The financial crisis that has blighted the world's richest countries since 2008 was a turning point in human history because it ushered in an era in which economies will tend to shrink rather than grow. Incomes will decline becausethe natural resources required for growth — particularly oil, the lifeblood of the world economy — can no longer be extracted in growingquantities. Indeed, as this book shows, the financial crash itself was due to an irresistible force — the rising global demand for cheap fossil fuels — meeting an immoveable object — a static supply.

Fleeing Vesuvius is a collection of 27 essays by well-known international authors, all leading thinkers in their fields. Luminaries such asDavid Korowicz, Richard Douthwaite, Nate Hagen, Dmitry Orlov and Dan Sullivan weave together the threads of peak oil, resource depletion, economicinstability, and climate change and offer far-reaching solutions including:

• Concrete strategies for personal adaptation
• Workable models of self-reliant local communities
• Frameworks to support international action on financial and economic reform

Timely, practical and fundamentally optimistic, Fleeing Vesuvius is a must read for anyone concerned with reducing our risk of environmental and societal collapse.

Richard Douthwaite is a columnist for The Irish Times, New Internationalist, and Earthwatch, and author of the influential book, Short Circuit: Strengthening Local Economies in an Unstable World. He lives in Westport, Ireland.

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Gillian Fallon has worked as a writer, journalist and editor for 15 years, most recently in academic publishing. She has a particular interest in food security and in the challenges involved in communicating the many complex messages derived from systems thinking to a non-specialist audience. She has been a member of Feasta's Executive Committee since 2006 and lives in Ireland.

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