Download or read book Sustainable Energy without the hot air written by David JC MacKay and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2016-05-14 with total page 778 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The enlightening, best-selling book on understanding sustainable energy and how we can make energy plans that add up. If you've ever wondered how much energy we use, and where it comes from – and where it could come from – but are fed up with all the hot air and 'greenwash', this is the book for you. Renewable resources are 'huge', but our energy consumption is also 'huge'. To compare 'huge' things with each other, we need numbers, not adjectives. Sustainable Energy – without the hot air addresses the energy crisis objectively, cutting through all the contradictory statements from the media, government, and lobbies of all sides. It gives you the numbers and the facts you need, in bite-sized chunks, so you can understand the issues yourself and organises a plan for change on both a personal level and an international scale – for Europe, the United States, and the world. In case study format, this informative book also answers questions surrounding nuclear energy, the potential of sustainable fossil fuels, and the possibilities of sharing renewable power with foreign countries. Written by David MacKay, who was an esteemed Professor of Engineering at the University of Cambridge and Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Department of Climate Change, this is an uplifting, jargon-free and informative read for all. In it, David debunks misinformation and clearly explains the calculations of expenditure per person to encourage people to make individual changes that will benefit the world at large. If you've thrown your hands up in despair thinking no solution is possible, then read this book - it's an honest, realistic, and humorous discussion of all our energy options.
Download or read book Food and Climate Change without the hot air written by S L Bridle and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-03 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Did you know that more than a quarter of the greenhouse-gas emissions that cause climate change come from food? In this ground-breaking and accessible book, Professor Sarah Bridle calculates the greenhouse gas emissions of a selection of our most popular meals and beverages, from a cup of tea and a bowl of cereal to spaghetti bolognese and chicken tikka masala. Breaking down different ingredients and cooking methods to reveal their environmental impact, she finds delicious and sustainable meal alternatives. With this knowledge, we can make a conscious effort to lower our emissions, such as eating more locally grown produce and introducing meat-free days, enabling us to help our planet while also eating healthier food. As well as explaining how our food choices impact the environment and giving practical advice on how to lower emissions, Food and Climate Change without the hot air considers how climate change will affect the food of the future. A rigorously researched discussion of how food and climate change are intimately connected, Bridle also dives into the important topic of food waste and gives valuable tips to avoid leftovers. Illustrated in full colour throughout, this is an essential resource for anyone with eco-anxiety looking for quick and easy ideas to become more sustainable.
Download or read book Sustainable Materials without the hot air written by Julian Allwood and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2015-09-03 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Now in its second edition, Sustainable Materials shows how we can greatly reduce the amount of material demanded and used in manufacturing, while still meeting everyone's needs. Materials, transformed from natural resources into the buildings, equipment, vehicles and goods that underpin our remarkable lifestyle, are made with amazing efficiency. But our growing demand is not sustainable. Production of just five materials – steel, aluminium, paper, plastics and cement – accounts for 55% of industrial emissions, and demand for materials will double by 2050. Can we continue to live well but use less materials? So far people have considered the problem with only one eye open, hoping for a magic solution (such as carbon capture and storage). But with both eyes open we have a whole new set of options. Rather than making more materials, we can use them more wisely – with less material, keeping them for longer, re-using their parts and more. These options make a huge difference: we really could set up our children with a more sustainable life, without compromising our own. Sustainable Materials faces up to the impacts of making materials in the 21st century. Drawing on their experiences working with innovative materials as well as the facts and findings of their research, Julian Allwood and Jonathan Cullen provide an evidence-based vision of change that will allow us to make our future more sustainable. Packed with hundreds of colour photos and helpful graphs and diagrams, Sustainable Materials provides a thorough analysis of the problems that we face through wasteful attitudes and the growing demand for materials, as well as an evaluation of practical and achievable solutions for the future. The first edition of this optimistic and richly-informed book was listed as one of Bill Gate's top reads in 2015, and was also chosen as an Outstanding Academic Title by ACRL Choice magazine. This up-to-date, revised edition is perfect for anyone with an interest in sustainability.
