Book reviews

Review by Dr P D Hopewell, B.Eng, Ph.D, C.Eng, MIET

In recent years industry and the public alike have, rightly, become less tolerant of pollution and much progress has been made to 'clean up our act'. However there is a new cause for concern; climate change is now recognised to have a major impact on the world's people and economies. Publication of the authoritative and comprehensive 'Stern Review' in 2006 put the UK at the forefront of attempts to assess the economic cost of climate change, the costs of tackling global warming and the policies required to address the problem. With widespread acceptance in the media and Government of CO2 as the de-facto cause of climate change and global warming, it would seem to the layman that there is no longer any scientific debate or doubt about this assertion. Svensmark and Calder's book is one of the very few recent publications to
present an alternative view.

Given the strong emotions associated with global warming, Svensmark and Calder's work may be seen by many to be unfashionable at best, or irresponsible at worst. However, an open-minded reader is likely to be intrigued by the theories and analysis presented and may well begin to question the mainstream CO2 = global warming link.

By Kenneth S Deffeyes

As an academic geologist from Princeton who has spent a large part of his working life in exploration, Professor Kenneth S Deffeyes is worth reading on carbon energy sources. 'Beyond Oil' obliges through providing the usual chapters on oil, gas, coal and uranium. It discusses alternative carbon supplies such as tar sands and oil shale. But if you can spare only time for reading one chapter, read the last one 'the big picture'.

With earth formed 4,500 million years ago, geologists 'can't be bothered with stuff that lasts less than a million years', which is incidentally about the lifetime of a mammal species. As there is no reason why Homo Sapiens should be an exception, we may have 900,000 years left before the next stage in our evolution.

Thinking out of the box, an example that we can make deliverate changes to the earth's major systems: digging 2 sea-level canals accross the Isthmus with flap gates could wipe out in a few 100 years the salinity difference between the Pacific and the Atlantic, making the tropics less hot, and the poles less cold. In other words 'San Diego everywhere'.

Beyond Oil offers further musings on population control as an instrument for sustainability. Obviously controversial, the most humane and acceptable method would be to teach calculus to teenage girls.

Its recipe prefers a mix of existing technologies, such as high efficiency automobiles, coal-fired power plants located near to CO2underground storage areas, wind turbines and nuclear power plants. It also pleads for a better use of combined techniques, i.e.:

• plan coal-fired electric power plants near to oil fields, to use CO2 for enhanced oil recovery
• nuclear plants supplying heat and hydrogen for processing heavy-oil sands
• agriculture to produce both food and burnable waste products

By David Bodanis

This essay, which reads like a novel, takes us through the development of electricity, its omnipresence in our natural environment and its impact on an industrial or technological society.

The book opens with a description of the effect of a long power outage on a major city. It goes on to describe how the invention and development of electricity has changed our lives by using the metaphor or warping a Roman Proconsul into our present era just before or after the electrical era has started. He would feel right at home in 19th century society before electricity, recognizing most things he saw. But 100 years later, we would need to do a lot of explaining.

The Electric Universe describes the major inventions based on electricity, each of which revolutionised society, such as for example the invention of light, telecommunications, computers, ... Each of these changed our lives, usually for the better. The people behind the inventions (Edison, Faraday, Morse, Volta) are presented as real personae.

With radar, electricity changes warfare, and shows for the first time an ugly side. But without electricity, there is also no rock & roll, and we could speculate about a less emancipated society.

Finally, electricity plays a crucial role in human and animal life. Without it, there can be no eyesight, or neuron activity.

The Electric Universe is well researched, providing a wealth of references and is highly entertaining if one likes the subject.

Review by author 

By Daniel S. Kirschen, Goran Strbac (University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UK)

The introduction of competition into the electricity supply industry has fundamentally changed the way it works. In light of these changes this book provides a clear and comprehensive explanation of the basic principles underpinning the design and operation of modern competitive electricity markets.

