Not the Future We Ordered: Peak Oil, Psychology, and the Myth of Progress 1st Edition

The U.S. has an energy problem. U.S. society is extremely dependent on fossil fuels and nuclear energy, but there are big problems associated with fossil fuels and nuclear energy. Those problems are not going away, and some of them are getting bigger. Fossil fuel extraction causes pollution, and as we have to drill deeper and strip-mine harder to get to them, the pollution gets worse. It all gets more and more expensive, too. Greer presents an alternative to all of that. We can learn to live within the Earth's limits.I think Greer's approach of treating this problem as a psychological one has something to be said for it. When I was growing up, the Star Trek future seemed so wonderful and promising. But you know what? Star Trek is fiction. Humanity is not going to be doing faster-than-light travel. We're not going to have transporters. We probably are not even going to have matter-antimatter engines. Dealing with that is hard because it's a real loss. The dream is gone.I especially liked the last chapter of Greer's book. If Santa Claus probably isn't coming, it's better to deal with that and move on.My husband is a big fan of Bill Gates' fusion research. He thinks it will solve all our energy problems. Who knows, it's possible he might be right. But it is also quite possible that he might be wrong. Fusion still has a long way to go before we get to proof-of-concept, never mind large scale use. The technical difficulties are still huge. What's the chance that fusion really will end up solving all our energy problems? Maybe only a 25% chance? And if it doesn't work, what then? We will have wasted billions on a dead end. I think Greer's alternative has a better chance of working than Bill Gates' fusion project does. The main advantage of Greer's approach is that we already have all the necessary technology. The only missing part is the psychological one: we have to accept that the hour is late and we have to get this done with the technology and the resources we have now.Unfortunately, this is not a great book. It has very little to say about solutions other than psychological ones. I think the psychological shift is important, but how do we get there? I prefer some of Greer's other books, such as "The Wealth of Nature".The book has some stuff that bothers me. Some of Greer's Freudian and Jungian theories seem ridiculous to me. Greer also has a fascination for parapsychology and the occult. Chapter Four on Peak Oil as deviance is especially bad. Greer seems to think that the reason the scientific community dislikes parapsychology is that the religion of progress needs a steady supply of opponents. I just don't think that's correct. Is it really that impossible that science could dislike parapsychology because parapsychology doesn't work when it is tested rigorously? It makes me wonder if Greer has really done his homework. If Greer has done his homework, it isn't apparent in this book. Therefore I give the book three stars, though maybe three and a half would be better.

I'm old enough to remember the fifties and the idea that better living really was possible through chemistry and that jetpacks and flying cars were going to appear in the showrooms any time now. My parents were pretty typical of this period: my father was a world war two vet who supported our family of four very comfortably on his salary as a PR guy for a chemical company, and my mother was a homemaker who couldn't understand why she was so miserable. In my adult life, it was a puzzle that no matter how hard my husband and I worked, we could never catch up to the lifestyle that seemed so inevitable when I was a child. This book, and its predecessor, The Ecotechnic Future, explains some of the forces that are allowing everyday people to ignore the environmental constraints that are beginning to make themselves known and continue to vote for politicians that are so obviously concerned solely with the welfare of the privileged and powerful. The challenge is to find a productive way to contribute to a best possible future for our descendants. I am encouraged by trends like the locavore movement, which may be restricted to those who can afford the premium cost of regionally produced foods, yet contribute to the resilience of our agricultural sector, which is all too dependent on transportation. I can't help but be grateful that I've lived in the age of wonders, and to have a certain confidence that our great-grandchildren will manage to find their measure of joy in a more sustainable lifestyle. If you have any interest in the principles of ecology, or wonder what the heck is going on with our crazy civilization, you should read these books.