Download or read book Renewable written by Jeremy Shere and published by Macmillan + ORM. This book was released on 2013-11-26 with total page 246 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Where does the energy we use come from? It's absolutely vital to every single thing we do every day, but for most people, it is utterly invisible. Flick a switch and the lights go on. It might as well be magic. Science writer Jeremy Shere shows us in Renewable: The World-Changing Powerof Alternative Energy that energy is anything but magical. Producing it in fossil fuel form is a dirty, expensive—but also hugely profitable— enterprise, with enormous but largely hidden costs to the entire planet. The cold, hard fact is that at some point we will have wrung the planet dry of easily accessible sources of fossil fuel. And when that time comes, humankind will have no choice but to turn—or, more accurately, return—to other, cleaner, renewable energy sources. What will those sources be? How far have we come to realizing the technologies that will make these sources available? To find the answers, Shere began his journey with a tour of a traditional coal-fueled power plant in his home state of Indiana. He then continued on, traveling from coast to coast as he spoke to scientists, scholars and innovators. He immersed himself in the green energy world: visiting a solar farm at Denver's airport, attending the Wind Power Expo and a wind farm tour in Texas, investigating turbines deep in New York City's East River, and much more. Arranged in five parts—Green Gas, Sun, Wind, Earth, and Water—Renewable tells the stories of the most interesting and promising types of renewable energy: namely, biofuel, solar, wind, geothermal, and hydropower. But unlike many books about alternative energy, Renewable is not obsessed with megawatts and tips for building home solar panels. Instead, Shere digs into the rich, surprisingly long histories of these technologies, bringing to life the pioneering scientists, inventors, and visionaries who blazed the way for solar, wind, hydro, and other forms of renewable power, and unearthing the curious involvement of great thinkers like Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, and Nicola Tesla. We are at an important crossroads in the history of renewable technologies. The possibilities are endless and enticing, and it has become increasingly clear that renewable energy is the way of the future. In Renewable, Jeremy Shere's natural curiosity and serious research come together in an entertaining and informative guide to where renewable energy has been, where it is today, and where it's heading.
Download or read book Renewable Energy Applications for Freshwater Production written by Jochen Bundschuh and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2012-07-02 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Worldwide, many regions have a great potential to cover part of their pressing water needs by renewable energy powered water treatment processes using either thermal or membrane based technologies. Not only arid and semiarid regions are increasingly suffering from water shortage but also many other regions face a limitation of freshwater resources either by increasing contamination of surface water bodies or groundwater resources unsuitable for drinking and irrigation purposes either due to their high grade of mineralization or their contents of toxic components. In many areas without centralized water supply, treatment techniques using locally available renewable energy resources such as wind, solar and geothermal can provide an economical, social and environmentally sustainable option for clean water production from seawater and from highly mineralized or otherwise unsuitable ground- and surface water. This book provides an overview on possible cost-efficient techniques and application opportunities for different scales and shows why the implementation of these technologies faces numerous technological, economic and policy barriers and provides suggestions how they can be overcome. It serves as a synoptic compendium of the fundamentals of freshwater production using renewable energies, applicable to all types of water, ranging from brackish to marine water and also including industrial and communal residual water. The book is aimed at professionals, academics and decision makers worldwide, working in the areas of water resources, water supply,land planning, energy planning, greenhouse gases emission mitigation and rural development.
Download or read book Alternative Energy written by Christopher A. Simon and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2020-01-21 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The second edition of Alternative Energy: Political, Economic, and Social Feasibility builds on the first edition, but with significant updates on dramatic changes within the renewable energy sector over the last decade. Christopher Simon discusses the basic technical aspects of major renewable energy systems and technological developments and considers the impact of politics on energy policy using contemporary theories of public policy—such as, Advocacy Coalition Framework (ACF), Punctuated Equilibrium (PE), Narrative Policy Framework, and Policy Diffusion—as well as discussing the evolution of the social feasibility of renewable energy. The author expands his discussion of alternative energy solutions to consider nuclear power developments and feasibility in the post-Fukushima policy environment. International commitment to renewable energy is also addressed.
Download or read book Sustainable Energy written by David J. C. MacKay and published by UIT Cambridge. This book was released on 2009 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The best-selling book on understanding sustainable energy and how we can make energy plans that add up.
Download or read book Ten Technologies to Save the Planet written by Chris Goodall and published by Greystone Books Ltd. This book was released on 2010 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "We face the dual crises of peak oil and climate change. How will we meet future global energy demands? Goodall combines cutting-edge analysis and fascinating stories of the inventors, scientists, and entrepreneurs developing real-world technologies."--Back cover.
