Download or read book Solar Politics written by Oxana Timofeeva and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2022-01-19 with total page 73 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a philosophical essay on the sun. It draws on Georges Bataille’s theories of the solar economy and solar violence and demonstrates their relevance to a world affected by the COVID-19 pandemic and climate change. The sun, which, since Antiquity, has played an essential role in our utopian imaginations, is the ultimate source of energy, both productive and destructive. According to Georges Bataille, its infinite generosity can be taken as the model for human societies, which suggests an alternative to the capitalist economy with its infinite expansion, colonization, and disastrous consequences on the cosmic scale. Taking a step from solar economy to solar politics, Timofeeva locates the grounds for it in solidarity with nature, treated neither as a master nor as a slave, but as a comrade. The book will appeal to students, academics, artists, and other readers interested in the philosophy of nature, ecology, social and political theory, postcolonial and decolonial studies, and the humanities generally.
Download or read book Political Economies of Energy Transition written by Kathryn Hochstetler and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-11-26 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shows that economic concerns about jobs, costs, and consumption, rather than climate change, are likely to drive energy transition in developing countries.
Download or read book Renewables written by Michael Aklin and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2018-03-23 with total page 345 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive political analysis of the rapid growth in renewable wind and solar power, mapping an energy transition through theory, case studies, and policy. Wind and solar are the most dynamic components of the global power sector. How did this happen? After the 1973 oil crisis, the limitations of an energy system based on fossil fuels created an urgent need to experiment with alternatives, and some pioneering governments reaped political gains by investing heavily in alternative energy such as wind or solar power. Public policy enabled growth over time, and economies of scale brought down costs dramatically. In this book, Michaël Aklin and Johannes Urpelainen offer a comprehensive political analysis of the rapid growth in renewable wind and solar power, mapping an energy transition through theory, case studies, and policy analysis. Aklin and Urpelainen argue that, because the fossil fuel energy system and political support for it are so entrenched, only an external shock—an abrupt rise in oil prices, or a nuclear power accident, for example—allows renewable energy to grow. They analyze the key factors that enable renewable energy to withstand political backlash, andt they draw on this analyisis to explain and predict the development of renewable energy in different countries over time. They examine the pioneering efforts in the United States, Germany, and Denmark after the 1973 oil crisis and other shocks; explain why the United States surrendered its leadership role in renewable energy; and trace the recent rapid growth of modern renewables in electricity generation, describing, among other things, the return of wind and solar to the United States. Finally, they apply the lessons of their analysis to contemporary energy policy issues.
Download or read book Who Owns the Sun written by Daniel M. Berman and published by . This book was released on 1996 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Narrated against a backdrop of diminishing fossil fuels, environmental degradation, avaricious corporations, and worldwide competition for natural resources, Who Owns the Sun? shows how existing solar technologies combined with local management present logical remedies for our energy gluttony.
Download or read book Energy and Empire written by George A. Gonzalez and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What set the United States on the path to developing commercial nuclear energy in the 1950s, and what led to the seeming demise of that industry in the late 1970s? Why, in spite of the depletion of fossil fuels and the obvious dangers of global warming, has the United States moved so slowly toward adopting alternatives? In Energy and Empire, George A. Gonzalez presents a clear and concise argument demonstrating that economic elites tied their advocacy of the nuclear energy option to post-1945 American foreign policy goals. At the same time, these elites opposed government support for other forms of energy, such as solar, that cannot be dominated by one nation. While researchers have blamed safety concerns and other factors as helping to arrest the expansion of domestic nuclear power plant construction, Gonzalez points to an entirely different set of motivations stemming from the loss of Americas domination/control of the enrichment of nuclear fuel. Once foreign countries could enrich their own fuel, civilian nuclear power ceased to be a lever the United States could use to economically/politically dominate other nations. Instead, it became a major concern relating to nuclear weapons proliferation.
Download or read book The Politics of the Solar Age written by Hazel Henderson and published by Knowledge Systems Incorporated. This book was released on 1988 with total page 520 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Governance of Solar Geoengineering written by Jesse L. Reynolds and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-05-23 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Solar geoengineering could reduce climate change, but poses risks. This volume explores how it is, could, and should be governed.
Download or read book Government and Governance of Security written by Carlos Solar and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2018-06-27 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At a time when Latin America is experiencing societal unrest from human rights violations, corruption and weak institutions Government and Governance of Security offers an insightful understanding for the modern steering of crime policies. Using Chile as a case study, the book delivers an untold account of the trade-offs between political, judicial and policing institutions put in practice to confront organised crime since the country’s redemocratisation. In an effort to encompass the academic fields of political science, public policy and criminology, Carlos Solar challenges the current orthodoxies for understanding security and the promotion of the rule of law in developing states. His research aptly illuminates the practicalities of present-day governance and investigates how networks of institutions are formed and sustained across time and, subsequently, how these actors deal with issues of policy consensus and cooperation. To unveil the uniqueness of this on-the-ground action, the analysis is based on an extensive revision of public documents, legislation, media accounts and interviews conducted by the author with the key policy makers and officials dealing with crimes including drug-trafficking, money laundering and human smuggling. Government and Governance of Security will be of interest to scholars of Latin American studies, security and governance and development.
