Rare Book Monthly
The Most Important Book You Will Ever Read - The Oil Endgame.
Winning the Oil Endgame, by Lovins, Datta, et al.
By Michael Stillman
You must read this book. It may well be the most important one you will ever read. The authors think it is so important that while they will sell it you for $40, they will also let you download it for free. Do it now. Here is the link for a free download or a purchase: www.oilendgame.com/ReadTheBook.html.
The title of the book is The Oil Endgame, written by Amory Lovins, E. Kyle Datta, and others from the nonprofit Rocky Mountain Institute. Oil, which once fueled the enormous growth and prosperity of America, now threatens to be our downfall. Our economy, our security, our very way of life is dependent on oil. Unfortunately, we can no longer begin to supply our own needs. We are hostage to various foreign powers that control the oil we now need to survive. Few of these countries are truly our friends, and most are situated in volatile parts of the world where even a handful of fanatics have the potential to totally disrupt the supply of what has become our lifeblood.
Most of us have tossed our hands in the air and effectively given up. The problem seems so large as to be insoluble. Our demands for energy go up every year, and now new demand from huge developing countries like China and India compete for a dwindling worldwide supply. Meanwhile, terrorists prowl the supply lanes of the largest producers and unfriendly leaders have appeared in places such as Venezuela. What can we counter with? Tiny, cramped, uncomfortable and unsafe cars and windmills? Anything we try to do seems to amount to tilting at the latter. We do nothing because there seems nothing we can do.
Wrong! Here come Lovins and his friends to totally disrupt our comfortable hopelessness. This is a problem that not only must but can be solved. The solution is within reach, it is not overwhelmingly complex, costly, or difficult, and the benefits of resolving this problem go far beyond that of simply securing reasonably priced power. This is a book that will free you of all of the conventional wisdom that has convinced you this problem is intractable. You will be struck with more of those "ah ha" moments, where suddenly you are able to see the issues in another light, then you imagined possible. While there is a certain amount of technical explanation beyond the average reader, this book is written so anyone can understand what the problems are and how they can be solved. And, when you are finished, you will understand what choices you can make, both as a consumer and as a voter, to save your country from this deepening crisis your leaders are ignoring. You can be part of the solution.
