Green Options

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Editor’s note: Lots of books on oil and its role in US economics and politics coming out these days (imagine that!). Our friends at Eco-Libris have the scoop on yet another one: Lisa Margonelli’s Oil on the Brain. This post was originally published on Monday, June 16, 2008.

Oil? Yes, oil! Some of you must have read or heard about peak oil, and wonder what will happen when the wells run dry. Others may shake your fists instinctively at the oil companies, or roll your eyes in amazement and disgust whenever another piece of news about the industry’s long, sad and cruel saga unfolds in yet another third world oil state.

But what does this really mean? How does oil really gets from the oil state to your car’s gas tank? And how do all pieces of the puzzle fit together to create this mess we call (U.S American, suburban) automobile culture?

Enter investigative journalist Lisa Margonelli’s Oil on the Brain – Petroleum’s Long Strange Trip to your Tank. In the spirit of similar recent “natural histories”, such as Michael Pollen’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma or its big screen counterpart King Corn, which both telling the complex stories of staple food commodities, Margonelli weaves the complex tale of oil.

We’ve written often recently off the challenges soon to be faced by the continuing melt of the Arctic. Without a doubt, there are resources up there that someone will attempt to get their grubby little hands on. And, with the price of oil continuing to skyrocket with each passing month, if oil is found in the north – not an unexpected possibility considering the nearby [...]