Download or read book Energy and Fuels in Society written by Ljubisa R. Radovic and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 502 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Energy and Society written by Fred Cottrell and published by AuthorHouse. This book was released on 2009 with total page 491 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Energy and Society (Revised) When first published in 1955, this book was among the first interpretive treatments of the connection between a society's energy conditions and evolution of its culture. The book begins with a basic discussion of the earliest forms of energy uses and evolves through a discussion of how the evolution of alternative energy converters has impacted the growth of civilization. Dr.Cottrell takes us from food gathering societies up through the beginning of the industrial revolution into the age of nuclear power. With each step of change, he discusses how society has changed and the impact these changes have had on economic, moral and social issues. Today, more than any time in history, the questions of energy sources, energy conversion, energy uses and energy distribution are among the greatest challenges faced by civilization. In this book, Dr. Cottrell does not give you answers or predictions but takes you through the thought processes necessary to overcome the multible barriers we face in moving into the future.
Download or read book Energy and Civilization written by Vaclav Smil and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-11-13 with total page 564 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society throughout history, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. "I wait for new Smil books the way some people wait for the next 'Star Wars' movie. In his latest book, Energy and Civilization: A History, he goes deep and broad to explain how innovations in humans' ability to turn energy into heat, light, and motion have been a driving force behind our cultural and economic progress over the past 10,000 years. —Bill Gates, Gates Notes, Best Books of the Year Energy is the only universal currency; it is necessary for getting anything done. The conversion of energy on Earth ranges from terra-forming forces of plate tectonics to cumulative erosive effects of raindrops. Life on Earth depends on the photosynthetic conversion of solar energy into plant biomass. Humans have come to rely on many more energy flows—ranging from fossil fuels to photovoltaic generation of electricity—for their civilized existence. In this monumental history, Vaclav Smil provides a comprehensive account of how energy has shaped society, from pre-agricultural foraging societies through today's fossil fuel–driven civilization. Humans are the only species that can systematically harness energies outside their bodies, using the power of their intellect and an enormous variety of artifacts—from the simplest tools to internal combustion engines and nuclear reactors. The epochal transition to fossil fuels affected everything: agriculture, industry, transportation, weapons, communication, economics, urbanization, quality of life, politics, and the environment. Smil describes humanity's energy eras in panoramic and interdisciplinary fashion, offering readers a magisterial overview. This book is an extensively updated and expanded version of Smil's Energy in World History (1994). Smil has incorporated an enormous amount of new material, reflecting the dramatic developments in energy studies over the last two decades and his own research over that time.
Download or read book Energy and Society written by Harold H. Schobert and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2014-03-27 with total page 722 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Energy and Society: An Introduction, Second Edition provides readers with a detailed introduction to energy sources and energy utilization. This book presents an overview of alternative energy issues and technologies, discusses the pros and cons of various energy sources, and explores their impacts on society and the environment. What’s New in the Second Edition: This second edition offers simple updates, as well as completely rewritten material, regarding the last decade in areas including global climate change, oil prices, renewable and alternative fuels, and diversion of civil nuclear energy programs into nuclear weapons proliferation. It covers the development of energy technology from the time of early humans through antiquity, medieval times, and the Industrial Revolution. It also addresses the development of nuclear energy, energy supply and demand, geopolitics of energy, and the various environmental issues associated with energy use. Keeps mathematics to a minimum, making the book usable for a variety of academic majors Includes up-to-date coverage of all new energy sources Traces the development and utilization of energy throughout history Energy and Society: An Introduction, Second Edition can benefit undergraduate students taking a survey course in engineering, as well as professionals in the energy supply, energy planning, or environmental industry.
Download or read book Energy in Nature and Society written by Vaclav Smil and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2008 with total page 495 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive, systematic, analytically unified, and interdisciplinary treatment of energy in nature and society, from solar radiation and photosynthesis to our fossil fueled civilization and its environmental consequences.
Download or read book The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels written by Alex Epstein and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2014-11-13 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Could everything we know about fossil fuels be wrong? For decades, environmentalists have told us that using fossil fuels is a self-destructive addiction that will destroy our planet. Yet at the same time, by every measure of human well-being, from life expectancy to clean water to climate safety, life has been getting better and better. How can this be? The explanation, energy expert Alex Epstein argues in The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, is that we usually hear only one side of the story. We’re taught to think only of the negatives of fossil fuels, their risks and side effects, but not their positives—their unique ability to provide cheap, reliable energy for a world of seven billion people. And the moral significance of cheap, reliable energy, Epstein argues, is woefully underrated. Energy is our ability to improve every single aspect of life, whether economic or environmental. If we look at the big picture of fossil fuels compared with the alternatives, the overall impact of using fossil fuels is to make the world a far better place. We are morally obligated to use more fossil fuels for the sake of our economy and our environment. Drawing on original insights and cutting-edge research, Epstein argues that most of what we hear about fossil fuels is a myth. For instance . . . Myth: Fossil fuels are dirty. Truth: The environmental benefits of using fossil fuels far outweigh the risks. Fossil fuels don’t take a naturally clean environment and make it dirty; they take a naturally dirty environment and make it clean. They don’t take a naturally safe climate and make it dangerous; they take a naturally dangerous climate and make it ever safer. Myth: Fossil fuels are unsustainable, so we should strive to use “renewable” solar and wind. Truth: The sun and wind are intermittent, unreliable fuels that always need backup from a reliable source of energy—usually fossil fuels. There are huge amounts of fossil fuels left, and we have plenty of time to find something cheaper. Myth: Fossil fuels are hurting the developing world. Truth: Fossil fuels are the key to improving the quality of life for billions of people in the developing world. If we withhold them, access to clean water plummets, critical medical machines like incubators become impossible to operate, and life expectancy drops significantly. Calls to “get off fossil fuels” are calls to degrade the lives of innocent people who merely want the same opportunities we enjoy in the West. Taking everything into account, including the facts about climate change, Epstein argues that “fossil fuels are easy to misunderstand and demonize, but they are absolutely good to use. And they absolutely need to be championed. . . . Mankind’s use of fossil fuels is supremely virtuous—because human life is the standard of value and because using fossil fuels transforms our environment to make it wonderful for human life.”
