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Sunlight and Seaweed: An Argument for How to Feed, Power and Clean Up the World
Acclaimed scientist Tim Flannery investigates exciting new technologies currently being developed to address our most pressing environmental threats in a book that presents a positive future for us and our planet.
Climate change, food production and toxic pollution present huge challenges, but, as Flannery shows, we already have innovative, practical and inspiring solutions.Solar energy has, until now, been limited to supplying power only when the sun is shining. But new technology using concentrated sunlight to provide intense heat energy that can be effectively stored overcomes this problem, providing clean renewable power around the clock. Further, the large amounts of power produced can be used to tackle the issue of feeding the world’s growing population—by enabling energy-intense methods of purifying polluted land for agricultural production.
Drawing carbon out of the atmosphere is an essential component in limiting climate change. Flannery explores the potential of kelp, a fast-growing sea algae, to be used on a large scale to convert carbon from the air to a non-gaseous form, reducing levels of atmospheric carbon.
With accessible and engaging explanations of the fascinating science behind these technologies, as well as accounts of the systems already in operation around the world, Sunlight and Seaweed is an enlightening and uplifting view of the future.
Climate change, food production and toxic pollution present huge challenges, but, as Flannery shows, we already have innovative, practical and inspiring solutions.Solar energy has, until now, been limited to supplying power only when the sun is shining. But new technology using concentrated sunlight to provide intense heat energy that can be effectively stored overcomes this problem, providing clean renewable power around the clock. Further, the large amounts of power produced can be used to tackle the issue of feeding the world’s growing population—by enabling energy-intense methods of purifying polluted land for agricultural production.
Drawing carbon out of the atmosphere is an essential component in limiting climate change. Flannery explores the potential of kelp, a fast-growing sea algae, to be used on a large scale to convert carbon from the air to a non-gaseous form, reducing levels of atmospheric carbon.
With accessible and engaging explanations of the fascinating science behind these technologies, as well as accounts of the systems already in operation around the world, Sunlight and Seaweed is an enlightening and uplifting view of the future.
192 pages, Paperback
First published July 1, 2017
19 people are currently reading
341 people want to read
About the author
Tim Flannery
132 books392 followersTim Flannery is one of Australia's leading thinkers and writers.
An internationally acclaimed scientist, explorer and conservationist, he has published more than 130 peer-reviewed scientific papers and many books. His books include the landmark works The Future Eaters and The Weather Makers, which has been translated into more than 20 languages and in 2006 won the NSW Premiers Literary Prizes for Best Critical Writing and Book of the Year.
He received a Centenary of Federation Medal for his services to Australian science and in 2002 delivered the Australia Day address. In 2005 he was named Australian Humanist of the Year, and in 2007 honoured as Australian of the Year.
He spent a year teaching at Harvard, and is a founding member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, a director of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, and the National Geographic Society's representative in Australasia. He serves on the board of WWF International (London and Gland) and on the sustainability advisory councils of Siemens (Munich) and Tata Power (Mumbai).
In 2007 he co-founded and was appointed Chair of the Copenhagen Climate Council, a coalition of community, business, and political leaders who came together to confront climate change.
Tim Flannery is currently Professor of Science at Maquarie University, Sydney.
An internationally acclaimed scientist, explorer and conservationist, he has published more than 130 peer-reviewed scientific papers and many books. His books include the landmark works The Future Eaters and The Weather Makers, which has been translated into more than 20 languages and in 2006 won the NSW Premiers Literary Prizes for Best Critical Writing and Book of the Year.
He received a Centenary of Federation Medal for his services to Australian science and in 2002 delivered the Australia Day address. In 2005 he was named Australian Humanist of the Year, and in 2007 honoured as Australian of the Year.
He spent a year teaching at Harvard, and is a founding member of the Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, a director of the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, and the National Geographic Society's representative in Australasia. He serves on the board of WWF International (London and Gland) and on the sustainability advisory councils of Siemens (Munich) and Tata Power (Mumbai).
In 2007 he co-founded and was appointed Chair of the Copenhagen Climate Council, a coalition of community, business, and political leaders who came together to confront climate change.
Tim Flannery is currently Professor of Science at Maquarie University, Sydney.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
June 8, 2018
‘This book offers a welcome ray of hope.’
Organic Grocer
‘While global environmental challenges are immense, he [Flannery] argues here, they are not insurmountable…Flannery has a great ability to distil complex subject matter into something you can wrap your head around.’
North & South
‘Flannery has a great ability to distil complex subject matter into something you can wrap your head around.’
North & South
‘This man is a national treasure, and we should heed his every word.’
Sunday Telegraph
‘It is difficult to overstate the importance of this concise, convincingly argued view of our world’s prospects for its survival and improvement over the next 33 years…Every one of this slim treatise’s 127 pages packs a punch, and its timely content deserves to be read by all of us.’
