Tag Archives: energy

A Walk Around the Block

Posted on January 15, 2021 by smellincoffee

A Walk Around the Block: Stoplight Secrets, Mischievous Squirrels, Manhole Mysteries & Other Stuff You See Every Day (And Know Nothing About)© 2020 Spike Carlsen336 pages One of my favorite books to think back on is Scott Huler’s On the … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Too Much Magic: Same arguments, different cover

Posted on November 25, 2020 by smellincoffee

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 smellincoffee

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 smellincoffee

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 smellincoffee

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 smellincoffee

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 smellincoffee

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 smellincoffee

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 smellincoffee

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 smellincoffee

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 →

Posted in history, Politics and Civic Interest, Reviews | Tagged , , , , , , , | 7 Comments