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A journalist, and former roughneck, considers our long, complex, tortured relationship with oil.
Oil has dominated our lives for the last century. It has given us warmth, progress, and life-threatening pollution. It has been a gift and is now a threat. It has started wars, ended wars, and infiltrated governments--in some cases, effectively become the government. And now oil's enduring mythology is facing a messy, complicated twilight.
In On Oil, Don Gillmor, who worked as a roughneck on oil rigs during the seventies oil boom in Alberta, looks at how the industry has changed over the decades and illustrates the ways our dependence on oil has led to regulatory capture, in Canada and elsewhere, and contributed to armed conflict and war across the world. Gillmor documents the myriad ways that oil companies have misdirected environmental action and misinformed the public about climate concerns and illuminates where we went wrong--and how we might yet change course.
About this Author
Don Gillmor is a journalist and former roughneck. He is the author of To the River, which won the Governor General's Award for nonfiction. He is also the author of three novels, a two-volume history of Canada, and nine books for children. He was a senior editor at The Walrus, and his journalism has appeared in Rolling Stone, GQ, Saturday Night, Toronto Life, the Globe and Mail, and the Toronto Star. He has won twelve National Magazine Awards and numerous other honours. He lives in Toronto.
Reviews
Praise for On Oil
"Poetically, Gillmor tries to rationalize how we continue to dig up ancient solar energy, burn it as quickly as we can and not fully understand the consequences . . . Gillmor's eloquence, humour and pointedness help unpack our species' complex relationship with oil."
--Matt Henderson, Winnipeg Free Press
"Punchy and powerful, this is a knockout."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Praise for Breaking and Entering
"Surely the most interesting midlife crisis of the year."
--Marion Winik, Oprah Daily
"[Gillmor] deftly converges doubt, infidelity and the fragility of family in a narrative that is both thrilling and relatable."
--New York Times
"Hilarious and devastating."
--Globe and Mail
"Powerfully drawn . . . Every aspect of the novel feels true."
--Toronto Star
"Genius . . . A smart, funny, and sneakily terrifying version of the way we live now. (Do not read without working air conditioning.)"
--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
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