Short reviews:

Peak Everything, by Richard Heinberg, 2008, Clairview, ISBN978-1-905570-13-3

This book is not about peak oil; instead, it explores how we can navigate the 'perilous time' between the end of the age of oil and the age of climate change.  Peak oil and climate change are different issues, but they interact and influence each other; how we come with one, influences how we cope with the other.  Heinberg points out that in this century, we will see an end to growth in all of the following:

• Population
• Grain production (total and per capita)
• Uranium production
• climate stability
• fresh water availability per capita
• arable land in agricultural production
• wild fish harvests,
• yearly extraction of copper, platinum, silver, gold, zinc and a number of other rare and precious metals.

At present, climate change and resource depletion (including oil) tend to be treated separately, but we need to see them and tackle them together if we are to make headway against threats of disaster.

Climate Wars by Gwynne Dyer, 2008, Scribe, ISBN 978-1-921372-22-3

Dyer presents a series of plausible scenarios that could cause war between nations in coming decades.  One of these is the world in 2045 in which the European Union has collapsed, Italy south of Rome has been overrun by refugees from North Africa, Spain, northern Italy and Turkey all have nuclear weapons and are seeking to enforce food sharing on the better-fed coutnries of northern Europe; Russia is 'the undisputed great power of Asia" as the consequence of drastic environmental changes in China (decline of rainfall over the north Chinese plain and collapse of major river systems); southern India is emerging as a major regional power which northern India, Pakistan and Bangladesh remains wept by famine and anarchy.

Dyer's  predictions are those of a political economist and political commentator based on scientific projections of climate change that are now widely accepted.  If you want a cheery Christmas DO NOT read this book.  On the other hand, if you can look to the future with an unflinching realism that is the start of doing something practical to forestall the worst, this book is a MUST.

The world is Blue by Sylvia Earle, 2009, ISBN 978-1-4262-0541-5

Sylvia Earle is a marine scientist and National Geographic's 'Explorer-in-Residence.  She is a passionate advocate for the oceans and this book explains how human activities are having widespread damaging effects on the life-supporting capacity of the oceans.  Wasteful fishing techniques, pollution, global warming and changing chemical composition of the atmosphere, all combine to cause severe damage and change to critical marine ecosystems. 

Earle suggests what we need to do to halt or reverse the changes, including improvements to the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the creation of more marine protected areas, farming 'low in the food chain' (i.e. aquaculture based on seaweeds and algae or permaculture principles, rather than caged fish farming of marine carnivores such as tuna, salmon and barramundi).  She also suggests that 'knowing is the key to caring" and as we get to understand more about the oceans and their unique life-forms, we will become better stewards.