Download or read book Sustainable Nuclear Power written by Galen J. Suppes and published by Elsevier. This book was released on 2006-12-08 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sustainable Nuclear Power provides non-nuclear engineers, scientists and energy planners with the necessary information to understand and utilize the major advances in the field. The book demonstrates that nuclear fission technology has the abundance and attainability to provide centuries of safe power with minimal greenhouse gas generation. It also addresses the safety and disposal issues that have plagued the development of the nuclear power industry and scared planners and policy makers as well as the general public for more than two decades. No need for a background in nuclear science! This book guides engineers, scientists and energy professionals through a concise and easy-to-understand overview of key safety and sustainability issues affecting their work. Details the very latest information about today's safest and most energy-efficient reactor designs and reprocessing procedures. Brings to light the fears and hesitation of using nuclear energy and explains that technologies and procedures for safe production and processing are available today.
Download or read book How to Avoid a Climate Disaster written by Bill Gates and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical—and accessible—plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe. Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide to certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions—suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise. As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.
Download or read book Electrify written by Saul Griffith and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2021-10-12 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An optimistic--but realistic and feasible--action plan for fighting climate change while creating new jobs and a healthier environment: electrify everything. Climate change is a planetary emergency. We have to do something now—but what? Saul Griffith has a plan. In Electrify, Griffith lays out a detailed blueprint—optimistic but feasible—for fighting climate change while creating millions of new jobs and a healthier environment. Griffith’s plan can be summed up simply: electrify everything. He explains exactly what it would take to transform our infrastructure, update our grid, and adapt our households to make this possible. Billionaires may contemplate escaping our worn-out planet on a private rocket ship to Mars, but the rest of us, Griffith says, will stay and fight for the future. Griffith, an engineer and inventor, calls for grid neutrality, ensuring that households, businesses, and utilities operate as equals; we will have to rewrite regulations that were created for a fossil-fueled world, mobilize industry as we did in World War II, and offer low-interest “climate loans.” Griffith’s plan doesn’t rely on big, not-yet-invented innovations, but on thousands of little inventions and cost reductions. We can still have our cars and our houses—but the cars will be electric and solar panels will cover our roofs. For a world trying to bounce back from a pandemic and economic crisis, there is no other project that would create as many jobs—up to twenty-five million, according to one economic analysis. Is this politically possible? We can change politics along with everything else.
Download or read book Beyond Smoke and Mirrors written by Burton Richter and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-04-12 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Global climate change is one of the most important issues humanity faces today. This book assesses the sensible, senseless and biased proposals for averting the potentially disastrous consequences of global warming, allowing the reader to draw their own conclusions on switching to more sustainable energy provision. Burton Richter is a Nobel Prize-winning scientist who has served on many US and international review committees on climate change and energy issues. He provides a concise overview of our knowledge and uncertainties within climate change science , discusses current energy demand and supply patterns, and the energy options available to cut emissions of greenhouse gases. Written in non-technical language, this book presents a balanced view of options for moving from our heavy reliance on fossil fuels into a much more sustainable energy system, and is accessible to a wide range of readers without scientific backgrounds - students, policymakers, and the concerned citizen.
Download or read book Climate Gamble written by Rauli Partanen and published by . This book was released on 2017-03-09 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the updated and improved 2017 edition of Climate Gamble. "Climate Gamble - Is Anti-Nuclear Activism Endangering Our Future?" is a thought-provoking, short and easy to read book on one of the biggest problems of our time, climate change, and one of its most misunderstood and misrepresented solution, nuclear power. From the back cover: Humankind has won many great victories in the fight against climate change. However, these victories are rarely acknowledged or reported. Is this because they were won with nuclear power? Preventing dangerous climate change requires world energy production to be almost completely free from fossil fuels by 2050. At the same time, energy consumption keeps growing, as the population increases and those mired in poverty try to create better lives for themselves. With almost 87 percent of our energy produced with fossil fuels, the challenge is unprecedented in both its scale and urgency. International organizations agree that meeting this challenge will require the use of all the tools at our disposal: Renewable energy, more energy conservation and better efficiency, carbon capture and storage - and nuclear power. At the same time, the global environment and energy discussion is largely dominated by a vocal opinion that climate challenge and global poverty should be conquered with nothing else than renewables, energy conservation and energy efficiency. This book explains how this opinion is largely based on very selective reading of relevant studies and reports, wishful thinking about the powers of technological miracles, and even straight-out falsification of statistics and misrepresentation of facts. Does the anti-nuclear movement really help to give people objective, relevant information they need to make up their minds about zero-carbon energy production, the scale of the challenge, and in particular the up- and downsides of nuclear power? Or are they just spreading fear and uncertainty, while making a huge gamble with the climate, potentially endangering both human civilization and the Earth's ecosystems?
