Ending the Fossil Fuel Era

Not so long ago, people North and South had little reason to believe that wealth from oil, gas, and coal brought anything but great prosperity. But the presumption of net benefits from fossil fuels is eroding as widening circles of people rich and poor experience the downside.

A positive transition to a post-fossil fuel era cannot wait for global agreement, a swap-in of renewables, a miracle technology, a carbon market, or lifestyle change. This book shows that it is now possible to take the first step toward the post-fossil fuel era, by resisting the slow violence of extreme extraction and combustion, exiting the industry, and imagining a good life after fossil fuels. It shows how an environmental politics of transition might occur, arguing for going to the source rather than managing byproducts, for delegitimizing fossil fuels rather than accommodating them, for engaging a politics of deliberately choosing a post-fossil fuel world.

Six case studies reveal how individuals, groups, communities, and an entire country have taken first steps out of the fossil fuel era, with experiments that range from leaving oil under the Amazon to ending mountaintop removal in Appalachia.

Thomas Princen explores ecological and economic sustainability at the University of Michigan. He is the author of Treading Softly: Paths to Ecological Order and The Logic of Sufficiency (both published by the MIT Press). Jack P. Manno writes about sustainability, ecological economics, and indigenous values at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. He is the author of Privileged Goods: Commoditization and Its Impacts on Environment and Society. Pamela L. Martin examines issues of sustainability, energy, and rights at Coastal Carolina University. She is the author of Oil in the Soil: The Politics of Paying to Preserve the Amazon and coauthor of An Introduction to World Politics: Conflict and Consensus on a Small Planet.