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Are the
Dark Ages waiting us at the next turn?
“The last crisis” is the first book/research in Arabic about the
subject of World’s Energy Crisis that remains to this moment the
most absent topic from the Arab media, politics and general
discussions. This book comes after less than months of the most
important announcement for the century which came from the
International Energy Agency in its 2010 Energy outlook that said
that the world’s production of conventional oil has peaked in
2006.
“The last crisis” tackles the energy crisis from different
perspectives: its root causes and relation to “Peak Oil”, its
impact and prospects on the industrial civilization on the long run
and the truth about the real potentials of alternative energy
sources including renewables. The book is written in a suitable
way for both who are new to the subject of Peak Oil and those
who are familiar with it, with extensive overview of the latest
scientific data about all energy resources from around the world
that leave no doubt that we are in the middle of the peak. The
book contains detailed analysis of every energy source. It also
addresses the reasons that prevent the world’s governments from
acting and implementing Peak-Oil emergency plans while providing
a preview of the geopolitical, economical and technological
elements that will shape the post-oil future. The last chapter
talks about the energy policies in Lebanon and what can this
little country do to avoid the disastrous consequences of the
crisis. IT also details the fore coming effects of the energy
crisis by prospecting how the daily life In Lebanon may look
like in the post-peak world.
What sets the book apart from conventional “Energy Crisis” and
“Peak Oil” books is its interdisciplinary approach that views
the crisis from political-cultural-economical as well as
geological perspectives. The reliance on extensive in-depth
analysis on the potentials of alternative energy resources has
enabled the writer to provide accurate calculations about the
maximum capacity of alternative energies, the manageable
time-frame for a world-wide structural transformation, in
addition to the cost and the prospects of such operation.
Next is the description of the book on the back cover:
“My grandfather used to ride a camel, so did my dad. But I
drive a Mercedes, my son drives a Land Rover and so will his
son… but the son of the latter will ride a camel”.
A quote attributed to
Dubai’s governor Sheikh Racheb bin Said Al Maktoom
While you’re reading these lines, the world continues its normal
routine unaware of the worst silent crisis known to modern
civilization; a crisis that we may not realize its consequences
and the magnitude of the required response until it’s too late.
It’s the energy crisis, called by some “The last Crisis”; a
title which does not indicate that the earth will be a utopian
heaven afterwards but because it may be the end of the modern
civilization as we know it.
This is not an astronomical prediction, neither it’s a
Holywoodian scenario about the end of days, it’s the conclusion
of a rigorous analysis of the scientific data concerning the
energy resources worldwide, and it’s also the summary of many
researches and governmental papers done by the world’s best
geologists, physicists, businessmen and military personnel. Many
geological, economical, financial, political and technical
realities are converging today to create the world’s worst
crisis since the industrial revolution.
Despite 2008’s energetic and financial crisis, in which the
price of oil rose to an unprecedented level and was followed by
a global financial and economic meltdown, the energy crisis
remained to a large extent absent from the media and the general
discussion, especially in the Arab countries. The result of this
absence is that business today goes on as usual for most of the
inhabitants of the planet who are left without any clue about
the truth of the crisis and its relation to the worst economic
collapse in the globalization era, they are left without any
knowledge about how this ongoing crisis will affect their lives
and whether they can confront or not. It seems that the world is
sleepwalking to a bottomless abyss with its population left with
no warning signs ahead. This is what this book intends to do.
In this book, you’ll learn about:
• The real reasons of the energy crisis that shape today’s many
international conflicts and transformations.
• Why oil cannot continue to be the main energy source for more
than short decades.
• Why all the types of alternative energy (including renewables)
cannot substitute oil.
• How this crisis is leading the slow decline of the industrial
civilization and flipping the world we know upside down,
starting from the collapse of modern carbon-based agriculture to
the decomposition of transport systems, Banks and information
economy, to the regression of modern medicine, industry and
commerce.
• How will the crisis affect Lebanon and how daily life will
look like the in the post-peak era at this tiny country.
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