Assuming no prior knowledge of economics, Fundamentals of Power System Economics discusses the organization of markets for electrical energy as well as the operational and investment decisions that companies participating in these markets must make.

Features include:

• An introduction to the relevant microeconomics concepts and the theory of the firm.
• An introduction to the organisation and operation of electricity markets
• A clear explanation of the concepts of system security and of the markets for ancillary services.
• A lucid treatment of the effect of network congestion on electricity markets, including a detailed discussion of locational marginal pricing
• A tutorial treatment of the issues surrounding investment in generation and transmission
• Numerous illustrative examples

This is a book written by engineers, primarily for engineers, and has been designed in a textbook style with a problem and answer section at the end of each chapter to aid learning. The accessible tutorial style makes this book essential reading for both postgraduate and undergraduate students, professors and practicing engineers alike.

Review by Jeff McIntire-Strasburg via Sustainablog.

This morning I said I'd have a review up of Jeff Goodell's Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future up in a few days, but since I started reading the book yesterday, I literally have not been able to put it down. That's a testament to Goodell's skills as a writer, and the incredible stories he tells as he examines the role of coal in American growth over the past century and Chinese growth in the coming one. Along the way, Goodell tells the stories of miners, utility executives and global warming activists, among others, creating a very readable book on an incredibly complex subject.

I picked up the phrase "the empire of denial" from Goodell's epilogue, and that's essentially how "Big Coal" is characterized through the book: in denial of not only the human and environmental costs of their product, but also in denial about the inevitable waning of this energy source even as it's seeing a renewal of interest in the US. A few executives tied in with coal production, primarily in the big utility companies, recognize that regulation of CO2 is coming, and think it's in their best interest to get ahead of the curve by, at the very least, investing in new power plants that incorporate coal gasification and carbon sequestration technologies. By and large, though, the big utilities are building old-school dirty coal-burning plants (such as one going up in Southern Illinois) as quickly as possible to make a quick buck before regulation becomes a fact of life and requires the coal industry to internalize the costs it passes on, at least in terms of pollution. Yes, they're incorporating the latest scrubbers and such into these new plants, but as Goodell notes, even these new "clean" plants will still emit tons of CO2, mercury, and combustion wastes such as fly ash, continuing Big Coal's legacy as one of the biggest contributors to global warming and public health problems.

Goodell divides his book into three sections, each corresponding to a stage in the "lifecycle" of coal production and consumption: the first deals with mining, the second with burning the black rocks in power plants, and the third with the effects of emissions. Goodell's choice to look at the full picture, from mine to power plant to disposing of wastes, as well as the exhaustive research he puts into each section, makes this book a bit overwhelming -- in one sense, it mirrors recent books like James Howard Kunstler's The Long Emergency which examine how oil underlies almost every aspect of life in developed countries. Goodell's take on the future is certainly much less dramatic than Kunstler's, but he makes it clear that we're on the threshold of big changes in how we produce energy in this country. The coal industry's mantra has been "We'll figure out the problems later when we've made technological advances to deal with them," but Goodell makes clear that 1) some of the most promising technological advances are ready for commercial use, but the utility companies aren't willing to spend the necessary money on them, and 2) we're simply no longer in a position to put off facing the music on climate change and other environmental problems.

While looking at the big picture, Goodell never forgets that it's individuals who pay some of the most horrific prices for our dependence on the cheap electricity provided by coal. We read stories about two of the miners rescued from the Quecreek, Pennsylvania mine disaster in 2002, a woman who's family homestead has been devastated by the new floods produced by mountain top removal in the Appalachians, and a man in China's poorest province who's created his own methane digester to produce usable gas from his farm animals' poop. The facts and statistics in this book are fascinating, but it's the stories of individuals dealing with the past and present of Big Coal that really kept me turning pages.

