Fossil Energy

Fossil Energy PDF Author: Ripudaman Malhotra
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 146145722X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 628

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Book Description
The word sustainability shares its root with sustenance. In the context of modern society, sustenance is inextricably linked to the use of energy. Fossil Energy provides an authoritative reference on all aspects of this key resource, which currently represents nearly 85% of global energy consumption. Gathering 16 peer-reviewed entries from the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, the chapters provide comprehensive, yet concise coverage of fundamentals and current areas of research. Written by recognized authorities in the field, this volume represents an essential resource for scientists and engineers working on the development of energy resources, fossil or alternative, and reflects the essential role of energy supplies in supporting a sustainable future.

Fossil Energy

Fossil Energy PDF Author: Ripudaman Malhotra
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 146145722X
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 628

Get Book

Book Description
The word sustainability shares its root with sustenance. In the context of modern society, sustenance is inextricably linked to the use of energy. Fossil Energy provides an authoritative reference on all aspects of this key resource, which currently represents nearly 85% of global energy consumption. Gathering 16 peer-reviewed entries from the Encyclopedia of Sustainability Science and Technology, the chapters provide comprehensive, yet concise coverage of fundamentals and current areas of research. Written by recognized authorities in the field, this volume represents an essential resource for scientists and engineers working on the development of energy resources, fossil or alternative, and reflects the essential role of energy supplies in supporting a sustainable future.

The Great Transition: Shifting from Fossil Fuels to Solar and Wind Energy

The Great Transition: Shifting from Fossil Fuels to Solar and Wind Energy PDF Author: Lester R. Brown
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393351149
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
The great energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy is under way. As oil insecurity deepens, the extraction risks of fossil fuels rise, and concerns about climate instability cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new world energy economy is emerging. The old economy, fueled by oil, natural gas, and coal is being replaced with one powered by wind, solar, and geothermal energy. The Great Transition details the accelerating pace of this global energy revolution. As many countries become less enamored with coal and nuclear power, they are embracing an array of clean, renewable energies. Whereas solar energy projects were once small-scale, largely designed for residential use, energy investors are now building utility-scale solar projects. Strides are being made: some of the huge wind farm complexes under construction in China will each produce as much electricity as several nuclear power plants, and an electrified transport system supplemented by the use of bicycles could reshape the way we think about mobility.

The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels

The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels PDF Author: Alex Epstein
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0698175484
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
Could everything we know about fossil fuels be wrong? For decades, environmentalists have told us that using fossil fuels is a self-destructive addiction that will destroy our planet. Yet at the same time, by every measure of human well-being, from life expectancy to clean water to climate safety, life has been getting better and better. How can this be? The explanation, energy expert Alex Epstein argues in The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, is that we usually hear only one side of the story. We’re taught to think only of the negatives of fossil fuels, their risks and side effects, but not their positives—their unique ability to provide cheap, reliable energy for a world of seven billion people. And the moral significance of cheap, reliable energy, Epstein argues, is woefully underrated. Energy is our ability to improve every single aspect of life, whether economic or environmental. If we look at the big picture of fossil fuels compared with the alternatives, the overall impact of using fossil fuels is to make the world a far better place. We are morally obligated to use more fossil fuels for the sake of our economy and our environment. Drawing on original insights and cutting-edge research, Epstein argues that most of what we hear about fossil fuels is a myth. For instance . . . Myth: Fossil fuels are dirty. Truth: The environmental benefits of using fossil fuels far outweigh the risks. Fossil fuels don’t take a naturally clean environment and make it dirty; they take a naturally dirty environment and make it clean. They don’t take a naturally safe climate and make it dangerous; they take a naturally dangerous climate and make it ever safer. Myth: Fossil fuels are unsustainable, so we should strive to use “renewable” solar and wind. Truth: The sun and wind are intermittent, unreliable fuels that always need backup from a reliable source of energy—usually fossil fuels. There are huge amounts of fossil fuels left, and we have plenty of time to find something cheaper. Myth: Fossil fuels are hurting the developing world. Truth: Fossil fuels are the key to improving the quality of life for billions of people in the developing world. If we withhold them, access to clean water plummets, critical medical machines like incubators become impossible to operate, and life expectancy drops significantly. Calls to “get off fossil fuels” are calls to degrade the lives of innocent people who merely want the same opportunities we enjoy in the West. Taking everything into account, including the facts about climate change, Epstein argues that “fossil fuels are easy to misunderstand and demonize, but they are absolutely good to use. And they absolutely need to be championed. . . . Mankind’s use of fossil fuels is supremely virtuous—because human life is the standard of value and because using fossil fuels transforms our environment to make it wonderful for human life.”

