With the on-going economic crisis, the environment is not exactly high on everyone's mind. So here is a little reminder from the introduction of this excellent book: "In the 24 hours since this time yesterday, over 200,000 acres of rainforest have been setroyed in our world. Fully 13 million tons of toxic chemicals have been released into our environment. Over 45,000 people have died of starvation, 38,000 children. ..." Hartman not only describes the serious trouble we're in, but also how we got there - and our way out of our it. A must-read for everyone who cares about life on Earth.

This is an important book - How did we get to the place we are environmentally? Talks about old cultures - living within their means, cooperatively and new cultures with our dominator competitive, society without regard for ruining the earth. Suggests how to reconnect to the earth. I started drying my clothes on the clothes-line religiously - to use the energy given to us by the sun rather than relying on "ancient sunlight".

Hartmann's call to action regarding our dwindling natural resources and the destruction of planet earth is emphasized in his comparison of old and young cultures. He urges us to think about what we are losing in our consumerist society -- our connection to nature and to each other. There were long preachy diatribes, but the end of the book was worth slogging through. His message that our personal health is tied to environmental and cultural strength was worth the read. If you can get through the first half, the second half is more positive and draws together the threads of the previous chapters.

Amazing book

I read this book so quickly! Such an easy read, I just flew through the chapters.
The first part of the book definitely shines a light on the damage our civilisation has had on the world, but don’t let that stop you from pushing on through. It isn’t a doom and gloom book, it also talks about ways which we can, everyday make a difference in this world, even in the smallest ways. This should be an essential book in the school curriculum. I found it inspiring and empowering, and I felt by the end of it that I really am having a positive impact on the world right now. Everybody should read this

Though updated with statistics and events through 2004, this reads like a prophetic treatise on the collapse of our industrialized culture which is entirely based on fossil fuels, a limited resource. No one seems to deny that oil is limited, but 2 narratives determine our actions today: Older and younger cultural beliefs. Older cultures valued generosity, leisure, and community. The younger cultures value productivity, accumulation and individualism. He gives many examples to illustrate his points making this an interesting read, not academic at all.
The first part of the book describes the problems: higher concentrations of CO2; loss of diversity with increased plant and animal extinctions; exploitations of the poor and the increasing wealth gap between the rich and poor; deforestation; attempts to privatize a basic human need: water; and continuing human slavery. But the second part explores how we can look back at older ways of thinking and redefine our relationship with the world and with each other. As I was reading, I thought about the Massai I met in Kenya and the recent documentary I watched about the Amish. Both cultures seem backward to a society totally dependent on a diminishing resource, yet they are more prepared to survive the collapse of industrialism than I am.
There are 2 documentaries on this topic of peak oil more recent than this book that I have seen: "Collapse", and "Blind Spot". But Thom Hartmann's book is the most hopeful and spiritual and in that sense, a more thoughtful and challenging read. Everyone needs to read this as there is much food for thought.

The first third of this book outlines all the problems we've got going on, on this planet. Since this book was published originally in 1998, it covered ground I was pretty familiar with. No solutions were offered, though. Then, there was a section about culture and then a third section. Hartman is fond of "Old Way" thinking, characterizing modern society as "Young Way" thinking. According to him, primitive cultures had it going on. But what to do about the fact that we don't live in primitive cultures anymore? There are no solutions in this book! Near the end, I hit this paragraph which made things clear:

"Missing the point of a book like this is quite easy to do, because the book makes a radical departure from the normal fare of self-help and environmentalism. It presents the problems, delves into the causes of them, and then presents as a solution something that many may think couldn't possibly be a solution because it seems unfathomably difficult: change our culture, beginning with yourself."

Okay then. I'm off to change the culture, beginning with myself.

It would be fair to say this is one of the only books or things i’ve read as an adult that has shifted my opinion so much in a matter of hours

Probably one of the best books I've read, I want to get the updated version and read more from this author and authors that have praised this book. Very impactful!

In “The Last Hours of Ancient Light”, progressive political commentator Thom Hartman promises to discuss the human condition, focusing on the insidious effects of Man on the environment.

