Book Description
If the US continues with current policies, the next decades will be marked by war, economic collapse, and environmental catastrophe. Resource depletion and population pressures are about to catch up with us, and no one is prepared. The political élites, especially in the US, are incapable of dealing with the situation, and have in mind a punishing game of "Last One Standing."
The alternative is "Powerdown," a strategy that will require tremendous effort and economic sacrifice in order to reduce per-capita resource usage in wealthy countries, develop alternative energy sources, distribute resources more equitably, and reduce the human population humanely but systematically over time. While civil society organizations push for a mild version of this, the vast majority of the world's people are in the dark, not understanding the challenges ahead, nor the options realistically available.
Powerdown speaks frankly to these dilemmas. Avoiding cynicism and despair, it begins with an overview of the likely impacts of oil and natural gas depletion and then outlines four options for industrial societies during the next decades:
- Last One Standing: the path of competition for remaining resources;
- Powerdown: the path of cooperation, conservation, and sharing;
- Waiting for a Magic Elixir: wishful thinking, false hopes, and denial;
- Building Lifeboats: the path of community solidarity and preservation.
Finally, the book explores how three important groups within global society - the power élites, the opposition to the élites (the antiwar and anti-globalization movements, et al: the "Other Superpower"), and ordinary people - are likely to respond to these four options. Timely, accessible and eloquent, Powerdown is crucial reading for our times.
Listen to an interview with Richard Heinberg from WRPI.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent overview..........2007-10-11
As with "The Long Emergency" I won't go into too much detail since there are already many excellent reviews of this book. However, I do feel it is important to add my voice since all the evidence points to the fact that what Heinberg and the other "peak oil" folks are saying is reality...
Heinberg has done a remarkable job of presenting the overall picture of the main issue: our reliance on cheap oil as the basis for civilization and how we are now at the time when cheap oil is about to disappear. He presents the facts in a very quick way since his other book, "The Party's Over" goes into much more detail on the subject.
He then presents the reader with four possible scenarios to deal with the problem. Unfortunately, the first one ("last man standing") is basically a great die-off due to resource wars and appears to be our present choice. The second one, "power down", involves massive global reductions in consumption. It makes the most sense but, of course, is beyond any political level to implement. The next one is some sort of new-age "technology will save us" way to sleepwalk into a die-off. And finally there is the individual and, potentially, community-level life-boat building solution.
To be honest, the prospects even for the last solution are daunting. However, I must say that Heinberg gives all possibilities equal presentation and stays remarkably calm and neutral as he develops all possibilities. The choice is up to the reader...
The writing style is engaging and his sidebar "stories" are excellent. This is a quick and interesting read.
This book is really just a simplistic view of "Limits to Growth" and Jantsch's seminal "The Self-Organizing Universe: Scientific and Human Implications of the Emerging Paradigm of Evolution" where these projections were made a long time ago. Too bad the baby-boomers didn't read and learn back then...
Weak; Verbose on non-thesis topics; Disappointing.......2007-07-15
The first 85 pages (of a 186 page book) are dedicated to verbosely enumerating the arguments from his previous book (without effectively arguing his reasoning). He also spends quite a bit of space to describing his opinions of the current U.S. administration. While I might agree with his political opinions, I believe that he undermines the thesis of this book in the minds of a lot more people. It is this reason why I would categorize this book is really nothing more than a "preaching to the choir" book.
The heart of the book is a 28 page chapter named "Powerdown" which provides some suggestions, but is mostly fluff. Probably the most important page in the chapter is the list of books that actually do discuss the powerdown scenario.
The third chapter is about how technology is unlikely to save us from dwindling energy.
The fourth chapter is about how people would react to the coming situation. He spends quite a while rehashing Gibbon's arguments on Rome and Diamond's arguments about ecological collapse. If you've read those two books you'll quickly notice that Heinberg and these two authors are on completely different planes of scholarship.
I was excited that he discussed, however briefly, how we might save information from the coming Dark Ages. Though, it was for only two pages.
Overall I thought that the author's arguments were weak and there really wasn't much that I got out of this book. I hope that other (and future) books in this genre will describe and defend the thesis better, and they should give more suggestions of what to do.
My eyes will never be the same........2007-04-29
From the article titled "Document Says Oil Chiefs Met With Cheney Task Force", in the Washington Post, "The White House went to great lengths to keep these meetings secret, and now oil executives may be lying to Congress about their role in the Cheney task force," Lautenberg said.
You might find the answer for why we are in Iraq, if you were to read "Powerdown: Options and Actions for a Post-Carbon World". This book is not a fiction based peak oil theory written by some fanatic. If the CIA were to have read this book, I think their internal book review would be a shocking confirmation. With the connection in the recent news of Cheney's secret energy meeting with oil execs, the CIA to Cheney, Cheney to the oil industry, the unprecedented preemptive war in Iraq, the facts in this book about how horrible the prospect, limited the options are and awful I feel to contemplate it all, all point to the fact that we, the American people don't want to know the truth, but read it or not, we will know that truth soon as we are forced to deal with it. How bad is the situation? On a scale from 0 to 10, it is off the scale.
