Read Crude Reality: Petroleum in World History

Crude Reality: Petroleum in World History

Brian C. Black

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Description:With world oil supplies dwindling toward inevitable depletion before this century's end--at least by some estimates--energy producers are scrambling to uncover hidden reserves as well as preparing to transition into an era of such renewable resources as wind and solar. With the aim of evaluating the crisis and looking ahead to a postpetroleum society, Black, a PennsylvaniaState University environmental-studies professor, provides a well-written, comprehensive history of humankind's 150-year love affair with the fossil fuel once dubbed "black gold." Not surprisingly, Black points out, first discovery and usage of oil dates back to ancient times when Babylonians and Persians drew it from open pits for medicinal and lighting purposes. Commercially viable drilling didn't really begin, however, until the 1850s with the urgent demand for kerosene; and as automobiles and plastics have become ubiquitous, oil consumption has grown steadily to 87 million barrels a day worldwide. In analyzing modern, oil-related problems such as global warming and Middle Eastern wars, Black emphasizes the huge challenges society faces in shifting from petroleum to alternative energy sources. Booklist As we begin to imagine a world with less and less oil, Brian Black's Crude Reality helps us understand the petroleum era, which was amazingly brief yet profoundly transformative. I recommend this wonderful book to anyone interested in the biggest questions about the past, present, and future. -- Rome, Adam Brian Black is one of America's leading historians of energy and the oil industry, and this book provides scholars and the general public a splendid guide to those subjects. It is concise, thoroughly researched, wide-ranging in focus, and as relevant to our times as history can be. -- Donald E. Worster We have long needed an environmentally oriented global history of petroleum, so Brian Black's book is timely and welcome. A leading expert on the history of oil politics and economy in the United States, he has now expanded his scope to include the other major petroleum regions of the world, from Mexico to the Middle East and Indonesia, as each moved to center stage in the world's strategic politics. He writes with a lively wit, yet conveys the gravity of the challenge we face now, the momentous decline in the fossil fuel era of history. -- Tucker, Richard P. A terrific book on what happens when a world founded on limitless growth collides with the harsh reality of a finite resource. -- Steinberg, TedWe have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with Crude Reality: Petroleum in World History. To get started finding Crude Reality: Petroleum in World History, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

Pages: 272

Format: PDF, EPUB & Kindle Edition

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Release: 2012

ISBN: 0742556549

Description: With world oil supplies dwindling toward inevitable depletion before this century's end--at least by some estimates--energy producers are scrambling to uncover hidden reserves as well as preparing to transition into an era of such renewable resources as wind and solar. With the aim of evaluating the crisis and looking ahead to a postpetroleum society, Black, a PennsylvaniaState University environmental-studies professor, provides a well-written, comprehensive history of humankind's 150-year love affair with the fossil fuel once dubbed "black gold." Not surprisingly, Black points out, first discovery and usage of oil dates back to ancient times when Babylonians and Persians drew it from open pits for medicinal and lighting purposes. Commercially viable drilling didn't really begin, however, until the 1850s with the urgent demand for kerosene; and as automobiles and plastics have become ubiquitous, oil consumption has grown steadily to 87 million barrels a day worldwide. In analyzing modern, oil-related problems such as global warming and Middle Eastern wars, Black emphasizes the huge challenges society faces in shifting from petroleum to alternative energy sources. Booklist As we begin to imagine a world with less and less oil, Brian Black's Crude Reality helps us understand the petroleum era, which was amazingly brief yet profoundly transformative. I recommend this wonderful book to anyone interested in the biggest questions about the past, present, and future. -- Rome, Adam Brian Black is one of America's leading historians of energy and the oil industry, and this book provides scholars and the general public a splendid guide to those subjects. It is concise, thoroughly researched, wide-ranging in focus, and as relevant to our times as history can be. -- Donald E. Worster We have long needed an environmentally oriented global history of petroleum, so Brian Black's book is timely and welcome. A leading expert on the history of oil politics and economy in the United States, he has now expanded his scope to include the other major petroleum regions of the world, from Mexico to the Middle East and Indonesia, as each moved to center stage in the world's strategic politics. He writes with a lively wit, yet conveys the gravity of the challenge we face now, the momentous decline in the fossil fuel era of history. -- Tucker, Richard P. A terrific book on what happens when a world founded on limitless growth collides with the harsh reality of a finite resource. -- Steinberg, TedWe have made it easy for you to find a PDF Ebooks without any digging. And by having access to our ebooks online or by storing it on your computer, you have convenient answers with Crude Reality: Petroleum in World History. To get started finding Crude Reality: Petroleum in World History, you are right to find our website which has a comprehensive collection of manuals listed.
Our library is the biggest of these that have literally hundreds of thousands of different products represented.

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Crude Reality: Petroleum in World History

Crude Reality: Petroleum in World History

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