This is an important book, especially as coal is experiencing a renaissance in the US. Goodell's no pie-in-the-sky idealist: he recognizes we will be burning coal for the foreseeable future. At the same time, he makes it amply clear that if we choose to keep burning it as we always have, the costs we'll face shortly down the road will dwarf the economic problems that that conservative politicians and their industrial sugar-daddies love to tout as a reason why we can't regulate CO2 and other greenhouse gases. The book will be available to buy on Thursday, June 8.

By Etienne Vermeersch (ed) et alii

By the year 2005, one would expect everything possible to have been said on the Kyoto Protocol, but this book offers a new perspective, if you can read beyond its title.

Written by philosophers and sociologists, the book includes 7 essays, each carefully worded - a trait of the discipline. It's virtually impossible to reflect the rich arguments of 7 authors in a short summary, and we don't even try, but here are some of the ideas as an appetiser.

In the introduction, Etienne Vermeersch distinguishes between 2 types of rationality, i.e. k-rationality (where 'k' stands for knowledge) and d-rationality (where 'd' stands for doing). K-rationality represents the search for rational knowledge, and in the case of climate change, an optimal k-rational form has not, and probably never will be achieved, although consensus is growing. But without k-rationality, d-rational action is still perfectly possible. D-rational action has well-defined aims, and uses the most efficient means to realise these aims. In conclusion, d-rational action could help us avoid living a lasting contradiction between lofty principles and our questionnable practices.

Raoul Weiler argues that climate policy calls for a new time scale for effective policy making and implementation, hitherto unknown. Building consensus on policy and making it sustainable over a prolonged period of time is made complicated through teh absence in the Western World vision of any intrinsic value system for the ecosystem. This is an untenable situation, since the soon-to-be outnumber the living: at least twce as many people will be having lives in the 21st century than are alive today. Ever hastier decisions and actions, without long-term understanding will not be the solution.

Riccardo Petrella concludes that Kyoto and Johannesburg have failed to ensure minimal conditions for a sustainable world. He calls for a Humankind Protocol to replace the Kyoto Protocol. Such protocol would be based on the recognition of a number of public goods (air, sun, ...), citizen participation and a world political entity representing humankind (not member states, such as the UN).

This book leaves the straightjacket of what is politically achievable within the time horizon of a regulatory mandate, and refreshingly thinks out of the box, but it is not a theoretical book. And you don't have to agree with it - as the authors happily don't with each other.

To publisher site

By Peter Odell

If provocation stimulates lateral thought (de Bono), you will find it hard to think straight while reading Peter Odell's book. Its opening sentence sets the tone: 'Realism over the critical issues of energy supply and use in the 21st century's economies and societies has become a very scarce commodity'. Peter Odell's goes on and explains that it will be very difficult to move away rapidly from carbon fuels. He presents a 100-year scenario for the 21st century during which the world will consume 3 times more carbon energy (1660 Gtoe) than in the 20th (500 Gtoe). He finds that carbon energy is not as scarce a commodity as above mentioned realism, and is confident we have the resources to support such demand.

Carbon fuels take the center stage in the book, with 3 of the 6 chapters devoted to coal, oil and gas. Alternative energy, defined as renewable & nuclear energy, but excluding non-commercial biomass, is occasionally mentioned. Alternative energy will start its rise in the 2nd half of the 21st century, supplying 30% of the cumulative energy needs during the century, and ending it with a 43% market share. Gas will be the fuel of the 21st century, coal will decline in relative terms, and oil is expected to peak before the middle of the century.

The book deliberately and consistently mentions carbon fuels rather than fossil fuels, The hypothesis of the fossil origin of oil and gas dates back from the 18th century, and the book devotes a chapter to an alternative theory suggesting an inorganic origin of oil and gas. We know relatively little of the deep earth crust, and this theory may be as valid as its alternative. In any case, the 'Russian-Ukranian theory of the abyssal, abiotic origin of petroleum' merits more than an instant dismissal because of its origin (the theory is also mentioned in the book by Vaclav Smil).