This book really nails down how our society has this elephant at the cocktail party and completely ignores it, and does not mention it for fear of being politically incorrect and afraid of actually having to deal with changing our habits mutually, rather than having our habits forcefully modified by nature and geology. We are those voracious consumers who are wolfing down the products of the consumer economy thinking that our world, which can be compared to a Petri Dish having only a fixed amount of "nutrient," can grow exponentially. Guess what? It can't. Think about Katrina and the weather that is disrupting the lives of 20,000 people in Louisiana now and "government" not having the willpower to help them with what they really need, which is to be offered a way to relocate that has dignity and is sustainable. The market economy ruined the family which could have been the means of support; by scattering us all over the planet in search of corporate work, to sustain the unsustainable status and lifestyle of the once powerful middle class.

I have never been a believer in the idea that the human species trajectory was hard wired from stone age barbarianism to space age utopia. The planet is littered with to many dead empires. The author does a very good job explaining why most of us (Especially in the West) are great believers in the myth of progress. After all we have lived through the cornucopia of rising living standards, food and creature comforts. All built on a declining resource with nothing in the wings to replace it. He doesn't for see a Mad Max world, but does see some big problems. The emotional/psychological toll can be gut wrenching and he discussed how can affect people. High unemployment.. diminishing living standards, smaller homes and forget about everyone having a S.U.V. in the garage. If you are over 40, think of your Grand Parents life and you are probably pretty close to the world to come. Very readable for anyone with at least high school education. Not really a downer.. after all your Grand Parents had fun to without Ipads and trips to Mexico every winter. I highly recommend it.

I read this book in less than a week. I expected more, based on the title and was somewhat disappointed...first, Greer takes pages and pages to explain concepts such as civil religion, double bind and emotional investment, not as they are (clear and straightforward), but from where they originated (for me, an unnecessary detour). For example, he used two pages to explain how Gregory Bateson studied schizophrenic patients, when he could have explained double bind in half a page. At one moment, I thought I was readying a book about schizophrenic and not about people reaction to peak oil.Second, I became even more disappointed at the end of the book, when Greer throws fundamentalist Christians and New Ages together with environmentalists!I have been readying about peak oil, resource depletion, climate change and its impacts, economic and social failure, etc. for more than a year now. I am surprised that a serious author may dispose of something like climate change comparing it to the Rapture or some sort of supernatural mind who will “save” us...climate change is real (I am studying it at a high level course at the university just to understand the facts and develop my own ideas around it). If we compare the complexities and impacts, I would say that those of climate change are much deeper than peak oil. If, by means of a magical turn, everybody (governments and regular citizens of the world) suddenly “get” the peak oil problem and decide to change their lifestyles and plans, we may adapt to a different world, one where energy is not just costly but scarce. And yes, this will impact how we produce, transport and conserve food; will impact how we heat our houses, cook, work, travel, etc. But we will survive...after all; we have lived without oil for many years before.Just to clarify: I do get that now we have more people and that the slide down won’t be easy. It will be terrible, as it already is for many people in many countries in the world...the problem is that peak oil is not the only problem, and probably not the biggest one we have.The way we have exploited the “resources” (and continue to do so) has destroyed diversity, affected water supply and caused changes in the climate that we are just starting to experience. These changes won’t necessarily be “big” or sudden as in “The Day after tomorrow” movie...but they will impact other things we depend on (and not just us, but other species as well, many of which we need so ecosystems function properly so we can get food, air and water).Finally, I found the book a bit unrealistic: it ends with a suggestion to mental health practitioners so they can work with people affected by peak oil awareness...uhmm! I’m not sure whether people affected by unemployment, the need to prepare their families and communities for an uncertain future and probably already affected by some of the things peak oil, resource scarcity, etc bring to them would have the time or means to pay a psychologist or counsellor...The book makes a good effort to explain what happens to people who are in denial. It also explains why governments and others in power seem to ignore peak oil and make decisions in the other direction. But they do exactly the same with biodiversity extinction, water scarcity, climate change, social injustice, economic inequality, etc.I would have liked more detail on how to introduce the concept to people in denial, or a study on why some “get” it so fast and with minimal pain and some reject the concept fiercely.I was also expecting more vision on how to mentally and emotionally “prepare” for an uncertain (and probably terrible) future...I know this is tricky, but it would be good a try.

As with all John Greer's books, it was written in a clear and informative style displaying the usual insights typical of his writing.