Reading "Why your world is about to get a whole lot smaller"
This book, by a former chief economist of CIBC, is facinating if somewhat depressing. Anybody interesting in profiting from the upcoming and permanent surge in oil prices would be well advised to read this book. At least you can make some money out of an economic armageddon that you won't be able to stop anyway. It doesn't have to be buying oil companies, just posotioning yourself to make money as other scramble for less oil dependant solutions and that could be as simple and easy as planting carrots locally to as risky as buying oil futures. Basicaly we (humanity)can't afford oil and the next 10 years are going to prove that.
Apparently he also suggested in a recent presentation that the current gulf oil leak may well do for oil what 3 Mile island did for nuclear energy. Personally I hope so.
It's very well written and the kind of wake up call that none of us want but all of us need.
Comments
Yeah there are hopeful bits
Yeah there are hopeful bits in there not least the fact that economics will support, even force, the change. What I find scarier is the powerful forces that will work hard to maintain the status quo for personal gain at the expense of the environment. The author makes a pretty powerful case that if left to its own devices the pendulum would already be swinging pretty heavily back to the US. The cost is the overall standard of living in North America - everything has to become more expensive relative o where it is today. It's not great message but the way that I look at it is that it is hardly Armageddon to pay $200 for cheap shoes or $4 per liter of gas. It will just force us to make much better choices.
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Oh how frightened I am to
Oh how frightened I am to read books like this.
I know we have to face the music, but it all seems so hopeless from certain perspectives!
Does this book outline any hopeful stuff? I think it is really important to make sure that when we are talking about change we always include balance of the good with the scary. It is the only way many of us can manage to digest reality.
What do you think?