The Gulf Arab states became rich by accident. Their golden ticket was oil, which has become the lifeblood of their social and economic systems. But they are prone to become a ‘vanishing Eden’, if the oil curse endures further and economic transformation remains a mirage. LIFE AFTER OIL highlights the economic vulnerability of the Gulf states after the oil party ends. The region depends heavily on imports financed by petrodollars. So, when demand for oil sinks and prices plummet, or when oil and gas reserves ultimately vanish, their survival will be extremely challenged. LIFE AFTER OIL raises the alarm to the impending survival challenges to face the burgeoning Gulf societies in the post-oil era, and tackles the ultimate question: what will the future look like?

After Oil explores the social, cultural and political changes needed to make possible a full-scale transition from fossil fuels to new forms of energy. Written collectively by participants in the first After Oil School, After Oil explains why the adoption of renewable, ecologically sustainable energy sources is only the first step of energy transition. Energy plays a critical role in determining the shape, form and character of our daily existence, which is why a genuine shift in our energy usage demands a wholesale transformation of the petrocultures in which we live. After Oil provides readers with the resources to make this happen.

From Simon & Schuster, The World After Oil is Bruce Nussbaum's exploration of the shifting axis of power wealth. As Bruce Nussbaum describes, in the race for the future, as the book makes clear, only those nations most capable of meeting the demands of the new age will realize its promise of wealth and power.

The British Economy After Oil (1988) examines the future paths for the British economy as North Sea oil runs out. It considers the argument that the future lies in the promotion and growth of services, as well as the counter-argument that the future lies with the development of a strong manufacturing base for the economy.

Author John Michael Greer, host of the blog "The Archdruid Report," a weekly peak oil blog, brings together twelve original tales selected from among his readers. Each story offers glimpses into possible futures where oil scarcity and lower energy availability spell the end of modern industrial society.

Substantial evidence suggests that we are currently living at the peak of oil production with few prospects for cheap oil ever returning. Yet the media, politicians and regular people have hardly started to talk about what this means. Oil literally runs our societies from transportation to food production to economic activity. Without oil, everything stops. There are powerful arguments that if we fail to increase oil production, we will also fail to grow our economy as a whole. For oil importing western nations the news is bleak; higher oil prices seem to put a glass ceiling on their economic growth, making current debt problems worse no matter what monetary and economic policies we might choose. The World After Cheap Oil offers a thorough package of information about oil; its uses and its role in our society’s important sectors. It presents the most prominent substitutes and alternatives, and their limits and promises. It also delves deep into the many risks, problems and mechanisms that can make the world after cheap oil a much more unstable place for nations and humanity as a whole. The book also explains why there has been so little public debate on the subject, and what the future might look like after oil production starts its final, terminal decline.

Because this industrial activity posed such a threat to the fragile ecosystem, biologists had been monitoring the region's water, soil, vegetation, and wildlife for some time before the oil spill. Thus, we have before-and-after data about the habitat - the only oil spill anywhere for which this is true.

Whiting, Indiana Saturday, August 27, 1955 Sunrise, 6:11 a.m. Its 80 degrees in the shade, and most of the citys residents are still trying to sleep off an airless, oppressive night. But inside the plant at Whitings biggest employer (and one of the worlds largest oil refineries), something has gone horribly wrongsomething that threatens to destroy the entire community. The clock changes. 6:12 a.m. This is the story of what happened at One Minute After Sunrise on that cataclysmic day in 1955, spoken in the words of the people who lived through it. Its the story of how, in the passing of a single instant, their lives and their community were changed forever.