This compact book will delight anybody open to challenge conventional wisdom on our energy system.

For another review of this book, see Energy Policy 33(2005) 2411-2412

To publisher website

By Vijay Vaitheeswaran

A very readible book, based on interviews rather than desk research, this book offers quotes from energy gurus rather than graphs and tables. Because of this approach, it gives a good reflection on what is currently at stake in the energy world. Reading its index, it is as much about people and organisations as it is about keywords.

The central theme of the book is that the combined forces of market liberalisation and growing environmental concerns, in combination with new technology (fuel cells and micropower), will revolutionize the power system, leading to an energy internet. This is based on intelligent homes and buildings, micropower generated close to the point of use, and a distribution system allowing multi-directional energy flows.

With new technology becoming available, and ageing power infrastructure (requiring 10 Tdollar investment over the next 30 years), we have a window of opportunity to replace end-of-life power with something new. But 3 camps polarise the energy debate 'don't worry', 'keep pumping' and 'ride your bicycle'. None of these get it right, and consensus needs to be built around the 4th micropower way.

Overall, the book provides a good fresco of today's energy debate. The picture drawn for us is attractive, though it's not the only one possible. It leans more towards ngo's and institutes such as Worldwatch and Rocky Mountains, and it is a bit biased against big power, big oil and big coal. If you want to read a book in the 'small is beautiful' camp, with a focus on politics rather than science, this book would not be a bad choice at all.

Power to the People website

By Ernst Von Weizsaecker, Amory B and L Hunter Lovins

A book written around a simple but appealing idea: we can double our wealth while halving our resource use. It has inspired a 'factor X' school of though (e.g. factor 10).

Its first part offers 50 examples to increase resource productivity, giving a wealth of information, but some examples are a bit extreme, and backup evidence is not easy to find (e.g. super refrigerators). Others are impractical (e.g. hypercars, not exactly the vehicle to bring the kids to school with). Claims in Factour Four are not traceable to a verifiable source.

A reader who expects after reading through 50 examples, a practical and economic case will be presented on Factor Four will be disappointed. The examples are left to speak for themselves. In the second part, the authors move into a call for action. A range of solutions is eloquently proposed, mainly to create new markets, or reshape existing ones (e.g. through tax reform) to obtain the desired results. Part 2 supports the book's role as manifesto.

In its final part, Factor Four touches on some of the wider boundaries of resource productivity, in particular the idea that GDP and welfare are becoming weakly correlated (for example, car accidents trigger a number of services that are accounted for in GDP, but welfare is destroyed). Also, there is the issue of trade - we may be falsely under the impression to be greening our society, while all we do is just exporting pollution.

Overall, Factor Four is a good discussion document and excellent manifesto for action. We should be pleased it has been written, but need to be critical while reading it.

By Bjorn Lomborg

This book aims to measure the 'real state' of the world from an environmental viewpoint, and placing humans at the center stage. Its scope is broader than energy, but a large portion is devoted to energy resources and climate change. Its approach is to look at long-term trends, with the conclusion, not without controversy, that the world has never been in better shape, though there remain problems with global warming, the ozone layer, loss of rainforests, ...

Irrespective of the ideas it contains, one of the books major contributions is its wealth of data, which are all documented to their original source, and therefore easily verifiable. Just for this reason, the book would merit regular upgrades.

In its first chapter 'the litany', the author warns against the very selective use of data in the environmental movement to construct a cause on environmental hazards. Probably because of its militant tone, many have reacted, often playing the man, not the ball.

The merit of the Skeptical Environmentalist is that news on the environment does not need to be necessarily bad. Ever more people are leading longer and healthier lives, are better nourished, receive better education, a higher standard of living and more leisure time, 'without the global environment being destroyed.'

The debate is open when environmental activists are becoming rebels without a cause, and it's a worthwhile debate to have.

To publisher website