I would recommend this short book to anyone who has the task of creating a workshop for a community to develop strategies to deal with the converging threats of Peak Oil and Climate Change. Or indeed for anyone, who wants to understand these issues.

It would be an ideal planning resource for a rural based intentional community and in particular one that has embraced permaculture principles.

The book is short but dense, in the sense that every sentence and diagram needs to be considered and understood.

David Holmgren explores the four scenarios that could each represent our most likely future, depending on how well and how quickly the world's political leaders deal with this greatest challenge humanity has ever faced.

This quote from the back cover explains it well: "Future Scenarios depicts four very different futures. Each is a permutation of mild or destructive climate change, combined with either slow or severe energy declines. Probable futures, explains Holmgren, range from the relatively benign 'Green Tech' scenario to the near catastrophic `Lifeboats' scenario." Future Scenarios: How Communities Can Adapt to Peak Oil and Climate Change

Encouragingly, the G8 have recently adopted the target of reducing emissions recommended by the world's climate scientists for not exceeding the critical 2ºC of average global warming ([...]). It remains to be seen whether individual countries will do the same.

FUTURE SCENARIOS: HOW COMMUNITIES CAN ADAPT TO PEAK OIL AND CLIMATE CHANGE should be in every general lending library's collection: it comes from a permaculture co-originator and sustainability innovator and shows how to adapt to the cultural, political and economic implications of two forces that will shape our world in years to come: peak oil and climate change. Packed with invaluable applications for survival, this is not to be missed.