Book Description

Of late, there has been a very serious interest in alerting the entire world on the volatility of oil dependence and the dangers of climate change. This book is an indispensable contribution to the growing debates on the overarching concepts of the danger of perpetual oil dependence, climate change, and the urgent need for switching to a new habit in energy use the use of alternative renewable energy sources. This book is framed around the foundation laid in my first book, Delta in Distress. And it goes further to situate the problems associated with the worlds perpetual unquenchable quest for energy within the global context. In my first book, there was an elaborate treatment of the concepts of deprivation, destitution, desperation, and distress associated with the exploration and extraction of oil in the contemporary human society as typified by the case of the Niger Delta region in the core Southern Nigeria. The description and analysis was clearly articulated with an enduring affinity for possible solutions to these endemic problems of humanity. Emphatically, in my first book, the case of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, which has since become a mosaic of restive communities, attracted a critical treatment. This was done with very thoughtful and insightful examination. There was proper ex-ray of the plights of the common community people in that first book, Delta in Distress. These common citizens of the oil communities within the reviewed region are perpetually made to suffer the pangs of untold denials and despair while enormous oil and gas resources of inestimable economic worth are continually extracted from underneath their land. Of course, these problems are not limited to only one region. They are global in scope and effects. Thus, the perpetual dependence on oil has drastically placed the security and economic future of the global community on tenterhooks. Of late, there appears to have been increasing interest in the concepts of oil-related crises and conflicts. These man-made mishaps have claimed many human lives. Their causes are directly linked to the mismanagement of the economic proceeds of the oil and gas resources. The problems associated with perpetual global dependence on oil surpass the issues of deprivations, disaffections, conflicts and crises which, in a collaborative sense, perpetually pose threat to global security. More than that is the negative environmental impacts of oil operations in most oil regions. This trend has gone down to put the lives of plants, animals and human beings on our increasingly ailing planet Earth in serious jeopardy. Obviously, energy is at the very center of our daily lives. Everybody uses energy from the time of rising from bed until the time of going back to sleep. In every nation of the world, there is a persistent drive to continually advance in technology. This growing technological break-through is what makes modern live easier and more convenient. So, the more technology the human folks use every blessed day, the greater our need for energy. Looking at the compelling nature of this energy problem, and its interrelationship with almost every facet of the lives of virtually everybody in the society, every attempt to face the fearful odds associated with this problem implies a different and well defined approach to the issue. In the first place, America, like any of the other developed nations of the world, can no longer afford to risk treading the path of isolationism, neither can any of the other nations of the world afford to bask in the luxury of self-contentment or toughness under the present dispensation. To say the least, President Obama and his team are truly driven by the realization that the United States must telegraph a new message of respect, collaboration and mutuality in the quest to lead the way out of the present pace of uncertainty that defines the global energy future. This new drive and President Obamas passion for our planets overall serenity, prosperity and progress are the themes, which this must-read volume drastically and critically examines. This book is truly a must-read.