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 Required reading for any intelligent discussion on energy policy, politics, etc... Jan 20, 2010
Try not to annoy your friends and coworkers. Opinions about energy policy and politics in the US and worldwide come up all the time, and after reading this book, you will have the science and stats to talk intelligently about these topics...and you will.
Another reviewer called this book terrifying, and I can't disagree after seeing the scenarios if population growth and energy use remain on their present course.
That's not to say it's all doom and gloom, which incidentally is all you hear from just about every other source. A way forward is presented which I find realistic enough to actually succeed if taken seriously. While other sources favor whatever their pet project is: "all wind", "all solar", "no oil", "no nuclear", and so on, the authors propose "a third, a third, and a third" referring to renewables, fossil energy, and nuclear. Unlike so many others, they explain the economic and geopolitical justifications for their view point, and back it up with real numbers.
Addressing the "Just and Sustainable" part of the title is an important perspective the authors present, one that is lacking from almost every discussion about energy policy. They graphically link standard of living around the world with energy use, and consider how that link, coupled with present and future populations presents what I consider the greatest obstacle to effective energy reform around the world. Perhaps the most troubling thing this book forced me to consider is the need for a sustainable model worldwide. Without global change, even if we drop the energy use here in the US to zero, it won't make up for the rapidly increasing population of the developing world all of whom are rightfully trying to increase their standard of living.
The information inside is well presented, and easy to digest. The multitude of graphs and charts make the information easy to absorb visually, and the accompanying text offers concise explanations.
Another reviewer has commented about the lack of in-text citations, the authors opting for a bibliography instead. Although future editions of the text might benefit from the change in referencing style, it would make the text more like an academic publication, instead of one geared toward the lay reader. In the end, the references back up the facts and figures in the book if you check them out for more detail, and that is all I can ask.
Finally an energy discussion that tackles the idea of a "just solution" Jan 11, 2010
As I was researching existing energy curricula and developing my own I was unable to find one single source that gave an overview of all energy sources. Most curricula and books on energy focus on nuclear, or renewable or fossil fuels, etc...Geopolitics not only gives a concise overview of the role all energy sources may play in our energy future, it also goes one giant step further by tackling the issue of basic human rights. I used this text in my high school general science classroom to help my students understand that there is more at stake here than high gas prices...for 1/3 of the human population access to energy is the difference between life and death. This book was a valuable vehicle that allowed me to broaden the discourse in my science classroom and begin a dialogue on something that is too frequently left out of the energy debate...the basic human right of access to clean, safe energy.
5 of 5 found the following review helpful:
Mandatory Reading For Politicians Oct 14, 2009
The Geopolitics of Energy is a book that terrifies me. It manages to do so without polar bears and without floods of biblical proportion, etc. This book accurately explains how energy use is related to quality of life. With only 1 billion of the earth's inhabitance within what I consider the quality zone, another 5 billion people will need to be brought up to this standard. This will require a tremendous amount of energy, from where will this energy supply come?
The book recommends that the energy be supplied using a mix of 1/3 fossil fuel, 1/3 renewables, and 1/3 nuclear. Under the projected usage after behavior modification, the authors suggest that even the best scenario has fossil fuels depleted within 100 years. Now that is scary. This best case scenario assumes that we can achieve the 1/3, 1/3, 1/3 ratio by 2040, which is just one generation away. I don't know if the authors proposed ratio is achievable in 30 years. I hope that it is, solar and wind energy will need to grow from 0 to 33%, nuclear would need to grow from 17% to 34%. I am afraid that this is not possible without significant changes in the political climate in the United States. Local zoning boards are preventing wind turbine installations ([...]). No new nuclear plants have been built in the U. S. since work on the River Bend plant began in 1977, one generation ago.
This book goes a long way toward giving lay readers an understanding of the current energy situation. I believe that it should be mandatory reading for anyone elected to public office in the U. S. (and probably the rest of the world). It should also be required reading for all 6th-8th grade students. Unfortunately, they are probably going to be the ones dealing with this mess when 2040 finally rolls around as I expect that my generation will continue to ignore the problem of finding a stable energy supply.