Life after Fossil Fuels

Life after Fossil Fuels PDF Author: Alice J. Friedemann
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030703355
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 205

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Book Description
This book is a reality check of where energy will come from in the future. Today, our economy is utterly dependent on fossil fuels. They are essential to transportation, manufacturing, farming, electricity, and to make fertilizers, cement, steel, roads, cars, and half a million other products. One day, sooner or later, fossil fuels will no longer be abundant and affordable. Inevitably, one day, global oil production will decline. That time may be nearer than we realize. Some experts predict oil shortages as soon as 2022 to 2030. What then are our options for replacing the fossil fuels that turn the great wheel of civilization? Surveying the arsenal of alternatives – wind, solar, hydrogen, geothermal, nuclear, batteries, catenary systems, fusion, methane hydrates, power2gas, wave, tidal power and biomass – this book examines whether they can replace or supplement fossil fuels. The book also looks at substitute energy sources from the standpoint of the energy users. Manufacturing, which uses half of fossil fuels, often requires very high heat, which in many cases electricity can't provide. Industry uses fossil fuels as a feedstock for countless products, and must find substitutes. And, as detailed in the author's previous book, "When Trucks Stop Running: Energy and the Future of Transportation," ships, locomotives, and heavy-duty trucks are fueled by diesel. What can replace diesel? Taking off the rose-colored glasses, author Alice Friedemann analyzes our options. What alternatives should we deploy right now? Which technologies merit further research and development? Which are mere wishful thinking that, upon careful scrutiny, dematerialize before our eyes? Fossil fuels have allowed billions of us to live like kings. Fueled by oil, coal, and natural gas, we changed the equation constraining the carrying capacity of our planet. As fossil fuels peak and then decline, will we fall back to Earth? Are there viable alternatives?

Eating Fossil Fuels

Eating Fossil Fuels PDF Author: Dale Pfeiffer
Publisher: New Society Publishers
ISBN: 9781550923766
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 125

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Book Description
A shocking outline of the interlinked crises in energy and agriculture--and appropriate responses.

Clean Energy Nation

Clean Energy Nation PDF Author: Gerald McNerney
Publisher: AMACOM Div American Mgmt Assn
ISBN: 0814413722
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
Americans are already feeling the pressures of the current energy situation, and many of us are ready to make a change. Clean Energy Nation is a timely and hopeful look at an issue we can't afford to ignore. --Book Jacket.

Fossil Energy Update

Fossil Energy Update PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Fossil fuels
Languages : en
Pages : 806

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Book Description


Renewable Energy Transformation or Fossil Fuel Backlash

Renewable Energy Transformation or Fossil Fuel Backlash PDF Author: Espen Moe
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 1137298790
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 291

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Book Description
Renewable energy is rising within an energy system dominated by powerful vested energy interests in fossil fuels, nuclear and electric utilities. Analyzing renewables in six very different countries, the author argues that it is the extent to which states have controlled these vested interests that determines the success or failure of renewables.

The Birth of Energy

The Birth of Energy PDF Author: Cara New Daggett
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 1478005343
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
In The Birth of Energy Cara New Daggett traces the genealogy of contemporary notions of energy back to the nineteenth-century science of thermodynamics to challenge the underlying logic that informs today's uses of energy. These early resource-based concepts of power first emerged during the Industrial Revolution and were tightly bound to Western capitalist domination and the politics of industrialized work. As Daggett shows, thermodynamics was deployed as an imperial science to govern fossil fuel use, labor, and colonial expansion, in part through a hierarchical ordering of humans and nonhumans. By systematically excavating the historical connection between energy and work, Daggett argues that only by transforming the politics of work—most notably, the veneration of waged work—will we be able to confront the Anthropocene's energy problem. Substituting one source of energy for another will not ensure a habitable planet; rather, the concepts of energy and work themselves must be decoupled.

Fossil Future

Fossil Future PDF Author: Alex Epstein
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0593420411
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 481

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Book Description
The New York Times bestselling author of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels draws on the latest data and new insights to challenge everything you thought you knew about the future of energy For over a decade, philosopher and energy expert Alex Epstein has predicted that any negative impacts of fossil fuel use on our climate will be outweighed by the unique benefits of fossil fuels to human flourishing--including their unrivaled ability to provide low-cost, reliable energy to billions of people around the world, especially the world’s poorest people. And contrary to what we hear from media “experts” about today’s “renewable revolution” and “climate emergency,” reality has proven Epstein right: Fact: Fossil fuels are still the dominant source of energy around the world, and growing fast—while much-hyped renewables are causing skyrocketing electricity prices and increased blackouts. Fact: Fossil-fueled development has brought global poverty to an all-time low. Fact: While fossil fuels have contributed to the 1 degree of warming in the last 170 years, climate-related deaths are at all-time lows thanks to fossil-fueled development. What does the future hold? In Fossil Future, Epstein, applying his distinctive “human flourishing framework” to the latest evidence, comes to the shocking conclusion that the benefits of fossil fuels will continue to far outweigh their side effects—including climate impacts—for generations to come. The path to global human flourishing, Epstein argues, is a combination of using more fossil fuels, getting better at “climate mastery,” and establishing “energy freedom” policies that allow nuclear and other truly promising alternatives to reach their full long-term potential. Today’s pervasive claims of imminent climate catastrophe and imminent renewable energy dominance, Epstein shows, are based on what he calls the “anti-impact framework”—a set of faulty methods, false assumptions, and anti-human values that have caused the media’s designated experts to make wildly wrong predictions about fossil fuels, climate, and renewables for the last fifty years. Deeply researched and wide-ranging, this book will cause you to rethink everything you thought you knew about the future of our energy use, our environment, and our climate.