This book is written for the non-technical reader who has an interest in acquiring a better understanding of energy and its impact on climate change. It provides some much needed background on energy sources and their limitations and describes the links between energy and climate change. It discusses various energy based solutions to climate change and considers the financial consequences of these solutions for both the economy and the energy consumer. It provides the reader with a clear understanding of commonly used (but often not clearly explained) terms like “renewable energy”, “base-load power”, “peak oil”, “biofuels”, “global warming”, “greenhouse gas emissions”, “energy security”, “emissions trading”, “carbon taxes” and “carbon offsets”. It offers practical solutions to ways that the energy consumer can save energy in the home, workplace and on the road.
There are widely differing views about solutions to energy and climate change. This book provides an unbiased look at both sides of this debate and addresses what still needs to be done before we can return to an all renewable energy economy. Some conservationists see the problem as relatively straight forward requiring deep cuts in emissions now by improving energy efficiency, energy conservation and using only renewable resources. Many energy industry engineers and scientists see the problem as being much more involved. This book looks at why using renewable energy sources is not quite as simple as it seems. It considers the impact of aggressive emission reduction targets that demand reductions before we have the technology in place and the possible risks of such a strategy.
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2 comments:
Hi Martin - I bought your book and appreciated the clearly written overview and data. I also have read the ATSE report. Although my personal bias is in favour of renewables and against nuclear power, I am willing to concede that the risk of greenhouse warming is greater than the dangers of nuclear power, especially if more acceptable advanced generation power plants were possible. I do feel that we squander energy at present and I would like to see a greater emphasis on saving energy. Also, I can't understand why everyone gets excited about a doubling or even tripling of energy costs. Surely this is the best incentive for saving energy there could be? Also, I have just watched about $80,000 disappear from my superannuation account, so a doubling of my energy bill is the least of my worries. I imagine the $1.3 trillion handed out to the global financial sector recently could have gone some way towards mitigating our energy security issues. The ready recognition that this was "essential" grates when I compare it to the "difficulty" of dealing with energy issues - is it that we seen climate change as no big deal?
Hi "Anonymous"
Firstly thankyou for buying the book.
I agree we squander energy and that a significant price increase will reduce that waste. My only concern is that history suggests that even though we might save energy in our homes to save money we tend to spend that saved money on buying other "stuff" that needed energy to make it with little net savings.
One of the advantages of interventions like an ETS or carbon taxing is that the signficant price increases that result might force some people to save energy just to be able to pay the bills so there isn't any "saved" money.
Hopefully some of the trillion $ incentive package pumped into the economy will find its way into RE R&D which we desperately need if we have any hope of reaching the kind of emission reductions the climate scientists are calling for. I still think we will need more nuclear power as well - even current generation.
Martin N
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