Peak Oil: High Tide for an Oil Addicted World/Introduction

The purpose of this book is to provide a simple but comprehensive overview of the phenomenon known as ‘peak oil’. There are many books and other resources we recommend that cover peak oil and all its associated topics in detail, but we wanted to create an introduction for those who are new to the topic. We hope that what follows succeeds in being an overview, giving sufficient detail of most aspects of peak oil to be a firm grounding in the topic while encouraging deeper reading, but given in basic, layman's terms so that everyone can understand the situation at the high-tide of the hydrocarbon age.

What this means is that we will look at:

• what oil is, where it comes from, and what we do with it;
• what peak oil is;
• why people are confident that we are at, or nearly at the Peak;
• what the consequences of peak oil are likely to be for you, your family, society, and the world;
• what solutions there might be, including possible alternatives to oil; and
• what actions need to be taken now to mitigate the likely problems peak oil.

During the years we have been looking at this topic we have come across many questions that people ask, often in the hope that what peak oil entails isn’t actually true, so we have modeled this book on a gigantic FAQ, posing questions and answering each in turn.

A quick note about the people behind this book. We come from a variety of backgrounds united with one concern – the peak and decline of oil is the most imminent challenge modern society faces with the most incredibly serious potential consequences. To tackle this problem we need full awareness, debate and immediate action. No part of our society is immune from the decline of oil. This book is part of that awareness raising process.