Editorial Review:
If the US continues with its current policies, the next decades will be marked by war, economic collapse, and environmental catastrophe. Resource depletion and population pressures are about to catch up with us, and no one is prepared. The political elites, especially in the US, are incapable of dealing with the situation and have in mind a punishing game of "Last One Standing." The alternative is "Powerdown," a strategy that will require tremendous effort and economic sacrifice in order to reduce per-capita resource usage in wealthy countries, develop alternative energy sources, distribute resources more equitably, and reduce the human population humanely but systematically over time. While civil society organizations push for a mild version of this, the vast majority of the world's people are in the dark, not understanding the challenges ahead, nor the options realistically available. Powerdown speaks frankly to these dilemmas. Avoiding cynicism and despair, it begins with an overview of the likely impacts of oil and natural gas depletion and then outlines four options for industrial societies during the next decades: Last One Standing: the path of competition for remaining resources;
Powerdown: the path of cooperation, conservation and sharing;
Waiting for a Magic Elixir: wishful thinking, false hopes, and denial;
Building Lifeboats: the path of community solidarity and preservation. Finally, the book explores how three important groups within global society-the power elites, the opposition to the elites (the antiwar and antiglobalization movements, et al: the "Other Superpower"), and ordinary people-are likely to respond to these four options. Timely, accessible and eloquent, Powerdown is crucial reading for our times. Richard Heinberg is an award-winning author of five previous books, including The Party's Over: Oil, War and the Fate of Industrial Societies. A member of the Core Faculty of New College of California, he lives in Santa Rosa, California.
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
The Low-Energy Future  2008-10-21
Richard Heinberg really shows his ability to speak to a wide audience range. No only does he write to those needed greatly detailed evidence for his conclusions as he does in the companion book to this "The Party's Over" (a very good read, especially if you want to dig in much deeper than he does here in "Powerdown"), but he can communicate effectively the serious perils of our current global economic systems and energy use to the lay person as well without sugar coating his main points. He demonstrates a broad depth of understanding in many fields, including economics, energy use and generation, climate change, biology, ecology, politics, among others. Keep an eye out for Richard Heinberg as he provides clear, level-headed reasoning for some of the major crisis that we face today.
good  2008-08-15
good book, quick read. explains the problems of peak oil and the implications it has for the future of the energy industry.
Power down... 2008-07-17
This is another superb contribution on Peak Oil that I had the pleasure of reading by Richard Heinberg. By and large and once again, I would also classify this text as a classic. Other reviews do a wonderful job of summarizing the nuts and bolts of this book. I will not belabor such points.
Suffice it to say that this book is a well done addition to The Party's Over. It forces one to consider in even greater detail, the implications of the Peak Oil in the realm of economics, alternatives (and the latest developments), and some suggested courses of action to deal with the coming changes. Much like his previous books, it is indeed well written and oddly enjoyable (again, given the subject matter). I appreciate how he treats the entire political spectrum in the same manner, i.e. Democrats and Republicans alike, in how all have contributed and sustain the current course of events in one way or another. Heinberg shines in this effort.
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Wanna learn how civilization came all the way to where we are now? 2008-02-19
Power Down is a powerful analysis of human modern civilization. The key element that boosted technology, medical advancement, world population and globalization is oil. This cheap source of energy is as Richard Heinberg says a "free ride" that will soon come to an end.
Oil have defined the boundaries of modern civilization and its inevitable depletion is gonna change the course of it, and its gonna happen soon.
Power Down, is a scientific and insightful and analysis of energy, it traces the multiple consequences of oil depletion and the possible solutions to an energetic solution for humanity.
However most importantly, this book rather than describing in depth the critical situation we are facing, it raises awareness of the great value energy has and it makes us think more about saving, having a more moderate lifestyle, and living more in harmony with nature and its valuable resources.
Excellent overview... 2007-10-11
As with "The Long Emergency" I won't go into too much detail since there are already many excellent reviews of this book. However, I do feel it is important to add my voice since all the evidence points to the fact that what Heinberg and the other "peak oil" folks are saying is reality...
Heinberg has done a remarkable job of presenting the overall picture of the main issue: our reliance on cheap oil as the basis for civilization and how we are now at the time when cheap oil is about to disappear. He presents the facts in a very quick way since his other book, "The Party's Over" goes into much more detail on the subject.
He then presents the reader with four possible scenarios to deal with the problem. Unfortunately, the first one ("last man standing") is basically a great die-off due to resource wars and appears to be our present choice. The second one, "power down", involves massive global reductions in consumption. It makes the most sense but, of course, is beyond any political level to implement. The next one is some sort of new-age "technology will save us" way to sleepwalk into a die-off. And finally there is the individual and, potentially, community-level life-boat building solution.
To be honest, the prospects even for the last solution are daunting. However, I must say that Heinberg gives all possibilities equal presentation and stays remarkably calm and neutral as he develops all possibilities. The choice is up to the reader...
The writing style is engaging and his sidebar "stories" are excellent. This is a quick and interesting read.
This book is really just a simplistic view of "Limits to Growth" and Jantsch's seminal "The Self-Organizing Universe: Scientific and Human Implications of the Emerging Paradigm of Evolution" where these projections were made a long time ago. Too bad the baby-boomers didn't read and learn back then...
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