Download or read book Green Illusions written by Ozzie Zehner and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 462 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We don’t have an energy crisis. We have a consumption crisis. And this book, which takes aim at cherished assumptions regarding energy, offers refreshingly straight talk about what’s wrong with the way we think and talk about the problem. Though we generally believe we can solve environmental problems with more energy—more solar cells, wind turbines, and biofuels—alternative technologies come with their own side effects and limitations. How, for instance, do solar cells cause harm? Why can’t engineers solve wind power’s biggest obstacle? Why won’t contraception solve the problem of overpopulation lying at the heart of our concerns about energy, and what will? This practical, environmentally informed, and lucid book persuasively argues for a change of perspective. If consumption is the problem, as Ozzie Zehner suggests, then we need to shift our focus from suspect alternative energies to improving social and political fundamentals: walkable communities, improved consumption, enlightened governance, and, most notably, women’s rights. The dozens of first steps he offers are surprisingly straightforward. For instance, he introduces a simple sticker that promises a greater impact than all of the nation’s solar cells. He uncovers why carbon taxes won’t solve our energy challenges (and presents two taxes that could). Finally, he explores how future environmentalists will focus on similarly fresh alternatives that are affordable, clean, and can actually improve our well-being. Watch a book trailer.
Download or read book Energy for a Sustainable World written by Vincenzo Balzani and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2010-12-01 with total page 348 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An easy read, balancing the pros and cons, this book surveys the energy issue from a broad scientific perspective while considering environmental, economic, and social factors. It explains the basic concepts, provides a historical overview of energy resources, assesses our unsustainable energy system based on fossil fuels, and shows that the energy crisis is not only a tough challenge, but also an unprecedented opportunity to become more concerned about the world in which we live and the society we have built up. By outlining the alternatives for today and the future, it gives an extensive overview on nuclear energy, solar thermal and photovoltaics, solar fuels, wind power, ocean energies and other renewables, highlighting the increasing importance of electricity and the long-term perspectives of a hydrogen-based economy. An excellent source of updated and carefully documented information on the entangled aspects of the energy issue, this book is a guide for scientists, students and teachers looking for ways out of the energy and climate crisis, and the problems and disparities generated during the fossil fuel era.
Download or read book Sustainable Fossil Fuels written by Mark Jaccard and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-01-16 with total page 408 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: More and more people believe we must quickly wean ourselves from fossil fuels - oil, natural gas and coal - to save the planet from environmental catastrophe, wars and economic collapse. In this 2006 book, Professor Jaccard argues that this view is misguided. We have the technological capability to use fossil fuels without emitting climate-threatening greenhouse gases or other pollutants. The transition from conventional oil and gas to their unconventional sources including coal for producing electricity, hydrogen and cleaner-burning fuels will decrease energy dependence on politically unstable regions. In addition, our vast fossil fuel resources will be the cheapest source of clean energy for the next century and perhaps longer, which is critical for the economic and social development of the world's poorer countries. By buying time for increasing energy efficiency, developing renewable energy technologies and making nuclear power more attractive, fossil fuels will play a key role in humanity's quest for a sustainable energy system.
Download or read book Sustainable Materials with both eyes open written by Julian Allwood and published by UIT Cambridge Limited. This book was released on 2012-04-01 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a follow-up book to the author's Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air, which had a large influence on both government policy and public opinion of how we should plan our energy for the future. This book faces up to the impacts of making materials in the 21st century. We are already making materials well, but demand keeps growing and we need to plan for a sustainable material future. The steel and aluminium industries alone account for nearly 30 per cent of global emissions, and demand is rising. The world target is to reduce industry's carbon emissions by 50 per cent by 2050. However, projections are that world demand for materials will double by 2050, so to meet our emissions target, we have to achieve a 4-fold reduction in emissions per unit of material used: industry will have to make huge changes, not just to the processes involved, but to the entire product life-cycle. This book presents a vision of change for how future generations can still use steel, cement, plastics etc., but with less impact on the environment. First it is a wake-up call, then it is a solutions manual. The solutions presented here are ahead of the game now. By providing an evidence-based vision of change, this book can play a significant role in influencing our energy future.