Download or read book Energy for Sustainable Society written by Oguz A. Soysal and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2020-07-13 with total page 552 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A handbook of sustainable energy, covering entire energy aspects from present status to future alternatives under one umbrella This book takes an interdisciplinary system approach to evaluating energy systems so that readers can gain the necessary technical foundation to perform their own performance evaluations and understand their interactions with socioeconomic indicators. Topics include the current and future availability of primary sources, energy supply chain, conversion between different forms of energy, security of energy supply, and efficient end-use of energy sources. Each chapter provides readers with comprehensive background information, an outline of the current technologies, and potential future developments. The book also examines the global, economic, societal, ethical, and environmental issues associated with currently used energy technologies. Energy for Sustainable Society: From Resources to Users starts with ageneral overview of energy systems, and describes the major elements of energy transformation and supply chain. It then discusses interdisciplinary career opportunities in the energy engineering field. The fundamental concepts of energy conversion, transmission, and load flow in electrical systems are covered, as are conventional and unconventional fossil fuels, and the basics of nuclear power generation and reactor types. Other chapters look at: the fundamental concepts of thermodynamics and basic operation of steam turbines, gas turbines, and combined cycle heat engines used in fossil fuel and nuclear power plants; current technologies in hydroelectric power generation; renewable and alternative energy sources; energy security issues; and more. Contains up-to-date information on renewable energy technologies such as grid-tie, net-zero energy, battery backup, and utility-independent micro grids Presents the status of the share of renewable sources in the current and future energy supply mix Provides solved examples, case studies, self-assessment quizzes, and problems to enhance the understanding of readers Includes an exclusive chapter on energy security issues Energy for Sustainable Society gives readers a solid foundation to study energy related subjects and is an ideal book for a first course on energy systems for upper division undergraduate and first year graduate students.
Download or read book Research Handbook on Energy and Society written by Webb, Janette and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2021-12-10 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This incisive Research Handbook examines the relationship between energy and society, across both macro- and micro-scales, in the context of the climate crisis. Featuring an extensive examination of current research in the field from fifty expert international contributors, it offers important insights into the inter-connections between the globally organised fossil fuel energy system and the changing structures of society.
Download or read book Renewable Energy Cannot Sustain a Consumer Society written by Ted Trainer and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2007-07-26 with total page 195 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is widely assumed that our consumer society can move from using fossil fuels to using renewable energy sources while maintaining the high levels of energy use to which we have become accustomed. This book details the reasons why this almost unquestioned assumption is seriously mistaken. It challenges fundamental assumptions and stimulates the discussion about our common future in a way that will be of interest to professionals and lay-readers alike.
Download or read book Hydrogen Energy written by David Anthony James Rand and published by Royal Society of Chemistry. This book was released on 2008 with total page 340 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A transition to renewable and low-carbon forms of energy is being widely debated as a means of securing a sustainable future for mankind. Hydrogen Energy Challenges and Prospects, a new book from the authors of Clean Energy, considers the prospects for hydrogen as a universal energy vector and fuel for the decades to come. With no emissions other than water arising from its combustion, the potential virtues of harnessing and utilizing hydrogen correlate with recent growing concern over the security of conventional fuel supply and global climate change. This book sets out to analyze the technical situation in an objective fashion, free from the constraints of political and industrial loyalties. Areas covered include pathways to hydrogen production, prospects for carbon capture and storage, options for hydrogen storage on vehicles, fuel cells, and fuel cell vehicles. Each of the many facets of hydrogen energy is discussed and the challenges to be faced are addressed. The authors acknowledge it is not possible to reach a simple, unequivocal conclusion regarding overall prospects, since the international energy scene is so complex, and predicting long-term futures is so notoriously difficult. Nevertheless, the reader will be given compelling pointers indicative of the way in which events might develop. This topical book is ideal for undergraduates, postgraduates and academics with an interest in hydrogen energy. Government agencies and energy professionals will also find this content to be a useful reference source.
