The End of Fossil Energy
Posted by Robert Rapier on Saturday October 07, 2006 at 9:31 AM EST
A couple of months ago, I received an e-mail from John Howe, author of the book The End of Fossil Energy and the Last Chance for Survival. He indicated his concern that the public is not getting the message on Peak Oil, and he asked if I would be interested in receiving a copy of his book and helping him post some of his ideas to TOD. I accepted his gracious offer, and I received his book in the mail a few days later. A couple of weeks later, I read the book on a flight to San Francisco.
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There is something in the book for just about everyone, but I would especially recommend it as an introduction to the topic of Peak Oil. I told John I would post an essay here in order to help get his ideas out there. He has a 20-page White Paper that you can download here. I will post some excerpts from his White Paper below, but first I wanted to make a few observations.
There were a couple of things that really impressed me about John. First, he has laid out a plan for transitioning to a sustainable energy future. He calls this plan "The Five Percent Plan to Energy Sustainability", and he covers the details in Chapter 5. By actually committing a plan to writing, John is probably ahead of the vast majority of us in this debate. Most of us have various ideas for what we need to do to achieve sustainability, but I am sure that few of us have put as much thought into it as John has.
The other thing that really impressed me is that John practices what he preaches. He has built three completely solar-powered vehicles, including a 1962 MG Midget and a tractor he uses on his farm. He goes over some of the technical details in one of the appendices of the book. The experience John is gaining with his solar-powered vehicles can be a valuable asset to the world if we will learn from him. If the world had more John Howes out there, I wouldn't be nearly as concerned about the challenges facing us.
John Howe on His Solar-Powered Tractor
John asked if I could help with posting his White Paper to TOD, so with that intro, here are some excerpts covering various topics:
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