Download or read book Solar Energy Technology Policy and Institutional Values written by Frank N. Laird and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2001-03-26 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Energy policies that promote new technologies and energy sources are policies for the future. They influence the shape of emergent technological systems, and also condition our social, political and economic lives. Solar Energy, Technology Policy, and Institutional Values demonstrates the difficulties of deliberating such properties by providing a historical case study that analyses US renewable energy policy from the end of World War II through the energy crisis of the 1970s. The book illuminates the ways beliefs and values come to dominate official problem frames and get entrenched in institutions. In doing so it also explains why advocates of renewable energy have often faced ideological opposition, and why policy makers fail to take them seriously.
Download or read book Powering the Dream written by Alexis Madrigal and published by Da Capo Press, Incorporated. This book was released on 2011-03-29 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Few today realize that electric cabs dominated Manhattan's streets in the 1890s; that Boise, Idaho, had a geothermal heating system in 1910; or that the first megawatt turbine in the world was built in 1941 by the son of publishing magnate G. P. Putnam--a feat that would not be duplicated for another forty years. Likewise, while many remember the oil embargo of the 1970s, few are aware that it led to a corresponding explosion in green-technology research that was only derailed when energy prices later dropped. In other words: We've been here before. Although we may have failed, America has had the chance to put our world on a more sustainable path. Americans have, in fact, been inventing green for more than a century. Half compendium of lost opportunities, half hopeful look toward the future, Powering the Dream tells the stories of the brilliant, often irascible inventors who foresaw our current problems, tried to invent cheap and energy renewable solutions, and drew the blueprint for a green future.
Download or read book Energy Technology Innovation written by Arnulf Grubler and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 409 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An edited volume on factors determining success or failure of energy technology innovation, for researchers and policy makers.
Download or read book Renewable Energy Resources written by John Twidell and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-01-26 with total page 991 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Renewable Energy Resources is a numerate and quantitative text covering the full range of renewable energy technologies and their implementation worldwide. Energy supplies from renewables (such as from biofuels, solar heat, photovoltaics, wind, hydro, wave, tidal, geothermal, and ocean-thermal) are essential components of every nation’s energy strategy, not least because of concerns for the local and global environment, for energy security and for sustainability. Thus in the years between the first and this third edition, most renewable energy technologies have grown from fledgling impact to significant importance because they make good sense, good policy and good business. This Third Edition is extensively updated in light of these developments, while maintaining the book’s emphasis on fundamentals, complemented by analysis of applications. Renewable energy helps secure national resources, mitigates pollution and climate change, and provides cost effective services. These benefits are analysed and illustrated with case studies and worked examples. The book recognises the importance of cost effectiveness and efficiency of end-use. Each chapter begins with fundamental scientific theory, and then considers applications, environmental impact and socio-economic aspects before concluding with Quick Questions for self-revision and Set Problems. The book includes Reviews of basic theory underlying renewable energy technologies, such as electrical power, fluid dynamics, heat transfer and solid-state physics. Common symbols and cross-referencing apply throughout; essential data are tabulated in appendices. An associated eResource provides supplementary material on particular topics, plus a solutions guide to Set Problems. Renewable Energy Resources supports multi-disciplinary master degrees in science and engineering, and specialist modules in first degrees. Practising scientists and engineers who have not had a comprehensive training in renewable energy will find it a useful introductory text and a reference book.
Download or read book American Empire and the Canadian Oil Sands written by George A. Gonzalez and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-04-08 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the US oil and gas shale are being 'hydrofracked' to produce petroleum and natural gas. Oil (or tar) sands from Canada is being 'processed' – thereby generating large amounts of crude. This book places the unconventional fossil fuels revolution that is taking place in North America within the context of great power politics.
Download or read book Energy the Modern State and the American World System written by George A. Gonzalez and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2018-03-01 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Energy and the modern state -- The political economy of energy -- Urban sprawl in the U.S. and the creation of the Hitler regime -- Urban sprawl, the Great Depression, and the start of World War II -- U.S. economic elites, nuclear power, and solar energy -- Global oil politics -- Plutonium and U.S. foreign policy -- Conclusion: energy and the global order
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 Biological Environmental Science written by William V Dashek and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2019-04-29 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biological Environmental Science is an introductory textbook for undergraduate students who desire a one semester course or, alternatively, a springboard course for advanced environmental offerings. This book features timely issues such as global warming, air, ground and water pollutions, population growth, species extinction and environmental policy. Unique features of this book include the use of research data and literature, copious illustrations and appendices for the scientific method.
