Power - Limits and prospects for human survival

POWER - why giving it up might just save us.

A rich, moving, and necessary treatise from our most accomplished, coherent, and compassionate thinker on sustainable futures.

- Douglas Rushkoff, author, Present Shock and Team Human

Impeccably researched and masterfully written, this book explains how and why humanity is driving itself off the cliff.

- Dahr Jamail, author, The End of Ice

This is the story of power - humanity's power over nature and the power of some people over others.

How has Homo sapiens become powerful enough to threaten a mass extinction and disrupt the Earth's climate? Why have we developed so many ways of oppressing one another? Can we change our relationship with power to avert ecological catastrophe, reduce social inequality, and stave off collapse? These questions - and their answers - will determine our fate.

Power traces how four key elements developed to give humans extraordinary power: tool making ability, language, social complexity, and the ability to harness energy sources - most significantly, fossil fuels. It asks whether we have, at this point, overpowered natural and social systems, and if we have, what we can do about it.

Most crucially, the book explores how self-limitation of power is rooted in evolution and human history and why, at this vital moment, we must rapidly relearn the lessons of power if humanity is to have a thriving future.

Power reminds us that Richard Heinberg is one of the most important public intellectuals in the conversation about society's future.

- Chuck Collins, author, The Wealth Hoarders

Heinberg's panoramic review of known forms of power is both sobering and inspiring.

- Joanna Macy, author, World As Lover, World As Self

Richard Heinberg is the author of thirteen previous books, including The Party's Over, Powerdown, Peak Everything, and The End of Growth. He is Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute and is widely regarded as one of the world's most effective communi- cators of the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels. He lives in Santa Rosa, CA.

List of contents

List of Figures

List of Sidebars

Acknowledgments

Introduction

1. Power in Nature: From Mitochondria to Emotion and Deception

The Basis of Life's Power

Power and Bodies

Power and Behaviors

Proto-Human Powers

2. Power in the Pleistocene: On Spears, Fires, Furs, Words, and Flutes - And Why Men Are Such Power-Hogs

Hands and Stone

The Fire Ape

Skins

From Grunts to Sentences

Gender Power

The Power of Art

3. Power in the Holocene: The Rise of Social Inequality

Gerdening, Big Men, and Chiefs: Power from Food Production

Plow and Plunder: Kings and the First States

Herding Cattle, Flogging Slaves: Power from Domestication

Stories of Our Ancestors: Religion and Power

Tools for Wording: Communication Technologies

Numbers on Money

Pathologies of Power

4. Power in the Anthropocene: The Wonderful World of Fossil Fuels

It's All Energy

The Coal Train

Oil, Cars, Airplanes, and the New Middle Class

Oil-Age Wars and Weapons

Electrifying!

The Human Superorganism

5. Overpowered: The Fine Mess We've Gotten Ourselves Into

Climate Chaos and Its Remedies

Disappearance of Wild Nature

Resource Depletion

Soaring Economic Inequality

Pollution

Overpopulation and Overconsumption

Global Debt Bubble

Weapons of Mass Destruction

6. Optimum Power: Sustaining Our Power Over Time

Involuntary Power Limits: Death, Extinction, Collapse

Self-Limitation in Natural and Human-Engineered Systems

Taboos, Souls, and Enlightenment

Taxes, Regulations, Activism, and Rationing: Power Restraint in the Modern World

Games, Disarmament, and Degrowth

Denial, Optimism Bias, and Irrational Exuberance

7. The Future of Power: Learning to Live Happily Within Limits

All Against All

Trade-Offs Along the Path of Self-Restraint

The Fate of the Superorganism

Questioning Technology

Learning to Live with Less Energy and Stuff

Lessening Inequality

Population: Lowering It and Keeping It Steady

Fighting Power with Power

Long-Term Power Through Beauty, Spirituality, and Happiness

Notes

Index

About the Author

About New Society Publishers

About the author

Richard Heinberg is the author of thirteen previous books including The Party's Over, Powerdown, Peak Everything, and The End of Growth. He is Senior Fellow of the Post Carbon Institute and is widely regarded as one of the world's most effective communicators of the urgent need to transition away from fossil fuels. Heinberg has given hundreds of lectures on our energy future to audiences around the world. He has been published in Nature and other journals and has been featured in many television and theatrical documentaries. He lives in Santa Rosa, CA.

Summary

Power traces how humans have come to overpower the earth's natural systems and to oppress one another, with catastrophic consequences. We must rapidly re-learn the lessons of power self-limitation rooted in evolution and human history if we are to stave off ecological and social collapse and enjoy a thriving future.

Foreword

• Print run 10,000
• Co-op available
• Galleys available to sales reps, trade publications, and long-lead media
• Digital galleys on Edelweiss
• National advertising
  • Google, Amazon, Facebook
• National radio campaign
• National print campaign
  • Grist, Treehugger, Mother Jones, Sierra, Yes!, Green America, Bloomberg, The Guardian, New York Times
• Online/social media campaign
  • A+ page on Amazon o Livestream event and giveaway with author
  • Promotion via author's networks including author newsletter list, Post Carbon Institute, and Resilience.org
  • Outreach to organizations and groups like Extinction Rebellion, Transition, Local Futures, Post Growth Institute, DeSmogBlog
  • Promotion on New Society Publishers social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, our blog, Pinterest, Instagram, in-house newsletter, and YouTube
• General eBook marketing plans
  • eBook will be available at the same time as print publication to maximize sales
  • eBook ISBN will be included on all press materials, author and publisher websites, and whenever print ISBN is listed
  • Publisher and author will be promoting both e and p through social media
• Excerpts in
  • Resilience.org, Yes!, Treehugger, Sierra, Green America, Mother Nature Network, Medium, Mother Jones
• Promotion through the author's websites: www.Richardheinberg.com and www.postcarbon.org

Product details

• Authors: Richard Heinberg
• Publisher: New society publishing
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 07.09.2021
• EAN: 9780865719675
• ISBN: 978-0-86571-967-5
• No. of pages: 416
• Dimensions: 150 mm x 230 mm x 30 mm
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Political science > Political science and political education; NATURE / Ecology, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Environmental Economics, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social, Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography, Resilience, Applied ecology, Social & cultural anthropology, Environmental Economics