skip to Main Content

Peak of the Devil: 100 Questions (and answers) about Peak Oil

$14.95

Author: Chip Haynes
ISBN: 978-0-9818720-3-2

Peak what? Peak oil. It’s a harsh, unpleasant subject that few people want to think about, if they know what it is. However, with the Gulf of Mexico oil spill several years ago, there is little doubt that most people will want to know something. After peak oil, almost everything we know, the life we know, will change. There’s a chance that one hundred years from now will look like one hundred years ago, if we are very, very lucky. So why in the world are we introducing a book that seems to make light of the end of the world as we know it?

Although virtually every aspect of our lives will change in the years to come, we have, almost universally, managed to keep our heads in the sand about this one. The few brave people that have tried to tell the world what might be coming have frequently been painted as fools and kooks, or worse . . . doomsluts. You want to laugh? Then let’s have a really good laugh because it’s NOT the end of the world, only the end of the world we know. If we lose our sense of humor, then that’s the end of the world.

Despite the dark vastness of the subject, or maybe because of it, we are all in this together. Our knowledge (or anyone else’s lack of knowledge) does not grant us immunity from the proceedings. We’re all in the same boat. We may as well row over the falls with a smile, all laughing together.

And remember, ignorance is not really bliss; it’s just ignorance. Some of the 100 Questions about Peak Oil this book will answer:

1. What’s this peak oil thing you keep jabbering on about?
2. Well, whose fault is that?
3. Can we blame M. K. Hubbert? (who?)
4. Why should I care?
5. But everything looks great right now, doesn’t it?
6. How big is this, anyway?
98. How will I know what’s really happening?
99. What’s the best we can hope for?
100. It’s going to end up alright, isn’t it?

Description

. . . .Haynes anticipates the kind of questioning process the average person goes through when confronted with peak oil, deftly handling the response for an “average” audience. It’s no Long Emergency or Peak Everything, but it just may be the bridge book that gets them to dig even deeper and take action in their own lives. The book includes a nice resource guide to websites and further reading in the back. . . .”

— Lindsay Curren, Transition Voice

Peak of the Devil should be in every public library and recreation centre. It’s a great introduction to the topic. . . .there is much genius within the pages, a great deal of perceptive and subtle thinking.”

— Matthew Wild, Energy Bulletin

“Funny, informative and way scary!”

— Ed Begley, Jr., Actor and Activist

“Chip Haynes answers 100 of the most significant questions about peak oil with an educated and quirky sense of humor, making a harsh, unpleasant subject a little easier to understand.”

Independent Publisher

“Peak Oil is here and you have questions. What can I do? How do I prepare? What do I tell the dog? Chip Haynes has answers in the most apparent and engaging resource on the topic I have found. With it you will understand Peak Oil and the consequences of a very real phenomenon.”

— Eric Miller, Editor and Publisher, NewColonist.com

About the Author

About the Author
Chip Haynes is an artist, writer, juggler and cyclist living in Clearwater, Florida. Knowing that it takes ten years of hard work to be an overnight sensation, Chip wrote over 1,200 articles on bicycling and global resources for Mason St. Clair’s Wire Donkey bicycling newsletter out of Nashville, Tennessee before his first two books, The Practical Cyclist and Wearing Smaller Shoes, were released in 2009 by New Society Publishers of British Columbia, Canada. In that same period, two works on global oil, “Ghawar is Dying” (2001) and “60 Days Next Year” (2004) were published online by The New Colonist, a web site devoted to urban issues and resources.“60 Days Next Year” also became a radio program for the State of Maine Public Radio in the summer of 2004.

After studying the global oil situation for over a dozen years, Chip lives in a modest home in suburbia, using far less resources than the average home, and recycling much of what he uses. Chip rides his bicycle to work, and walks to the store. While no one can be truly ready for the oil crisis many predict we will face, Chip would like to delude himself into thinking he’s got a handle on it. Only time will tell. Well, that and maybe the sequel to Peak of the Devil. Stay tuned.

Peak of the Devil is the culmination of many years of reading far too much on the subject of global oil and the impending energy crisis that few see coming. The lack of media and public attention on the subject of peak oil has long been something of an inside joke among those that do study the issue, and Chip hopes to garner a bit of attention to the subject with his book. Stranger things have happened.

Back To Top