Download or read book Urban Sprawl Global Warming and the Empire of Capital written by George A. Gonzalez and published by SUNY Press. This book was released on 2009-03-05 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Argues that the United States refuses to address global warming because of the reliance of the American economy on urban sprawl.
Download or read book Good Green Jobs in a Global Economy written by David J. Hess and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2012-09-21 with total page 309 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An examination of the politics of green jobs that foresees a potential ideological shift away from neoliberalism toward “developmentalism.” Good Green Jobs in a Global Economy is the first book to explore the broad implications of the convergence of industrial and environnmental policy in the United States. Under the banner of “green jobs,” clean energy industries and labor, environmental, and antipoverty organizations have forged “blue-green” alliances and achieved some policy victories, most notably at the state and local levels. In this book, David Hess explores the politics of green energy and green jobs, linking the prospect of a green transition to tectonic shifts in the global economy. He argues that the relative decline in U.S. economic power sets the stage for an ideological shift, away from neoliberalism and toward “developmentalism,” an ideology characterized by a more defensive posture with respect to trade and a more active industrial policy. After describing federal green energy initiatives in the first two years of the Obama administration, Hess turns his attention to the state and local levels, examining demand-side and supply-side support for green industry and local small business. He analyzes the successes and failures of green coalitions and the partisan patterns of support for green energy reform. This new piecemeal green industrial policy, Hess argues, signals a fundamental challenge to anti-interventionist beliefs about the relationship between the government and the economy.
Download or read book Nanotechnology and Global Sustainability written by Donald Maclurcan and published by CRC Press. This book was released on 2018-09-03 with total page 329 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The rise of collaborative consumption, peer-to-peer systems, and not-for-profit social enterprise heralds the emergence of a new era of human collectivity. Increasingly, this consolidation stems from an understanding that big-banner issues—such as climate change—are not the root causes of our present global predicament. There is a growing and collective view that issues such as this are actually symptoms of a much more vicious, seemingly insurmountable condition: our addiction to economic, consumption, and population growth in a world of finite resources. Nanotechnology and Global Sustainability uses nanotechnology—the product of applied scientific knowledge to control and utilize matter at atomic and molecular scales—as a lens through which to explore the interrelationship between innovation, politics, economy, and sustainability. This groundbreaking book addresses how stakeholders can actively reshape agendas to create positive and sustainable futures through this latest controversial, cross-sectoral technology. It moves beyond issues of efficiency, productivity, and utility, exploring the insights of 22 contributors from around the world, whose work spans the disciplines of science and the humanities. Their combined knowledge, reinforced with various case studies, introduces an exciting prospect—how we can innovate without economic growth. This new volume in the Perspectives in Nanotechnology series is edited by Dr. Donald Maclurcan and Dr. Natalia Radywyl. Dr. Maclurcan is a social innovator and Honorary Research Fellow with the Institute for Nanoscale Technology at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Dr. Radywyl is a social researcher and Honorary Research Fellow in the School of Culture and Communication at the University of Melbourne, Australia. She is also an Adjunct Research Fellow in the Faculty of Life and Social Sciences at Swinburne University of Technology, Melbourne. This book is written for a wide audience and will be of particular interest to activists, scholars, policy makers, scientists, business professionals, and others who seek an understanding of how we might justly transition to sustainable societies.
Download or read book Applied Evolutionary Economics and Economic Geography written by Koen Frenken and published by Edward Elgar Publishing. This book was released on 2007-01-01 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The volume Applied Evolutionary Economics and Economic Geography is the fourth book published by Edward Elgar on applied evolutionary economics stems from the fourth European Meeting on Applied Evolutionary Economics (EMAEE) held in Utrecht, 19-21 May, 2
Download or read book Renewable Energy and the Public written by Patrick Devine-Wright and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-14 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the world, the threat of climate change is pressing governments to accelerate the deployment of technologies to generate low carbon electricity or heat. But this is frequently leading to controversy, as energy and planning policies are revised to support new energy sources or technologies (e.g. offshore wind, tidal, bioenergy or hydrogen energy) and communities face the prospect of unfamiliar, often large-scale energy technologies being sited near to their homes. Policy makers in many countries face tensions between 'streamlining' planning procedures, engaging with diverse publics to address what is commonly conceived as 'NIMBY' (not in my back yard) opposition, and the need to maintain democratic, participatory values in planning systems. This volume provides a timely, international review of research on public engagement, in contexts of diverse, innovative energy technologies. Public engagement is conceived broadly - as the interaction between how developers and other key actors engage with publics about energy technologies (including assumptions held about the methods used, such as the provision of financial benefits or the holding of deliberative events), and how individuals and groups engage with energy policies and projects (including indirectly through the media and directly through emotional and behavioural responses). The book's contributors are leading experts in the UK, Europe, North and South America and Australia drawn from a variety of relevant social science disciplinary perspectives. The book makes a significant contribution to our existing knowledge, as well as providing interested professionals, policymakers and members of the public with a timely overview of the critical issues involved in public engagement with low carbon energy technologies.
