The Hydrogen Economy by Jeremy Rifkin (2002-10-02) Paperback

Jeremy Rifkins' The Hydrogen Economy is a wide-ranging but patchy discussion around the concept of Peak Oil (a situation where worldwide production of oil hits the top of a bell curve and begins an irreversible decline).The book has certain chapters that are strong; Rifkin's summation of Peak Oil is solid - that we as a fossil fuel consuming society have peaked in our usage of oil and that we should start (really should have started decades ago) on alternative energy sources is fine. Rifkin emphasises not just the technological impacts that an energy shortage could have on the world at large but also the impact fossil fuels have had on our environment; that we are at a crux whereby our ecosystem is about to take a massive hit that we as species might not recover from (the planet will but global timescales are measured in millennia and not centuries).In particular, I was very much taken with Rifkin's concept of civilisation in terms of the laws of thermodynamics. This grand theory illustrates a facet of the rise and fall of the Roman republic: that energy (in the universe in general) is constant, only its form changes and when it changes, there is always some entropy. Roman society became effectively over-stretched, it consumed more resources than it produced, mostly in terms of agriculture. An empire sustained through military imperialism required a massive amount of energy and at a certain point, what was produced was outweighed by what was consumed plus what was effectively waste. This pattern, Rifkin argues, has been a dominant theme through all major civilisations, of which there have been anywhere from approximately a dozen to around thirty, depending on your methodology.Where the book fails quite significantly, is in Rifkin's analysis of the geopolitical situation. His basic thesis seems to be that we, the Western civilisations, own the world. Rifkin argues that one reason why we should seek alternatives to oil is that as supplies reduce, the world's remaining reserves are to be found in 'Islamised' countries i.e. countries that are hostile to western interests. That certain countries in the Middle East disobey Washington's orders and are skeptical about the benevolent intentions of policy makers, Rifkin sees as a problem that can only be solved by basically cutting these people out of the energy equation. Rifkin positions this issue in terms of the familiar rhetoric of 'stability'. In passing, he acknowledges that western governments have often favoured dictatorships over risking Arab nationalist democracies. This is given short shrift in a post 11th September book (but pre Iraq invasion). That countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran may not put the interests of Washington and London at the forefront of their domestic resource policies is presented as a threat by Rifkin.The book's final chapters are given to what Rifkin believes to be the only realistic source of widespread energy supplies in the near future - hydrogen. He argues that Hydrogen Energy Webs, using the same 'smart' technologies as the World Wide Web, could create a democratic energy revolution, where each individual was their own producer and consumer of energy. This picture of our energy future is certainly appealing, low in environmental impact, cutting out top-down energy companies and their corrupting effects on world affairs. How accurate it will prove to be nobody can say with any certainty.Ultimately, Jeremy Rifkin's The Hydrogen Economy is a book with some thought-provoking material but badly let down by conventional political dogma.