To accomplish this overwhelming task, he utilizes historical and scientific arguments. However, there are identifiable inaccuracies in some of the information conveyed in the book that mar its credibility, as when he refers to Portuguese as reaching America in 1000 B.C. An expert in Portuguese history would immediately disagree, putting 1500 A.D as the correct date. These mistakes might leave the informed reader disappointed.

Despite the blatant errors, there is a lot to enjoy in Hartmann’s writings. Fundamentally, he brings hope, reason and practical solutions to change humanity’s path towards redemption.

As of September 2008 we’ve officially entered the end of the oil age. Our economic system based on infinite growth has run into the limits of the physical world. Now that our social systems must rapidly adapt to a new reality of energy scarcity, we must pay special attention to the humans within those systems. Thom Hartmann’s Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight is a particularly lucid roadmap to a new social order by focusing on the actions an individual can take in the context of our ecological crisis.

Even though I’m sufficiently aware of the information behind Peak Oil and the oil age’s connection to rapid global population growth, I found Hartmann’s summary of this topic to be one of the best introductions available. Representing the world as varying forms of ancient sunlight is a powerful analogy that can introduce even the most encapsulated thinkers to holistic systems thinking. It reminded me of the idea that innovation can either be built on success of the past or borrowed from the future. Hartmann provides all the facts and figures necessary to demonstrate that the majority of our current lifestyle is dependent on the ancient sunlight of the past, stored in dense forms like oil and coal. Our depletion of this resource has borrowed even the most basic support systems from the future.

Yet, how can we be in a situation that is so dire yet everything looks so good? (Even though a lot of this has changed since Hartmann updated the book in 2004, because in 2009/2010 things are starting to look quite bad.) Ancient Sunlight explains that our modern industrial civilization is living off its startup capital, like a company that is building a lavish office without pushing a sustainable business model. We are blind to problems underlying economic systems and infrastructure because we don’t have to as long as we are growing, much like the enthusiasm behind a ponzi scheme before it falls apart. The severity of this situation cannot be iterated enough. An example is in human slavery, the dense form of energy we have now gives us access to hundreds of energy slaves that can drive our cars and light our houses, without this it would take many humans to do equivalent work. Coupled with collapses in biodiversity, water shortages, widespread desertification because of climate changes, and massive cutbacks in forest cover are presenting our species with a decade of significant change afoot.

Analyzing how we got here is a useful way to build a model for the future. By looking at historical examples of global cultures Ancient Sunlight draws a distinction between Younger Cultures and Older Cultures. Hartmann explains how younger cultures are warlike, agressive and obsessed with superiority while older cultures are filled with respect, integration and conservation. A poignant example is how the two cultures handle diversity, younger cultures seeking integration and dissolution of ” the other” while older cultures respect and encourage individual expressions of a cultural identity.

The younger culture is a culture of control, gaining power through its current incarnations with the powerful drugs of television and general entertainment, just two of the things that completely disconnect us from our natural environment and our birthright as humans. Hartmann provides an all encompassing look at the stories we tell ourselves about our culture, i.e. that we are separate from the world, that it is our destiny to subdue the world, get yours before anyone else can. Constrast these examples with the older culture stories, i.e that we are part of the world, that we must cooperate with the rest of nature.

Much of this comes from our view that natives were lazy and stupid, falsehoods that are overturned by even a cursory study of the accounts from ethnographers, whether of brilliant pharmacological solutions to illness in the Amazon or of the technology of the !Kung tribes which allowed them to work less than 20 hours a week. Cooperation is revealed as the basis for a new paradigm, a better society encompassed by this statement from Dwight D. Eisenhower, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”

Ultimately Hartmann concludes that our private practices of raising awareness and informing ourselves of these problems can lead to an empowered group ready to provide leadership as our industrial civilization loses its control. After practicing years of meditation myself, I couldn’t agree more on a better way to start. Quiet time for reflection has led me to immense personal and universal truths. After reading The Last Hours of Ancient Sunlight I can see this practice has done the same for Hartmann.

one of the finest books combining spirituality and sustainability

An outstanding book that should be read by everyone. I highly recommend it even though I’ve read it many many times. This is my first reading of the third edition however, it is very thought-provoking and highly worthwhile. Please read a copy and take it to heart.