Max S. Dunn

Book - High Noon For Natural Gas

Posted by: Max Dunn on August 21, 2008 09:25:10

High Noon for Natural Gas: The New Energy Crisis
by Julian Darley

There are two types of peak oil (or in this case "peak gas") people: those that think we will need to go back to the way the world was 100 years ago, and those that think we can move forward with sustainable energy. The author of this book, Julian Darley, is certainly in the first camp. While he points out some problems with natural gas - in particular that gas consumption is growing but liquifying gas and shipping by boat is expensive and difficult - his real agenda is to rally against suburbs, globalization, politicians, television and growth.  His solution?  "We need to have subzero growth, in other words, we need to begin to contract human activities until they match the earth's carrying capacity."

There is some good information in this book and his plea for conservation and developing sustainable energy sources are well placed. However, since 2004 when this book was published, some additional natural gas deposits have been discovered and they are increasing recovery rates from existing fields, so it is likely that natural gas will last longer than he projected - at least longer than oil will. So in the end, I found this book to be more alarmist than helpful.