Insightful and Informative, Green Outlook Never So Bright

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	• Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming Fred Krupp, Miriam Horn W. W. Norton, 2008 - 256 pages average customer review:based on 52 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Good technical book on alternative energy.

From what I have read so far, the book enumerates the state of researched and applied sources of energy that will not (mostly) increase greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. I would recommend this book to those interested in our options for energy for the future.

Earth: the Sequel

This is a very interesting book about all the possible non-fossil fuels that scientists around the world are working on currently. Even for a very non-science oriented person I found it fascinating and hopeful. It would seem after reading this book that we should be able to fuel our homes and cars within a few years with solar or wind.

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Earth: The Sequel

An incredible wealth of knowledge! Well worth its price for anyone interrested in looking to the future.

Insightful and Informative, Green Outlook Never So Bright

Earth: The Sequel is an absolute must for anyone interested or concerned about the growing effects of global warming. This book brings to light the current technological advancements in alternative energy, and how very possible it is for us to cut off our dependence on fossil fuels. If the global energy industries were to introduce these new alternative energy solutions into the current grid, we could easily become a much greener planet: Earth. Then there would be no need for a sequel.

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opening blunder, but very informative

The book blunders with its first calculation with watts, on page 10, where we read " ...to meet China's stated goal to derive 10 percent of its electricity from renewable sources (not counting large hydroelectric projects) by the year 2010 will require 6 gigawatts of electricity -- more than two years of output from all the solar cell factories in the world today."

According to the Earth Policy Institute, 3.8 gigawatts of solar-cell capacity was produced in 2007. From the Wikipedia's ''solar cell'' we learn that, for an installation in Southern California, the capacity factor is typically 20%. So approximately 0.72 GW of potential solar-cell production occured in 2007. China consumed 2.82 x10^12 kWh of electricity in 2007 (from the Wikipedia and elseswhere), or 321 gigawatts. If China were to derive 32 gigawatts from solar-cells in 2007, it would need to install 160 gigawatts of solar-cell capacity, or 42 times the global production that occurred in 2008.

Near the end, on page 244, there is some sloppiness: "...according to the International Atomic Energy Agency, 435 reactors in thirty countries provide 15 percent of the world's energy". But the 2007 IAEA "Worldwide there were 435 nuclear power reactors in operation at the end of 2006 ...nuclear power supplied about 15% of the world's electricity." The correct statement is that nuclear power provides 6 percent of the world's energy.

But between the opening and closing blunders, there is very broad and competent survey of modern developments in energy technology. By my reading, the presentation of the physics and chemistry is accurate. I learned a lot from this book. The descriptions of the personalities involved in development of the new technology was inspiring. I have not checked all the numbers in the book. As far as I know, the two blunders cited are the only ones.

In books of this sort there is a tendency to throw out numbers like "Wal-Mart ...eliminated 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions" (page 203). But how did Wal-mart's innovation effect our per-capita carbon footprint? Are these innovations adding to up, to provide a sequel for planet Earth? The reader will have to take the responsibility to keep a tally of how the new developments are adding up, and could potentially add up in the future.

If, in the future, the numbers don't add up and there is no worthy "sequel", at least the remnants of humanity will be inheriting some amazing renewable energy technology created by some very clever and energetic people.

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reviews: 1, 2, 3, page 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11

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