experts arguing and not much holding it together. I found myself wondering who was right, and which stats to trust. Each expert marshall all sorts of evidence, the problem is one chapter says that peak oil is the biggest problem, and the next argues it's the least or our worries.

I ended up not knowing who was right, or what data to trust. Overall I don't feel as if I know much more about the problems we're facing on the climate / energy front. I just know it's a very very complicated and difficult problem

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