Download or read book Energy and the Politics of the North Atlantic written by George A. Gonzalez and published by State University of New York Press. This book was released on 2013-06-20 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the onset of the Second Industrial Revolution in the second half of the nineteenth century, energy has become a key axis of politics and international relations, particularly for the United States and Western Europe. In Energy and the Politics of the North Atlantic, George A. Gonzalez documents how the United States—thanks to its copious reserves of oil, coal, and natural gas—was able to assume a dominant position in the world system by the 1920s. This energy/economic imbalance was an important causal factor underlying the eruption of World War II. After 1945, and in the context of the Cold War with communism, the United States used its access to both fossil fuels and nuclear power as a means to defeat the Soviet Union and its allies. Driving American foreign policy, Gonzalez argues, is a domestic system of urban sprawl based on the automobile and the energy reserves necessary to maintain it. The massive consumer demand created by urban sprawl underpins US foreign policy in the Middle East, while concerns over access to energy drive the European Union project.
Download or read book A House in the Sun written by Daniel A. Barber and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2016-10-13 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A House in the Sun describes a number of experiments in solar house heating in American architectural, engineering, political, economic, and corporate contexts from the beginning of World War II until the late 1950s. Houses were built across the Midwest, Northeast, and Southwestern United States, and also proposed for sites in India, South Africa, and Morocco. These experiments developed in parallel to transformations in the discussion of modern architecture, relying on new materials and design ideas for both energy efficiency and claims to cultural relevance. Architects were among the myriad cultural and scientific actors to see the solar house as an important designed element of the American future. These experiments also developed as part of a wider analysis of the globe as an interconnected geophysical system. Perceived resource limitations in the immediate postwar period led to new understandings of the relationship between energy, technology and economy. The solar house - both as a charged object in the milieu of suburban expansion, and as a means to raise the standard of living in developing economies - became an important site for social, technological, and design experimentation. This led to new forms of expertise in architecture and other professions. Daniel Barber argues that this mid-century interest in solar energy was one of the first episodes in which resource limitations were seen as an opportunity for design to attain new relevance for potential social and cultural transformations. Furthermore, the solar discussion established both an intellectual framework and a funding structure for the articulation of and response to global environmental concerns in subsequent decades. In presenting evidence of resource tensions at the beginning of the Cold War, the book offers a new perspective on the histories of architecture, technology, and environmentalism, one more fully entangled with the often competing dynamics of geopolitical and geophysical pressures.
Download or read book Undone Science written by David J. Hess and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2016-10-07 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Introduction -- Repression, ignorance, and undone science -- The epistemic dimension of the political opportunity structure -- The politics of meaning: from frames to design conflicts -- The organizational forms of counterpublic knowledge -- Institutional change, industrial transitions, and regime resistance politics -- Contemporary change: liberalization and epistemic modernization -- Conclusion
Download or read book Battleground Environment 2 volumes written by Robin Morris Collin and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2008-07-30 with total page 598 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The environment inflames passions in people on all points of the political spectrum. Controversies over such issues as the rise of cancer in industrialized countries, climate change, and urban sprawl have skyrocketed as we recognize the impact that humans have on the environment. Many people become immersed in these controversies at a local level before they know much about the topic - the nuances of many environmental conflicts are often overlooked as the media focuses on the adversarial nature of the conflict. This reference resource provides students, teachers, librarians, and citizens as a whole with the necessary first step in understanding these hot-button issues. Each entry identifies the issue involved, who was holding various points of view or positions, where and when the conflict occurred, and explains the cultural, social, and political context and dimensions of the conflict. Battleground: Environment provides in-depth analysis of over 100 of the most controversial topics involving the environment, including childhood asthma, the Kyoto Summit and Treaty, smart growth, the Three Gorges Dam in China, and genetically modified food. Entries include descriptions of public policies and discussions of the future of the controversy. Each entry concludes with cross references and a short, relevant bibliography suitable for student research. The resource includes numerous sidebars that discuss in detail particular local controversies that illuminate the complexity of the topics discussed.