Download or read book Unsustainable written by James T. Bennett and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-08-20 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book examines the history, politics, and economics of alternative energy. Since the energy crisis of the 1970s, governments around the world have subsidized and otherwise incentivized alternative forms of energy to reduce dependence on fossil fuels. This search has taken on added urgency in the twenty-first century, as the specter of climate change has engendered ambitious state-level renewable portfolio standards, enhanced federal incentives, and inspired “100% renewable” electrical generation targets in such states as Vermont and Hawaii. To save the planet from destruction, wind, solar, and other renewable energy alternatives must replace fossil fuels. But how did we get here and what is the cost? After an in-depth study of the Carter administration's synthetic fuels program, the focus shifts to the two most prominent, perhaps most promising, and certainly most promoted—and government subsidized—“green” and “renewable” energies today: wind and solar. Because wind has made the most headway and drawn the most controversy, it receives the most attention. Although the primary focus is on the American experience with renewable energy, the policies and politics of renewables in Scotland, Wales, Denmark, Spain, and other European nations are also discussed. Issues considered in the book include the nature and efficacy of renewable subsidies; the employment of federal and state tax codes to encourage renewables; the lobbies and interest groups that campaign for government support of renewables; and the fierce battles over the siting of renewable facilities. Unlike other works on this subject, the book probes in depth the nature of the opposition to wind and solar, both in the matter of siting and in their worthiness as recipients of substantial government assistance.
Download or read book Power Light written by David Talbot and published by . This book was released on 1981 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We are not running out of energy. Our nation contains vast amounts of untapped energy resources which are available at a relatively low cost. These resources are not concentrated in Texas or Alaska; rather, they are dispersed throughout the country in the communities where we live. The energy sources I speak of are solar and conservation. These two energy supplies are both bountiful and inexhaustible, yet they are largely ignored by our policy makers. Solar development and efficiency improvements can do much more than provide us with less costly energy. They can help us escape from the economic suicide of continued dependence on conventional energy resources. - Foreword.
Download or read book A Solar Manifesto written by Hermann Scheer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2021-12-16 with total page 137 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the decade since the 'Earth Summit' in Rio de Janiero, the response of the world's governments and authorities to the threats to the global environment has been to enforce the reduction of energy consumption and harmful emissions - solutions primarily based around conventional energy resources and conventional thinking. The question is, though, whether this strategy is radical enough to address the key challenges how facing the environment, and whether it can be effective in avoiding catastrophe on a global scale. For Herman Scheer, the answer is a definite no. In this fully updated edition of A Solar Manifesto, he once more attacks the lack of political will to find answers outside a conventional frame of reference. Climate change, pollution, deforestation, destruction of the ozone layer, poverty and the population explosion are all problems created or exacerbated by the use of conventional energy. Seven years after the first edition of this book, answers are now more urgently required that ever, as current policies serve merely to alleviate the escalating symptoms rather than attempting a cure for what could become a terminal affliction. Herman Scheer shows that this crisis may yet be reversed – but it can only be made to happen through a fundamental change in political and economic strategies, paving the way towards a global solar energy economy sustained by new social principles. A Solar Manifesto champions the replacement of fossil and nuclear fuels with solar energy, as a real solution to the threat to the environment and associated social consequences. Scheer constructs a radical yet innovative political and economic model and argues the case with passion and conviction for the global solar economy as the route to a sustainable environment. Thought-provoking and profoundly challenging, this book will be an inspiration to anyone concerned with energy and the global environment.
Download or read book The Making of the International Solar Alliance written by Senior Advocate for the India Program Vyoma Jha and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-10-21 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2015, leading up to the Paris Climate Conference, India faced intense scrutiny over its role in either securing or scuttling a global climate deal. On the first day of the climate talks India and France jointly announced the International Solar Alliance (ISA), and two weeks of hectic negotiations culminated in the adoption of the Paris Agreement. In less than two years, even as multilateral climate negotiations were weakening with the United States announcing its withdrawal from the Paris Agreement, the ISA - led by India and backed primarily by developing countries-became a legal entity. Vyoma Jha presents a case study of the creation of the ISA as a treaty-based international organization. Drawing on the political economy approach in the study of international law, this book identifies the politics, players, and process behind the making of the ISA. It uses mixed methods to analyse the politico-legal issues involved in the need for a new treaty-based international organization and finds that the changing political leadership in India marked a shift in domestic climate politics, particularly around solar energy. Against the backdrop of multilateral climate negotiations, the political leadership empowered India's new international rulemaking stance. Jha offers an in-depth account of the treaty-making process to argue that it marks an innovation in the structure of international organizations. The ISA is best described as 'soft law in a hard shell' because it uses the legal infrastructure of a treaty while relying on the social structure of participating actors for its future implementation. Empirical evidence suggests that three factors explain the treaty structure of the ISA: India's leadership role in the treaty-making process, the early involvement of non-state actors, and the preference of developing countries for legal form. Ultimately, the book illustrates a new kind of Indian economic diplomacy, making the ISA the first deliberate instrument of India's foreign policy on climate change and energy.
