• Start Here
• Why teotw?
• Top Recs

• The Human Predicament
  • Population: The Elephant in the Room
  • Humans & Choice-Making
  • Sociobiology
• Fossil Fuels
  • Oil & Gas: Geology, E&P, Reserves
  • Peak Oil
    • Intro to Peak Oil
    • Books & Key Online Sources
    • Other Resources
  • Coal
  • Sands & Shale
• Energy, Continued
  • Nuclear Energy
  • Alternative/ Renewable/"Green"
  • EROI & Energy Analysis
  • Energy & Economics
• Other Natural Resources
  • Ecosystems
  • Fresh water
  • Food & agriculture
  • The Oceans
  • Metals
• Earth's Climate System
  • The Sun
  • Earth's atmosphere & energy balance; greenhouse effect
  • The carbon cycle
  • The biosphere & ecosystems
• Climate Change
  • Ancient climate & climate change
  • Modern climate change
    • Climate Change: Introductory & General
    • Evidence
    • Analysis of denial and delay
  • Climate models & the IPCC
  • Projected impacts of future climate change
  • Mitigation & adaptation
    • Intro to M & A
    • Geo-Engineering
    • Various M & A
  • Case studies
    • The Arctic
    • California
• Economics
  • Some Basics
  • Current Crisis: History & Underlying Causes
  • Current Crisis: Outlook
  • Current Crisis: Miscellaneous
  • Current Crisis: California
  • The Real Numbers
  • Ecological Economics
• Possible Futures: TEOTW(AYKI)
  • Possible Futures: Introduction
  • The Fate of Earlier Societies
  • The Ecological Perspective
  • Dire Projections
  • Thoughtful Realism
  • Transition / A New Paradigm
  • BAU / Optimism

Peak Oil: Key Web Sites & Books

Web sites and books that provide extended analysis and discussion of Peak Oil and humanity's dimly perceived appointment with a future that lacks this cheap, abundant, unrenewable energy resource.

The Oil Drum (TOD): Independent site that focuses on Peak Oil and other energy issues. Professionally run and written, with (generally) valuable discussion from readers. Many posts include quantitative analyses, but are presented in comprehensible language. Home page links to many other energy-related web resources. Highly recommended. RSS feed.

The Energy Bulletin: Independent site that focuses on the peak in global energy supply. Overlaps The Oil Drum in content, but little overlap in authors and articles. RSS feed.

Shell's Scenarios: I'm not exhorting you to buy Shell's products, but its high-level management sees the climatic, energy-supply, and financial crisis clearly. At this link, download two PDFs: Energy scenarios to 2050 (2008), and Signals & Signposts (Feb 2011).

The Dry Dipstick: A "metadirectory" for Peak Oil resources

Parts 2 and 3 of Evolutionary psychology and peak oil: A Malthusian-inspired "heads up" for humanity (Dr. Michael Mills) focus on Peak Oil. This single, huge page, crammed with graphics, requires a long load time and lots of scrolling; be patient.

Matthew Simmons, Twilight in the Desert (2005): Saudi Arabia, Peak Oil, and the world economy. He also has made freely available dozens of his presentations on Peak Oil and the petroleum industry.

The Energy Export Databrowser: Very helpful, easy-to-understand interactive tool for examining exports and imports by country, region, economic group, etc.

Kenneth Duffeyes, Beyond Oil (2005): subtitled "The View from Hubbert's Peak."

Richard Heinberg, The Party's Over (2003) and Powerdown (2004): Early warnings about PO.

Morgan Downey, Oil 101 (2009): Neutral presentation of oil/peak oil, and how the oil industry and oil markets work.

Jeff Rubin, Why Your World is About to Get a Whole Lot Smaller (2009): Peak Oil and the end of globalization.

• Contact Info
• For Students
• For Teachers