Download or read book Energy Society and Environment written by David Elliott and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2004-03 with total page 379 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Uses global case studies to examine technological solutions to energy-related environmental problems and suggests that social, economic and political solutions may be needed to avoid serious future environmental damage.
Download or read book Energy Fuels written by and published by . This book was released on 2008 with total page 1452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Introduction to Energy written by Edward S. Cassedy and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1998-12-03 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a critical examination of all aspects of modern energy production.
Download or read book Life after Fossil Fuels written by Alice J. Friedemann and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-03-29 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a reality check of where energy will come from in the future. Today, our economy is utterly dependent on fossil fuels. They are essential to transportation, manufacturing, farming, electricity, and to make fertilizers, cement, steel, roads, cars, and half a million other products. One day, sooner or later, fossil fuels will no longer be abundant and affordable. Inevitably, one day, global oil production will decline. That time may be nearer than we realize. Some experts predict oil shortages as soon as 2022 to 2030. What then are our options for replacing the fossil fuels that turn the great wheel of civilization? Surveying the arsenal of alternatives – wind, solar, hydrogen, geothermal, nuclear, batteries, catenary systems, fusion, methane hydrates, power2gas, wave, tidal power and biomass – this book examines whether they can replace or supplement fossil fuels. The book also looks at substitute energy sources from the standpoint of the energy users. Manufacturing, which uses half of fossil fuels, often requires very high heat, which in many cases electricity can't provide. Industry uses fossil fuels as a feedstock for countless products, and must find substitutes. And, as detailed in the author's previous book, "When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation," ships, locomotives, and heavy-duty trucks are fueled by diesel. What can replace diesel? Taking off the rose-colored glasses, author Alice Friedemann analyzes our options. What alternatives should we deploy right now? Which technologies merit further research and development? Which are mere wishful thinking that, upon careful scrutiny, dematerialize before our eyes? Fossil fuels have allowed billions of us to live like kings. Fueled by oil, coal, and natural gas, we changed the equation constraining the carrying capacity of our planet. As fossil fuels peak and then decline, will we fall back to Earth? Are there viable alternatives?
Download or read book The Oxford Handbook of Energy and Society written by Dr. Debra J. Davidson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-11 with total page 752 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Oxford Handbook of Energy and Society presents an overview of this expanding area that has evolved dramatically over the past decade, away from one largely dominated by structural, political economic treatments on the one hand, and social-psychological studies of individual-level attitudes and behaviors on the other, toward a far more conceptually and methodologically rich and exciting field that brings in, for example, social practices, system complexity, risk theory, social studies of science, and social movements theories. This volume seeks to capture the variety of scales and methods, and range of both conceptual and empirical analyses that define the field, while drawing particular attention to indigenous peoples, poverty, political power, communities and cities. Organized into seven sections, chapters cover social theory and energy-society relations, political-economic perspectives, consumption dynamics, energy equity and energy poverty, energy and publics, energy and governance, as well as emerging trends.
Download or read book Energy Systems written by Nick Jenkins and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020-02 with total page 161 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Modern societies require energy systems to provide energy for cooking, heating, transport, and materials processing, as well as for electricity generation. Energy systems include the primary fuel, its conversion, and transport to the point of use. In many cases this primary fuel is still a fossil fuel, a one-use resource derived from a finite supply within our planet, causing considerable damage to the environment. After 300 years of increasing reliance on fossil fuels, particularly coal, it is becoming ever clearer that the present energy systems need to change. In this Very Short Introduction Nick Jenkins explores our historic investment in the exploitation of fossil energy resources and their current importance, and discusses the implications of our increasing rate of energy use. He considers the widespread acceptance by scientists and policy makers that our energy systems must reduce emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, and looks forward to the radical changes in fuel technology that will be necessary to continue to provide energy supplies in a sustainable manner, and extend access across the developing world. Considering the impact of changing to an environmentally benign and low-carbon energy system, Jenkins also looks at future low-carbon energy systems which would use electricity from a variety of renewable energy sources, as well as the role of nuclear power in our energy use. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.
Download or read book Beyond the Molecular Frontier written by National Research Council and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2003-03-19 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chemistry and chemical engineering have changed significantly in the last decade. They have broadened their scopeâ€"into biology, nanotechnology, materials science, computation, and advanced methods of process systems engineering and controlâ€"so much that the programs in most chemistry and chemical engineering departments now barely resemble the classical notion of chemistry. Beyond the Molecular Frontier brings together research, discovery, and invention across the entire spectrum of the chemical sciencesâ€"from fundamental, molecular-level chemistry to large-scale chemical processing technology. This reflects the way the field has evolved, the synergy at universities between research and education in chemistry and chemical engineering, and the way chemists and chemical engineers work together in industry. The astonishing developments in science and engineering during the 20th century have made it possible to dream of new goals that might previously have been considered unthinkable. This book identifies the key opportunities and challenges for the chemical sciences, from basic research to societal needs and from terrorism defense to environmental protection, and it looks at the ways in which chemists and chemical engineers can work together to contribute to an improved future.
