The oceans are one of the world's most important sites of oil extraction. Yet far too little attention has been paid to the histories and narratives produced by offshore extraction. Danine Farquharson and Fiona Polack's marvelously curated collection of essays offers readers the first extended exploration of the lives formed around and shaped by the encounter of sea and oil. Cold Water Oil is an instant classic. From its field-defining introduction to its wonderful concluding essay, which offers a whale's view of extraction, this book shows us what environmental and energy studies miss when they fail to critically explore what lies under the surface. A thrilling read for anyone interested in the complex cultures of energy.
Imre Szeman, author of On Petrocultures: Globalization, Culture, and Energy and Climate Critic for the Green Party of Canada
Cold Water Oil illuminates the often-hidden realities of offshore oil development. Far from sight, out to sea and deep beneath the ocean, countries around the North Atlantic are scraping the bottom of the barrel for short-term economic gain. Here Polack and Farquharson gathered an interdisciplinary group of contributors to weave a fuller understanding of offshore oil extraction and its distressing impacts. Together they present case studies from Canada, Norway, the UK, Russia, and the US that draw insights from across ecology, politics, culture, and history. Cold Water Oil is a gripping and despairing-yet-hopeful volume. It confronts the most pressing dilemmas of our time while inspiring a more equitable energy future. It is a timely antidote to the 'clean oil' greenwashing used by governments and industry to convince us we have no other choice.
Angela Carter, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science & Balsillie School of International Affairs, University of Waterloo, Canada, and author of Fossilized: Environmental Policy in Canada's Petro-Provinces
Energy humanities finally takes to the sea in this important new collection of essays focused on offshore petroleum extraction. The authors disrupt the silencing of marine environments that accompanies the mare nullius logic of frontier extractivism. Cold Water Oil instead reconnects and reterritorializes these environments, placing more-than-human relations and energopolitical entanglements front and center in its accounts of the offshore as the frontlines of struggle over energy transition today. The volume brings the offshore back home, challenging us to expand our critical imagination to sound the watery depths and coasts of petromodernity.
Dominic Boyer, author of Energopolitics, 2021-22 Berggruen Fellow 2021-22, and Professor, Rice University, USA