One of the other reviews suggested that this book was improperly cited. The references used to formulate the book are listed in a bibliography. For the target audience of decision makers and general members of the public, I believe that this is sufficient. In fact, in line citations may have made the book difficult for the target audience to read. While I myself would have liked to have seen standard scientific referencing, many of the people that I have passed the book onto have not. I have looked into the references in the bibliography and found that these documents do back up the numbers in the book.
For a book of this type, it is remarkably error free. The only major error is in the table on page 49 in the fossil fuels section. The numbers in the table should read:
157 years 79 years 109 years
40 years 20 years 80 years
57 years 29 years 143 years
instead of the multiple hundreds of years listed.
The book also does a great job of trying to correct the mistaken risks that people believe to be associated with nuclear power. Comparing the number of deaths attributed to coal usage over a 5 year period (30000) to the number of deaths attributed to nuclear power (0) is a stark reminder of how it is possible incorrectly assign risks compared to common behavior, say driving to work (250000 deaths over the same time period).
In general, the authors have covered a tremendous amount of material, political, scientific, and cultural, in a manner that is understandable and very readable. I just hope that those with the power to act listen to their recommendations. Otherwise, the authors may end up having written the best horror book of all time as I would hate to speculate on what the consequences of the U. S. Human Development Index dropping to 0.5 would be.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
Summary of our current energy situation and a perscription for the future Sep 29, 2009
I thought the book did an amazing job of taking a very technical, complex and multi-faceted problem and breaking it down into a logical sequence with explanations that had enough science beind them to make very powerful arguments but expressed in such a way as to be understandable to the layman. I think this is an extremely important and timely piece of work and should be a "must read" for all.
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
A crystal-clear energy primer Aug 09, 2009
Every informed person who knows something about the drawbacks of how the world obtains the energy that modern life depends on needs to read Wright and Conca's GeoPolitics of Energy. The great majority of today's energy comes from fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas. These fuels all produce carbon dioxide when they burn, and this carbon dioxide is at the root of the global warming problem. Additionally, mining coal and transporting oil can obviously lead to environmental disasters, from mountaintop removal to tanker accidents. Furthermore, the concentration of oil and gas reserves in just a few countries is the raw material of many geopolitical nightmares. This is only the beginning of such a list of problems, not the end, and the problems become still more serious as a growing world population strives for a decent standard of living.
Although it is easier to state the problems than to recommend solutions, scientists Wright and Conca do not hesitate to make specific suggestions and concrete choices based on their broad knowledge of the entire spectrum of energy issues, combined with specialized expertise and experience in environmental protection and alternative energy sources such as nuclear. Wright and Conca's book is a short and easily understood planetary owner's manual demonstrating that the nearly seven billion occupants of the Earth, and their descendants, can meet their energy needs without devastating their planet or going bankrupt. The authors consider the pros and cons of the various possible energy sources such as fossil fuels; renewables including biomass, hydroelectric, solar and wind; and geothermal and nuclear fuel. They survey energy use around the world and the economics of the various energy alternatives. They recommend an energy mix featuring renewables, fossil fuel, and nuclear in roughly equal amounts, necessitating more renewables and nuclear than anyone is dreaming of.
Because of the general misunderstanding of nuclear energy, and its incorrect confusion with weapons, nuclear energy gets a discussion rarely provided in other texts. The four downsides of the nuclear option are widely thought to be cost, proliferation, reactor safety and waste disposal. Wright and Conca show that none of these problems is insurmountable, given an informed and rational strategy. Even nuclear waste is provided a safe and alternative solution. France is an example of a developed western democracy that in only three decades successfully transformed its electricity supply from completely fossil fuel to over 80% nuclear, giving it the best air quality in Europe, removing its dependence on fossil fuels and reducing its toxic waste load per capita to the lowest of any industrialized nation.
Wright and Conca also outline the necessary requirements for moving from today's haphazard and sub-optimal energy mix toward a sustainable energy future. Wide public and governmental awareness and education are essential, as is a carbon tax. A truly global view requires focusing on the needs of the developing world, where population growth is concentrated and energy needs are rapidly increasing. Procrastination is a guarantee of failure. The time to start is now, and a very good way to start is by reading this authoritative and crystal-clear energy primer.
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