Synopses & Reviews
A guided tour of a revolution in the making that promises to change our livesGlobal warming, rolling black outs, massive tanker spills, oil dependence: our profligate ways have doomed us to suffer such tragedies, right? Perhaps, but Vijay Vaitheeswaran, the energy and environment correspondent for The Economist, sees great opportunity in the energy realm today, and Power to the People is his fiercely independent and irresistibly entertaining look at the economic, political, and technological forces that are reshaping the world's management of energy resources. In it, he documents an energy revolution already underway--a revolution as radical as the communications revolution of the past decades.
From the corporate boardroom of a Texas oil titan who denies the reality of global warming to a think tank nestled in the Rocky Mountains where a visionary named Amory Lovins is developing the kind of hydrogen fuel-cell technology that could make the internal combustion engine obsolete, Vaitheeswaran gamely pursues the people who hold the keys to our future. Man's quest for energy is insatiable. It is also essential. By avoiding the traditional binaries that pit free markets against the wisdom of conservation and the need for clean energy, Power to the People is a book that debunks myths without debunking hope.
Review
"Lucid and entertaining... informative and insightful." Publishers Weekly
Review
"Written for the intelligent layperson, Vaitheeswaran's book is by far the most helpful, entertaining, up-to-date and accessible treatment of the energy-economy-environment problematique available." John P. Holdren, Scientific American
Review
"Vaitheeswaran brings both journalistic pizzazz and a commonsensical questioning of the claims of those vested in the oil-consuming status quo and of moral preeners among environmentalists." Booklist
Synopsis
An energy and environment correspondent for The Economist sees great opportunity in the energy realm today, and this is his fiercely independent and irresistibly entertaining look at the economic, political, and technological forces that are reshaping the world's management of energy resources.
Synopsis
Includes bibliographical references (p. [343]-346) and index.
Synopsis
"By far the most helpful, entertaining, up-to-date and accessible treatment of the energy-economy-environment problematique available." --John P. Holdren, Scientific AmericanA fiercely independent and irresistibly entertaining look at the economic, political and technological forces that are reshaping the world's management of energy resources, Power to the People has been hailed as "as good a manifesto for the new energy world as you will find." (Fred Pearce, New Scientist). The Economist's Environment and Energy correspondent, Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran sees great opportunity in the energy realm today, and he documents an energy revolution already under way.
From the corporate boardroom of a Texas oil titan who denies the reality of global warming, to a think tank nestled in the Rocky Mountains where a visionary named Amory Lovins is developing hydrogen fuel-cell technology that could make the internal combustion engine obsolete, Vaitheeswaran gamely pursues the people who hold the keys to our future. Avoiding the traditional divide that pits free markets against the wisdom of conservation and the need for clean energy, Power to the People debunks myths without debunking hope.
About the Author
Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran is The Economist's Environment and Energy Correspondent, covering developments in politics, economics, business, and technology as they relate to energy issues. He has received awards for his journalism, and previously wrote about Latin America as the magazine's regional bureau chief in Mexico City. Born in Madras, India, he grew up in Cheshire, Connecticut and graduated from MIT with a degree in mechanical engineering. He now lives in New York.
Table of Contents
Introduction : the coming energy revolution -- Market forces : the invisible hand ascendant. Micropower: Thomas Edison's dream revived -- Enron vs. Exxon, or, the sleeping giants awaken -- Why California went B.A.N.A.N.A.s -- Oil, the most dangerous addiction -- Environmental pressures : the green dilemma. Welcome to global weirding -- Clearing the air -- Adam Smith meets Rachel Carson -- Energy technology : bigger than the Internet. The future of fuel cells -- Rocket science saves the oil industry -- A renaissance for nuclear power? -- Micropower meets village power -- Epilogue : the future's a gas.