Nostalgia for the good ol' days will seem sad and silly, for these days are the last of the good ol' days. you will not have any problem believing it unless you do not finish it or choose to live in denial. All good things must end and concidering the way the world has squandered a non-renewable resource like oil, it is a soon to be obvious and logical eventuality.
How much can you afford to pay for a gallon of gas in today's economy? How much will gas cost in a collapsed economy where your money isn't worth 10 cents on a dollar?
Who could ever have imagined 9/11? Or even what possible reasons there could be for a 9/11 conspiracy? Or presidential election fraud 2 elections in a row? A democratic government that does not have to tell you anything except that, "that information is secret" or "that information would jeopardize the security of" what or who? I can't really say I want to know either.
What I see now when I go about my days are people of all ages enjoying a good life that they do not know is about to come to an end, objects I use like monofilament fishing line, my toothbrush, anything plastic or that comes in plastic or in part is plastic, clothes, shoes, carpet and more all made from oil. Things I do and once enjoyed without a thought, drive to the store, watch a movie, listen to music, to the radio, and the variety of food available to me, may all be unaffordable even if available in my lifetime, what is left of it anyway. Do I want to feel this way? No. Do I want you to? No.
In the sci-fi movie "They Live" an economic crisis brings unemployed Nada (Roddy Piper) to L.A. in search of work. What he finds instead is that the ruling elite of the world are aliens in disguise, their aim being to keep humans in a state of mindless consumerism. His discovery comes when he dons a pair of special sunglasses made by a resistance group and sees for the first time reality unadorned. Billboards, store signs, magazine covers--all bear subliminal messages to OBEY, to CONSUME, to have NO INDEPENDENT THOUGHT. Money itself says THIS IS YOUR GOD. But worst of all, with these glasses you see which of us are really hideous, bug-eyed aliens.
Reading "Powerdown" is like putting on a pair of special sunglasses but you can only wish you could take them off. My eyes will never be the same.
Visionary.......2007-03-09
A must read for anyone concerned about the future. Heinberg understands the factors that will shape our world in the years to come as well as anyone.
PowerDown is a powerful book.......2007-01-11
Although the concept of Peak Oil and the implications it brings is growing in awareness amongst the general public, most people still don't understand what we will be facing in our lifetimes. This is an excellent primer for those who want to learn about peak oil, it's ramifications and what you can do to cope with this very real eventuality. Share it with those you love.
Book Description
General Management: Processes and Action by David Garvin focuses on implementation, and the way that general managers get things done. Typically they work through processes like strategic planning, business planning and budgeting to move their organizations forward. A deeper understanding of the skills necessary to influence the design, direction and functioning of processes is essential to effective management. The aim of the General Management is to develop in students a deeper understanding of these activities and their links to performance. The author, David Garvin, is known for his cases. His cases are currently being used at such schools as Wharton, Stanford, Columbia and MIT.
Customer Reviews:
Basically a Primer.......2007-01-01
If you are absolutely brand-new to process improvement (I was), this book will be useful for you. It will teach you the basics of Goal-Question-Measurement (GQM), how to get some visibility to your efforts, etc. However, its shelf-life is rather short, and it does not lend itself well as a reference.
If you've been through a process improvement initiative before, or if you're in an organization that takes this kind of stuff mildly seriously already, most of this will be review and self-evident.
Advice So Practical, It Makes you Wonder Why SPI Is So Hard!.......2003-08-14
This book is simply fantastic. Neil Potter and Mary Sakry show you, simply and clearly, how to tie your process improvement activities to the things that matter in your business. Rather than an onerous "why are we improving for improvement sake", this book shows how to find what hurts, make it better and raise maturity regardless of what improvement model you may use. The book can be read in about an hour, and there are many appendicies that provide practical and easy to understand examples. Reading the book doesn't make process improvement easy (change is never easy), but it puts you down the right path. The best chance of institutionalizing real process improvement is through solving the real problems of the company and its employees and customers.
I especially recommend that company executives read this book, since they often set the tone for a process improvement effort.
This book is a must read for anyone heading up a process improvement practice.
Tells you how to "just do it".......2002-11-15
The development of quality software has proven to be one of the most difficult tasks ever to arise in the brains of humans. With so many ways to fail and so few paths to success, there is not a single software shop without a great deal of room for improvement. However, determining that a shop needs to improve is about as difficult as hitting the ground if you slip on ice. The hard part is identifying where the changes should be made and making sure that real change is done rather than some simple shuffling of resources or pointless changing of names.
That point is where this book becomes valuable. It is a concise document, describing in broad, but not excruciatingly fine detail how to improve processes for managing the construction of software. The names of the chapters summarize the basics of any well-constructed process: developing a plan, implementing the plan and checking progress. It also gives you sound advice as to how to track the changes in the process, so important to convince those doing the changing that what you are doing is in their interest.
I recommend that all managers of software development projects examine this book. It will also show you how to stay on track, as it is all too easy to find excuses to significantly deviate from any plan.
