The Solar Economy: Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Global Future
by Hermann Scheer
List Price:
Our Price: $27.07
You Save: $7.93 (23%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Hermann ScheerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2004-05-03
ISBN: 1844070751
Number of pages: 368
Publisher: Routledge
Book Reviews of The Solar Economy: Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Global Future
Book Review: Current trends indicate the world wide burning of fossil fuels is likely to flare by 50 percent between 1990 and 2010
Summary: 4 Stars
All economic activity relies on the physical and chemical conversion of materials from one form into another, and the conversion of fuels into the energy need to distribute and consume the resultant products.
Energy and raw materials are the fundament of our economies.
World energy consumption show that 32 per cent is generated by burning crude oil, 25 per cent by burning coal, and 17 per cent by burning natural gas. Five per cent comes from nuclear fuels, and another 14 per cent from combustion of biomass, and hydroelectricity accounts for 6 per cent of all energy consumption.
Current trends indicate the world wide burning of fossil fuels is likely to flare by 50 percent between 1990 and 2010.
Is Nuclear energy life threatening? No. New pebble reactors will provide safe energy and safeguard against the possibility a critical chain reaction. France is building a new experimental fusion reactor and if successful could move the world into a hydrogen society. Long-term the world has infinite energy.
Scheer wants an immediate shift away from "life threatening fossil fuel resource trap" Solar=Hydrogen=electrical, "Only with the transition to renewable resources, and thus to a solar global economy can economic logic and with it the future path of economic development be radically altered."
Fallacy #1: Sheer says, increases in productivity and efficiency must stabilize resource consumption at its current level. Energy stabilize needs to be replaced with energy expansion. Life gets better as more energy becomes available. Energy consumption will only increase, increasing many fold over the next decade. Allocative efficiency favors big business and restricts competition.
Fallacy #2: Sheer says, "as reserves of crude oil, natural gas and certain strategically important minerals approach exhaustion, resource crisis are becoming more intense." Who has economic control? Who sets the prices for crude? And in the end Who will pay for them? It takes time to migrate from one energy source to another. Large capital investment is required to build infrastructure. The point of no return begins as banks and corporations begin building the new energy future. Energy shortages are short term crisis that push innovation and adoption of newer and cheaper fuels. Capitalist use their profits from a crisis to build the new infrastructure and world keeps on running.
Fallacy #3. Sheer says, "Energy and mineral resources are found in relatively few locations around the globe". Wow, amazing fear factor. In the 70s and 80s the US reduced dependancy on foreign oil by 50% before oil became cheap again. Today, the US and Canada represent a vast empty quarter of oil in the form of shale and tar. Canada is becoming an important source of oil. Wyoming will be developed as a new Texas oil source. Cheaper oil extraction system will become popular and make accessible oil in the western hemisphere.
Sheer is the realist. Sheer responses "but which the modern techno-pundits now imbue with bright promise) has been dazzled by partial, faddishly exaggerated and overgeneralized reports of the actual developments". Change requires risk. Innovation surges and falls before maturing.
Summary of The Solar Economy: Renewable Energy for a Sustainable Global Future
The global economy and our way of life are based on the exploitation of fossil fuels, which not only threaten massive environmental and social disruption through global warming but, at present rates of consumption, will run out within decades, causing huge industrial dislocation and economic collapse. Even before then, the conflicts it causes in the Middle East and elsewhere will be frighteningly exacerbated. The alternative exists: renewable energy from renewable sources - above all, solar. Substituting renewable for fossil resources will take a new industrial revolution to avert the worst of the damage and establish a new international order. It can be done, and it can be done in time. The Solar Economy, by one of the world's most effective analysts and advocates, lays out the blueprints, showing how the political, economic and technological challenges can be met using indigenous, renewable and universally available resources, and the enormous opportunities and benefits that will flow from doing so.Economics Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Economics Books
The Day Wall Street Exploded: A Story of America in Its First Age of Terrorby Beverly Gage
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 2009-01-28; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $5.33
Price in other shops:
Coal: A Human Historyby Barbara Freese
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2004-01-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
Econometric Models and Economic Forecastsby Robert Pindyck, Daniel Rubinfeld, Robert S. Pindyck, Daniel L. Rubinfeld
McGraw-Hill/Irwin; Published: 1997-07-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $88.50
Elements of Dynamic Optimizationby Alpha C. Chiang
Mcgraw-Hill College; Published: 1992-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $375.84
Macroeconomicsby Campbell McConnell, Stanley Brue
McGraw-Hill/Irwin; Published: 2006-10-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $30.00
Empire of Wealth: The Epic History of American Economic Power (P.S.)by John Steele Gordon
Harper Perennial; Published: 2005-10-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $8.73
Price in other shops:
A Term at the Fed: An Insider's Viewby Laurence H. Meyer
HarperBusiness; Published: 2006-01-03; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.24
Price in other shops:
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies (Harper Business Essentials)by Jim Collins, Jerry I. Porras
HarperBusiness; Published: 2002-08; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.86
Price in other shops:
Predictably Irrational: The Hidden Forces That Shape Our Decisionsby Dan Ariely
Harper; Published: 2009-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.48
Price in other shops:
The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers: Economic Change and Military Conflict from 1500 to 2000by Paul Kennedy
Harper Collins Publishers; Published: 1989-03-16; Paperback; Book
Best price: $18.08
Similar Books and other products
Solar Electricity Handbook, 2010 Edition: A Simple Practical Guide to Solar Energy - Designing and Installing Photovoltaic Solar Electric Systemsby Michael Boxwell
Greenstream Publishing; Published: 2010-03-25; Paperback; Book
Best price: $14.95
Price in other shops:
Photovoltaics: Design and Installation Manualby Solar Energy International
New Society Publishers; Published: 2004-09-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $30.00
Price in other shops:
From Space to Earth: The Story of Solar Electricityby John Perlin
Harvard University Press; Published: 2002-11-30; Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.61
Price in other shops:
Chasing the Sun: Solar Adventures Around the Worldby Neville Williams
New Society Publishers; Published: 2005-10-01; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.44
Price in other shops:
Solar Revolution: The Economic Transformation of the Global Energy Industryby Travis Bradford
The MIT Press; Published: 2006-07-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $3.94
Price in other shops:
A Solar Manifestoby Hermann Scheer
Routledge; Published: 2005-04-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $33.45
Price in other shops:
Politics of Climate Changeby Anthony Giddens
Polity; Published: 2009-05-05; Paperback; Book
Best price: $21.50
Price in other shops:
Energy Autonomy: The Economic, Social and Technological Case for Renewable Energyby Hermann Scheer
Routledge; Published: 2006-12-01; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $24.44
Price in other shops:
Solar Electricity Handbook - 2011 Edition: A Simple Practical Guide to Solar Energy - Designing and Installing Photovoltaic Solar Electric Systemsby Mr Michael Boxwell
Greenstream Publishing; Published: 2011-01-18; Paperback; Book
Best price: $13.48
Price in other shops:
Solar Revolution: The Economic Transformation of the Global Energy Industryby Travis Bradford
The MIT Press; Published: 2008-09-26; Paperback; Book
Best price: $7.90
Price in other shops: