Tag Archives: energy

Too Much Magic: Same arguments, different cover

Posted on November 25, 2020 by

Too Much Magic: Wishful Thinking, Technology, and the Fate of the Nation© 2012 Jim Kunstler336 pages Twelve years ago, at the urging of my sociology professor, I attended a lecture on Peak Oil and the Future of Suburbia, by a … Continue reading →

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Whole Earth Disicpline

Posted on November 8, 2020 by

Whole Earth Disicpline: An Ecopragmatist Approach © 2010 Stewart Brand344 pages Sustainability is context, not a gadget or a single technology. From Stewart Brand, a lifelong environmentalist and creator-editor of the Whole Earth Catalog, comes this fascinating argument that the … Continue reading →

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A Bright Future

Posted on October 15, 2020 by

A Bright Future: How Some Nations have Solved Climate Change and How the Rest can Follow© 2019 Joshua Goldstein & Staffan Qvist245 pages It is past time for the global community to take climate change seriously. In order to make … Continue reading →

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Empires of Light

Posted on December 9, 2017 by

Empires of Light: Edison, Tesla, Westinghouse, and the Race to Electrify the World © 2004 Jill Jonnes464 pages Empires of Light is less a history of how the United States became electrified and more a biography of three electrical titans – … Continue reading →

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Energy Myths and Realities

Posted on October 20, 2017 by

Energy Myths and Realities: Bringing Science to the Energy Debate© 2010 Vaclav Smil232 pages Nothing lasts forever, including coal and oil. Regardless of their environmental impact (as noxious fumes or released greenhouse gases), ultimately humanity will have to transition away … Continue reading →

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Infrastructure: A Field Guide

Posted on September 14, 2017 by

Infrastructure: A Field Guide to the Industrial Landscape© 1999, 2014 Brian Hayes544 pages Here at last is a book for those of us who constantly gaze out the car window at the fixtures on utility poles, or drums mounted in … Continue reading →

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The Works

Posted on November 25, 2016 by

The Works: Anatomy of a City© 2005  Kate Ascher240 pages Cities are, for my money, mankind’s most astonishing invention. Their complexity is stupefying — system within system, handling tons of material at any given time, whether the subject is cars … Continue reading →

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Lights Out

Posted on June 13, 2016 by

Lights Out: A Cyberattack, a Nation Unprepared© 2015 Ted Koppell288 pages In Lights Out,  investigatory journalist Ted Koppel comments on the vulnerability of the United States’ power grid to a cyber attack,  and reviews the way government agencies, private citizens, … Continue reading →

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On the Grid

Posted on May 14, 2016 by

On the Grid: A Plot of Land, an Average Neighborhood, and the Systems That Make Our World Work© 2010 Scott Huler256 pages If modern humans have retained a penchant for magical thinking, little wonder. Our homes accomplish marvels seemingly by the … Continue reading →

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Horses at Work

Posted on December 23, 2015 by

Horses at Work: Harnessing Power in Industrial America© 2008 Ann Norton Greene322 pages The quintessential image of horses in American history is the cowboy, of rough men moving cattle in the wilderness on horseback. But follow the cattle, and their … Continue reading →

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