Books + Publishing
‘Accessible and engaging..An enlightening and uplifting view of the future.’
Readings
‘Sunlight and Seaweed is the beginning of a new way of helping the planet we live on.’
AU Review
‘Sunlight and Seaweed also offers an excellent model for how best to communicate the challenges posed by climate change without turning readers off with unrelieved messages of doom.’
Sydney Morning Herald
‘This new book is among [Flannery’s] best…Wonderfully thought provoking…Well informed and sobering.’
Australian
‘Tim Flannery addresses complex issues and make them clear and accessible. His compelling book both seriously informs and entertains…This is a fascinating, exciting and inspirational read.’
Toowoomba Chronicle
‘It is a joy to be guided through the science by someone who understands it and can explain it…Flannery commands his subject, but he can also be read for style alone...Flannery’s message in Sunlight and Seaweed is urgent and his spare prose reflects this.’
Newtown Review of Books
‘Flannery has written in easy-to-understand language and he sets out a positive path for this planet’s future.’
Weekly Times
‘In a summer in which heat records are sure to be broken, Tim Flannery dives into the clean technologies that just might sustain the world of our children and grandchildren: giant kelp farms that can do the work of forests, taking carbon dioxide out and deacidifying seawater,and concentrated sunlight stored to power homes and cities. Flannery offers some kernel of hope for us hopeless humans.’
Sydney Morning Herald
Organic Grocer
‘While global environmental challenges are immense, he [Flannery] argues here, they are not insurmountable…Flannery has a great ability to distil complex subject matter into something you can wrap your head around.’
North & South
‘Flannery has a great ability to distil complex subject matter into something you can wrap your head around.’
North & South
‘This man is a national treasure, and we should heed his every word.’
Sunday Telegraph
‘It is difficult to overstate the importance of this concise, convincingly argued view of our world’s prospects for its survival and improvement over the next 33 years…Every one of this slim treatise’s 127 pages packs a punch, and its timely content deserves to be read by all of us.’
Books + Publishing
‘Accessible and engaging..An enlightening and uplifting view of the future.’
Readings
‘Sunlight and Seaweed is the beginning of a new way of helping the planet we live on.’
AU Review
‘Sunlight and Seaweed also offers an excellent model for how best to communicate the challenges posed by climate change without turning readers off with unrelieved messages of doom.’
Sydney Morning Herald
‘This new book is among [Flannery’s] best…Wonderfully thought provoking…Well informed and sobering.’
Australian
‘Tim Flannery addresses complex issues and make them clear and accessible. His compelling book both seriously informs and entertains…This is a fascinating, exciting and inspirational read.’
Toowoomba Chronicle
‘It is a joy to be guided through the science by someone who understands it and can explain it…Flannery commands his subject, but he can also be read for style alone...Flannery’s message in Sunlight and Seaweed is urgent and his spare prose reflects this.’
Newtown Review of Books
‘Flannery has written in easy-to-understand language and he sets out a positive path for this planet’s future.’
Weekly Times
‘In a summer in which heat records are sure to be broken, Tim Flannery dives into the clean technologies that just might sustain the world of our children and grandchildren: giant kelp farms that can do the work of forests, taking carbon dioxide out and deacidifying seawater,and concentrated sunlight stored to power homes and cities. Flannery offers some kernel of hope for us hopeless humans.’
Sydney Morning Herald
September 24, 2020
More of an extended essay than a book; however, still an important essay. The argument put forth is backed by well justified and clear scientific data, as per Flannery's speciality.
Excellent ideas and resource for environmental scientists, science communicators, educators and enthusiasts.
Excellent ideas and resource for environmental scientists, science communicators, educators and enthusiasts.
April 26, 2024
Five stars for succinct, exciting writing to describe key technologies that may prove vital to addressing climate change; minus one star for not discussing the economic barriers that have so far stopped any meaningful investment in them. Slapping a token "we need a carbon price" in there doesn't begin to cover why fossil fuel technology continues to be chosen despite widespread knowledge of climate change by industrial and political decision makers.
May 15, 2019
This book is a nice quick read through, essentially the benefits that a particular solar technology (Concentrated Solar Thermal, or CST) could yield, as well as the hopes for farming giant kelp. It's a galloping read, though one that will likely date quickly.
For instance, the optimism around CST seems slightly misplaced even 2 years after the book is published, with far less new development of the technology than seems inevitable on reading the book.
But, ultimately, none of this matters. The book is a welcome story of how relatively simple steps can make an outsized impact on climate change.