UN-common sense strategies.......2002-04-05
This is one of those books that you'd think would be common sense knowledge, but isnt. I've been working in process improvement for 22 years and this is the first book I've found that collects all of the strategies I've found successful in one place!
The book starts by showing how easy it is to get "lost in the trees" (and kill a bunch of them in the process) if you try to "do CMM" like most people do the first time around. The authors do a great job of showing how to keep the main thing (delivering better quality software) the main thing and avoid creating mountains of useless documentation.
I would recommend that anyone looking at achieving higher levels of maturity in CMM, SPICE, or ISO 9000 read this and take a reality check on their plans.
Pragmatic Process Improvement!.......2002-04-04
The numerous examples, cases, graphs, and templates give the reader the tools to start the improvements in his or her own organization. Furthermore, the book is fun and easy to read. To me and my colleagues, it'll be very useful!
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Corporate Strategy in Action: The Strategy Process in British Road Services
Geoffrey Lewis
Manufacturer: Routledge
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 0415004101 |
Book Description
Improving business processes, whatever or wherever they are in the enterprise, is an acknowledged way of improving the bottom line. Whether it's re-engineering, Six Sigma, TQM, or any number of other techniques, the problem is that it's usually such a huge undertaking that it's more work than it's worth. Kelvin F. Cross proposes that results can be achieved much more easily by going in and performing "surgical strikes" on specific areas that need improvement, without turning the entire thing into a "science project." And now his method is available for anyone seeking to streamline process structures.
Using case studies from companies including AT&T, GE, and Weight Watchers International to illustrate the remarkable results that can be achieved, Quick Hits sums up the ten key areas that are perfect targets for surgical strikes, demonstrating exactly how to handle each type of problem. By showing how to determine which approach to use for any given situation, the book gives readers an arsenal of tactical and judicious methods designed to be low risk, low cost, and very effective.
Customer Reviews:
One of the best books in the BPM space.......2006-02-28
I have read over half a dozen business process related books, but found Quick Hits to be one of the most practically helpful. This book does not cover IT's BPI role in detail ... perhaps because we already have a lot of literature on the topic. Otherwise, Quick Hits has lots of realworld examples from the author's corporate experience. The writing style is jargon-free and friendly. In my opinion, the ROI from Quick Hits should be pretty high!
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Private Action and the Public Good
Manufacturer: Yale University Press
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Social Movements and Organization Theory (Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics)
ASIN: 0300064497 |
Book Description
Can private nonprofit organizations provide more and higher-quality services than governments or for-profit businesses? Will nonprofits really increase social connectedness and civic engagement? In this book, sociologists, political scientists, management scholars, and others consider the nature of the "public good" and how private or charitable organizations relate to it.
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Business Agility and Information Technology Diffusion: IFIP TC8 WG 8.6 International Working Conference, May 8-11, 2005, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (IFIP International ... Federation for Information Processing)
Manufacturer: Springer
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ASIN: 0387255893 |
Book Description
This book addresses issues related to business agility and the diffusion of Information Technology (IT). Success, even survival, in today's business environment has been made complex and difficult by technologically-based competitive pressure. One promising strategy is to be agile and ready to adapt quickly to changes in the environment or market. Such strategy takes shape as an agile software development, agile manufacturing, agile modeling and agile iterations. In contrast, successful IT diffusion is known to be a process that takes time and careful effort. Many IT projects that succeeded in developing a product have subsequently failed in changing the behavior of the target group when diffusion just didn't happen. Therefore this volume responds to the question: What is the relationship between agility and IT diffusion?
The book's scope covers information systems and technology issues, as well as organizational and managerial issues, related to agility and IT diffusion. The planned perspectives include topics such as diffusion of agile methods, enabling business agility with IT, creating agile environments that facilitate diffusion of IT, theories and frameworks for understanding diffusion and agility issues, best practices relating to business agility and IT diffusion, software process improvement and agility, diffusion studies of specific agile technologies, and impacts of diffusion of IT agile methods.
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Business Process Re-Engineering Action Kit
Michael Balle , and
Michael Ballbe
Manufacturer: Kogan Page
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Corporate PACs and Federal Campaign Financing Laws: Use or Abuse of Power?
Ann B. Matasar
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Books:
- Predictable Surprises: The Disasters You Should Have Seen Coming, and How to Prevent Them (Leadership for the Common Good)
- Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling
- Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling
- Project Management ToolBox: Tools and Techniques for the Practicing Project Manager
- Project Resource Manual (PRM) : The CSI Manual of Practice
- QBQ! The Question Behind the Question: Practicing Personal Accountability in Work and in Life
- Quantitative Analysis for Management with CD (9th Edition)
- Quantitative Analysis for Management with CD (9th Edition)
- Resilience Engineering: Concepts And Precepts
- Results Rule!: Build a Culture That Blows the Competition Away
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The Party's Over: Oil, War And The Fate Of Industrial Societies
Beyond Oil: The View from Hubbert's Peak
Twilight in the Desert: The Coming Saudi Oil Shock and the World Economy
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