[Scpg] Richard Heinberg's new book "Peak Everything" on psychology's role in transition

[LBUZZELL at aol.com]

Richard Heinberg's new book "Peak Everything" is now available from New  
Society publishers, and it's a must-read, imo, for everyone interested in  
facilitating the transition from what eco-philosopher Joanna Macy calls  "industrial 
growth society" into "life sustaining civilization" in the next  few decades.  
 
What's great about Heinberg is his calm, reasonable and  low-key presentation 
of a truly stunning situation.  We all know bits  and pieces of it -- climate 
change, end of cheap fossil fuels, overpopulation,  habitat destruction, etc. 
-- but he brings it all together in its  up-to-the-minute form so we can view 
the entire challenge and its current  direction.  
 
"It is hard to escape the conclusion that while the 20th century saw the  
greatest and most rapid expansion of the scale, scope and complexity of  human 
societies in history, the 21st will see contraction and  simplification.  The 
only real question is whether societies will contract  and simplify 
intelligently or in an uncontrolled, chaotic fashion."
 
"None of this is easy to contemplate," he admits. "Nor can this information  
easily be discussed in polite company: the suggestion that we are at or near 
the  peak of population and consumption levels" is especially taboo.  "The  
result: a general, societal pattern of denial."
 
In a chapter entitled "The Psychology of Peak Oil and Climate Change"  
Heinberg looks at the role of psychology in the coming decades. He asks "Could  the 
scientific understanding of human psychology help change our collective  
thinking proactively so as to minimize the chaos and suffering and maximize  
positive adaptive behavior?" 
 
"Those with psychological training may play as important a role in our  
collective adaptation to Peak Oil and Climate Change as energy experts and  
permaculturists.  The former should perhaps be gearing up to treat not only  
individuals but whole communities."  Yes!
 
He also addresses other subjects I'm very interested in: the psychological  
stages of waking up to our present situation; Joanna Macy's  
despair-to-empowerment work; going beyond the Elizabeth Kubler-Ross stages of  grief into 
action; collective PTSD; using the addiction/dependency model to  understand 
"addiction to oil;" and social marketing.
 
I highly recommend this book.
 



************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.permaculture-guilds.org/pipermail/southern-california-permaculture/attachments/20071022/40ad27ce/attachment.html>