The Poverty of Power: Energy and the Economic Crisis

by Barry Commoner

In the last ten years, the United States—the most powerful and technically advanced society in human history—has been confronted by a series of ominous, seemingly intractable crises. First there was the threat to the environmental survival; then there was the apparent shortage of energy: and now there is the unexpected decline of the economy. These are usually regarded as separate afflictions, each to be solved in its own terms: environmental degradation by pollution controls; the energy crisis by finding new sources of energy and new ways of conserving it; the economic crisis by manipulating prices, taxes, and interest rates.

But each effort to solve one crisis seems to clash with the solution of the others—pollution control reduces energy supplies; energy conservation jobs. Inevitably, proponents of one solution become opponents of the others. Policy stagnates and remedial action is paralyzed, adding to the confusion and gloom that beset the country."

So opens Barry Commoner's The Poverty of Power, the book in which America's great biologist and environmentalist addresses himself to the central question of our day. He concludes that "what confronts us is not a series of separate crises, but a single basic deficit—a fault that lies deep in the design of modern society. This book is an effort to unearth that fault, to trace its relation to the separate crises, and to consider what can be done to correct it at its root.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

297 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1976

Reviews

[NOLaBookish aka blue-collared mind · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read Barry Commoner, Rachel Carson, Amory Lovins, Aldo Leopold and Edward Abbey all in the space of a few short years and was able to find clarity and reason while devoting my life to creating community and changing the world. Over the years, I have understood ever more complex arguments about the collapse of the empires that humans have built in the 17th to 20th centuries because of these writers, among others. Commoner was a REAL scientist (meaning that he questioned the hypothesis too) who shone a strong light on murky environmental deals done by polluters and governments.
Still worth reading and sharing.

[Adam Orford · Rating 3 out of 5]

Barry Commoner was a brilliant environmentalist. The Closing Circle is one of the best works on the environment ever written. But this work on energy does not have the same staying power. Or at least, whatever brilliance he brought to the topic has been almost totally eclipsed in the last forty years of technological development and geopolitical energy machinations. His lengthy discourse on coal and oil and solar energy are simply so dated as to make for difficult going, and his (completely understandable) ignorance of climate change meant he was not able to write convincingly about the most important environmental impact of the energy system. So he wrote a huge book about energy entirely based on materials efficiency and economic supply constraint considerations. Ah, well.

Not to say there are not real flashes of brilliance here, throughout. But he had to learn too much to write this book, and still did not have enough information to truly make a lasting mark.

[Martin Empson · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting study of US energy during the 1970s energy crisis that blends thermodynamics and Marxist economics in developing a criticism of capitalism as an unsustainable system that can only survive by decimating the economy and people. But it is very dated and, because climate change was not a widely known issue, it misses a key ingredient in its fairly devastating attack on capitalist economics.

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

BC wrote this in 1976 as a result of the Arab oil embargo, so it's references are dated. Although over 30 years old, I think it's safe to say that the 1st and 2nd laws of thermodynamics haven't changed much during that time. And the topic of this country's energy usage is even more urgent today than it was when this book was written. It's an understatement to say that BC did his research for this book. It's full of references and information about fuels used to generate energy -- coal, oil, natural gas, and nuclear power. He discusses their relative efficiencies, the costs associated with getting, processing and using them, and their environmental and health effects. Oh yes, and the politics associated therewith. Quite informative, really.

[Steven H · Rating 5 out of 5]

A "CLASSIC" IN THE FIELD OF ENVIRONMENTAL POLITICS

Barry Commoner (born 1917) is an American biologist and former college professor, who has also written books such as 'The Closing Circle: Nature, Man, and Technology,' 'Making Peace With the Planet,' etc.

He wrote in the first chapter of this 1976 book, "the modern production system... has been developed with almost no regard for compatibility with the environment or for the efficient use of energy... the economic system ... invests in factories that promise increased profit rather than environmental compatibility or efficient use of resources... what confronts us is not a series of separate crises, but a single basic defect---a fault the lies deep in the design of modern society. This book is an effort to unearth that fault, to trace its relation to the separate crises, and to consider what can be done to correct it at its root." (Pg. 2)

He asserts that "the oil companies' interest in producing domestic oil is not governed by devotion to the national need for oil... Rather, the oil companies' decisions are governed by their insistence on being free to invest their capital in any activity that promises the greatest profit." (Pg. 57) In contrast, he suggests, "Solar energy enjoins us to attend to the task; to find the best way to link the task to resources; to cherish the best resources that nature lends us; to find value in their social use, rather than profit in their private possession." (Pg. 144)

He warns, "The energy crisis is ... an 'engineering test' of the economic system. The stress it has imposed on that system is the threatened shortage of energy... Modern production technology has transmuted that stress into a shortage of capital and jobs. This is an ominous metamorphosis, for it signifies that the economic system is unable to regenerate the essential resource---capital---which is crucial to its continued operation... What is now threatened is the economic system itself. This may be the price of power." (Pg. 220)

Although nearly 50 years old, the ideas and projections in this book are often still relevant (and in some cases, almost eerily prescient) to the current economic and ecological situation.

[Derek · Rating 2 out of 5]

90% of the book is quite outdated. The concepts related to solar energy / farming were insightful and why I picked up the book