Chris Lowry

I FIRST HEARD the idea of "peak everything" a couple of years ago when Paul Hawken mentioned it in a speech. He spoke in a gentle, almost hypnotic cadence. It was as if he was chatting among friends, saying, "Of course it's not just peak oil, but peak everything ... peak fish, peak soil, peak water and so on."

Did we all know? The idea had the quality of a brilliant insight that is extremely difficult to achieve. Yet when it is reached, it seems obvious to everyone. Later I found out that Richard Heinberg had written a book about it, called Peak Everything: Waking Up to the Century of Declines.