000 04554nam a22005055i 4500
001 978-1-4419-7677-2
003 DE-He213
005 20140220083233.0
007 cr nn 008mamaa
008 110916s2012 xxu| s |||| 0|eng d
020 _a9781441976772
_9978-1-4419-7677-2
024 7 _a10.1007/978-1-4419-7677-2
_2doi
050 4 _aGE300-350
072 7 _aRNF
_2bicssc
072 7 _aTEC010000
_2bisacsh
082 0 4 _a333.7
_223
100 1 _aTainter, Joseph A.
_eauthor.
245 1 0 _aDrilling Down
_h[electronic resource] :
_bThe Gulf Oil Debacle and Our Energy Dilemma /
_cby Joseph A. Tainter, Tadeusz W. Patzek.
264 1 _aNew York, NY :
_bSpringer New York,
_c2012.
300 _aIX, 242p. 97 illus., 47 illus. in color.
_bonline resource.
336 _atext
_btxt
_2rdacontent
337 _acomputer
_bc
_2rdamedia
338 _aonline resource
_bcr
_2rdacarrier
347 _atext file
_bPDF
_2rda
505 0 _a1.  Introduction -- 2.  The Significance of Oil in the Gulf of Mexico -- 3.  The Energy that Runs the World -- 4.  Offshore Drilling and Production: A Short History -- 5.  The Energy-Complexity Spiral -- 6.  The Benefits and Costs of Complexity -- 7.  What Happened at the Macondo Well -- 8.  Why the Gulf Disaster Happened -- 9.  Our Energy and Complexity Dilemma: Prospects for the Future -- Appendix A.  Glossary Appendix B.  Offshore Production -- Appendix C.  Operating an Offshore Platform -- Index.
520 _aFor more than a century, oil has been the engine of growth for a society that delivers an unprecedented standard of living to many. We now take for granted that economic growth is good, necessary, and even inevitable, but also feel a sense of unease about the simultaneous growth of complexity in the processes and institutions that generate and manage that growth. As societies grow more complex through the bounty of cheap energy, they also confront problems that seem to increase in number and severity. In this era of fossil fuels, cheap energy and increasing complexity have been in a mutually-reinforcing spiral. The more energy we have and the more problems our societies confront, the more we grow complex and require still more energy. How did our demand for energy, our technological prowess, the resulting need for complex problem solving, and the end of easy oil conspire to make the Deepwater Horizon oil spill increasingly likely, if not inevitable? This book explains the real causal factors leading up to the worst environmental catastrophe in U.S. history, a disaster from which it will take decades to recover. A world expert on oil technology and one of our foremost social commentators, the author of “The Collapse of Complex Societies,” join forces to: Lead you on a fascinating tour from the events on the Deepwater Horizon to the processes in society that made the tragedy nearly inevitable Explain the energy-complexity spiral that governs our way of life Take you beyond the headlines, finger pointing, and political punditry to the underlying causes of the Gulf catastrophe Help decision-makers from all walks of life to understand the risks and challenges of managing complex organizations Discuss energy options for the future Praise for Drilling Down: In this book, Joseph Tainter and Tadeusz Patzek use the Gulf oil spill as a point of entry to discuss our energy future. For those of us who watched the oil spill from afar, this book provides the technical background to help us understand it, something that was never available from the media. For those like me, who are interested in the role of energy in the rise and fall of civilizations, this is a must read. --Lester R. Brown, President of Earth Policy Institute and author of World on the Edge
650 0 _aEnvironmental sciences.
650 0 _aEngineering economy.
650 0 _aEnvironmental management.
650 0 _aSustainable development.
650 1 4 _aEnvironment.
650 2 4 _aEnvironmental Management.
650 2 4 _aEnergy Economics.
650 2 4 _aEnergy Policy, Economics and Management.
650 2 4 _aOperations Research/Decision Theory.
650 2 4 _aStatistical Physics, Dynamical Systems and Complexity.
650 2 4 _aSustainable Development.
700 1 _aPatzek, Tadeusz W.
_eauthor.
710 2 _aSpringerLink (Online service)
773 0 _tSpringer eBooks
776 0 8 _iPrinted edition:
_z9781441976765
856 4 0 _uhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-7677-2
912 _aZDB-2-EES
999 _c100542
_d100542