Download or read book Energy Research and Development and Small Business written by United States. Congress. Senate. Select Committee on Small Business and published by . This book was released on 1975 with total page 844 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Politics of the Final Hundred Years of Humanity 2030 2130 written by Ian Cook and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-02-04 with total page 188 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the first book that looks at both the politics of maintaining the trajectory toward humanity’s final hundred years and the politics of those final hundred years. It is the first book to take up theoretical and practical aspects with respect to both the movement toward and events during these final hundred years. As a result, it is the first book that attempts to provide a more complete picture of the politics of catastrophic human-caused environment change. The fact that the book provides a way into the variety of policy problems that catastrophic human-caused environment change is creating means that it is also important to those in Public Policy. The book also raises a series of philosophical and ethical questions associated with human rights, which are significant to those who study Political Philosophy (and some of those who study Law), international action to mitigate the effects of climate change, the nature of science and the limitations of political institutions.
Download or read book Ecomodernism Technology Politics and The Climate Crisis written by Jonathan Symons and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2019-07-09 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is climate catastrophe inevitable? In a world of extreme inequality, rising nationalism and mounting carbon emissions, the future looks gloomy. Yet one group of environmentalists, the ‘ecomodernists’, are optimistic. They argue that technological innovation and universal human development hold the keys to an ecologically vibrant future. However, this perspective, which advocates fighting climate change with all available technologies – including nuclear power, synthetic biology and others not yet invented – is deeply controversial because it rejects the Green movement’s calls for greater harmony with nature. In this book, Jonathan Symons offers a qualified defence of the ecomodernist vision. Ecomodernism, he explains, is neither as radical or reactionary as its critics claim, but belongs in the social democratic tradition, promoting a third way between laissez-faire and anti-capitalism. Critiquing and extending ecomodernist ideas, Symons argues that states should defend against climate threats through transformative investments in technological innovation. A good Anthropocene is still possible – but only if we double down on science and humanism to push beyond the limits to growth.
Download or read book The Politics of Energy written by Steve Vanderheiden and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-09-13 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book brings together leading scholars on the politics of energy, examining the natural resources and developing technologies that are essential to its production and the various public and private factors affecting its use, along with the ecological consequences of both. Section One examines the looming challenges posed by continuing dependence upon oil as a primary energy source, including "peak oil" scenarios and the social and political consequences of resource extraction upon the developing world. Section Two considers proposals to dramatically increase nuclear power production as a means to reduce carbon emissions, with both the risks and potential of this "nuclear option" carefully weighed. Although many tout renewable energy sources for their environmental benefits, Section Three calls attention to several potential problems with large-scale renewable energy development and the dilemmas that they have caused for would-be supporters of such efforts. Finally, Section Four weighs the prospects for developing sustainable energy systems on the ground, including conservation measures that reduce energy demand and system-wide energy policy efforts. Together, these essays demonstrate the importance of sound energy policy along with the numerous obstacles to developing and implementing it. This book was originally published as a special issue of Environmental Politics.
Download or read book The Solar Energy Transition written by Daniel Rich and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2019-07-11 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Solar energy is considered by many an attractive and practical option for America's energy future, one that is technically and commercially feasible as well as socially and environmentally desirable. Sun-generated power could meet upwards of 20 percent of U.S. energy needs by the year 2000—but only if there is a concerted national effort to use this energy option. The issues of implementation and the public and private initiatives needed to facilitate a transition to extensive use of solar energy are the focus of this volume. The solar transition is addressed from the diverse perspectives of the many necessary participants: industries and small businesses; local, state, regional, and federal governments; public utilities; policy analysts; and solar advocates. The contributors assess the extent to which solar alternatives can replace and augment other energy forms, the pace and pattern for solar commercialization, and the roles of public and private institutions in carrying out the transition. A consensus becomes apparent: Although the transition to solar energy is technically and commercially viable, its success depends on concerted public and private efforts to promote innovation and diversification in energy production and distribution and to institute major changes in public policy related to energy use.
