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20/06/2004: "The Shape Of Things To Come"
Four books about the future of our world caught my attention recently, touching on the sensitive issues of energy, climate change and global security.
The End Of Oil, Paul C. Roberts
On oil dependency, disminishing reserves, the transition to other energy sources and the consequences on our economy, political system and way of life. How will we break our addiction to oil? And what will we use in its place to maintain a global economy and political system that is entirely dependent on cheap, readily available energy? In this book, Paul Roberts shows what is likely to happen, why the transition is likely to be complicated, traumatic and dangerous and suggests how and where the coming battle will be fought, and what victory will mean for ordinary people. 
High Tide: News from a Warming World, Mark Lynas
On the impact of climate change around the world, using scientific evidence and vivid examples affecting people and how they are coping to adapt to the new reality. From houses being washed over by sand in China to the thawing of the Alaskan Arctic, the author witnesses some of the worst impacts of climate change at first hand. Some, like the floods in the UK, are near home. Others - like the drowning Pacific island of Tuvalu - are a world away from the car tailpipes and factory chimneys that are causing global warming in the first place. 
An Abrupt Climate Change Scenario and its Implications for United States National Security, Peter Schwarz and Doug Randall
Based on plausible climate change scenarios, evaluates the impact of global warming on Earth's human carrying capacity and consequences for global stability. The report explores how such an abrupt climate change scenario could potentially de-stabilize the geo-political environment, leading to skirmishes, battles, and even war due to resource constraints such as:
1) Food shortages due to decreases in net global agricultural production
2) Decreased availability and quality of fresh water in key regions due to shifted precipitation patters, causing more frequent floods and droughts
3) Disrupted access to energy supplies due to extensive sea ice and storminess
Remaking Our Everyday World for the Twenty-First Century, James Howard Kunstler
On the changes in lifestyle in America required to adapt to a changing energy and climate reality. In The Geography of Nowhere James Howard Kunstler visited the "tragic sprawlscape of cartoon architecture, junked cities, and ravaged countryside" America had become and declared that the deteriorating environment was not merely a symptom of a troubled culture, but one of the primary causes of American discontent. In Home from Nowhere Kunstler not only shows that the original American Dream - the desire for peaceful, pleasant places in which to work and live - still has a strong hold on imaginations, but also offers innovative, eminently practical ways to make that dream a reality.