And this is where the book's problem lies. It is focused heavily on decarbonisation, and makes explicit the fact that this has consequences for the broader environment. Flannery is well aware of the broader environment challenges confronting humanity, but they are mentioned and quickly moved past with technology that focuses on carbon, almost at the expense of everything else. Again, Flannery clearly wanted a highly focused book, and it starkly demonstrates where we end up as humanity when we focus on carbon rather than the social structures that underpin neverending consumption.
A good book to read. A quick book to read, and one that introduces ideas worth thinking about.
For instance, the optimism around CST seems slightly misplaced even 2 years after the book is published, with far less new development of the technology than seems inevitable on reading the book.
But, ultimately, none of this matters. The book is a welcome story of how relatively simple steps can make an outsized impact on climate change.
And this is where the book's problem lies. It is focused heavily on decarbonisation, and makes explicit the fact that this has consequences for the broader environment. Flannery is well aware of the broader environment challenges confronting humanity, but they are mentioned and quickly moved past with technology that focuses on carbon, almost at the expense of everything else. Again, Flannery clearly wanted a highly focused book, and it starkly demonstrates where we end up as humanity when we focus on carbon rather than the social structures that underpin neverending consumption.
A good book to read. A quick book to read, and one that introduces ideas worth thinking about.
October 13, 2020
Good communication. Very optimistic however, sloppy on contentious social issues, no engagement with the predominant economic causes of the many problems he describes (capitalism). Lots of assumptions about markets, profit, market actors and incentives and so on. In fact an underlying belief in the power of capital to save the planet seems to be the ideology at play, so probably falls in the neoliberal sustainable development genre.
June 17, 2018
It is short and sweet but more importantly it is optimistic which is something you rarely see anymore.
I really enjoyed the style of writing, it was on the cusp of easy and hard, where you needed to know just enough before going in so that you could take away, at the end, a special message of hope.
I really enjoyed the style of writing, it was on the cusp of easy and hard, where you needed to know just enough before going in so that you could take away, at the end, a special message of hope.
November 21, 2024
This book promises a clear analysis of major gaps in our food production, energy supply and waste control that drive global warming and how to address them.
A short book, it doesn't claim to solve anything, instead it aims to highlight needed major directions from the perspective of 2013 (though published in 2017).
Tim says that although the best measures of determining global population size and rate of increase have not been used for some time, that earth's human population is stabilising at perhaps around 10B.
We already produce enough food to provide everyone with adequate nourishment, it's just greedy people and farmed animals hogging more than their fair share. Millions are therefore sadly starving.
Human populations are not subject to the same population control measures as other animals as we have contraception (and according to Jared Diamond's incredible book, also guns, germs and steel), accessible to the wealthy. Therefore we must make everyone wealthy and use contraception so that the fertility rate drops.
We also need innovate and invest in technology, farm seaweed and get with a zero waste programme.
Do those three things and climate warming will be stable too.
How an acclaimed author of the Future Eaters can reverse his position to write such nonsense is almost unbelievable.
A short book, it doesn't claim to solve anything, instead it aims to highlight needed major directions from the perspective of 2013 (though published in 2017).
Tim says that although the best measures of determining global population size and rate of increase have not been used for some time, that earth's human population is stabilising at perhaps around 10B.
We already produce enough food to provide everyone with adequate nourishment, it's just greedy people and farmed animals hogging more than their fair share. Millions are therefore sadly starving.
Human populations are not subject to the same population control measures as other animals as we have contraception (and according to Jared Diamond's incredible book, also guns, germs and steel), accessible to the wealthy. Therefore we must make everyone wealthy and use contraception so that the fertility rate drops.
We also need innovate and invest in technology, farm seaweed and get with a zero waste programme.
Do those three things and climate warming will be stable too.
How an acclaimed author of the Future Eaters can reverse his position to write such nonsense is almost unbelievable.
April 4, 2019
A surprisingly quick read, and not particularly technical.
You can read it at face value. We will emit enough greenhouse gases to pass 2deg warming, it's too late to stop that. Pollution is dire. Differently phrased, poisoning of our food and water is dire. But technology can solve our problems. It just takes effort and will.
You can read it as advocacy, and interpret what he says as an extreme, but still scientifically plausible, version. We will emit enough greenhouse gases to pass 2deg warming, it's too late to stop that. The worst of the pollution is dire, and poisons the food and water of billions. The technology to solve it is "early stage" (translation: doesn't work yet, or doesn't scale) or is dreams on a whiteboard. Please believe in the dream.
You can read it at face value. We will emit enough greenhouse gases to pass 2deg warming, it's too late to stop that. Pollution is dire. Differently phrased, poisoning of our food and water is dire. But technology can solve our problems. It just takes effort and will.
You can read it as advocacy, and interpret what he says as an extreme, but still scientifically plausible, version. We will emit enough greenhouse gases to pass 2deg warming, it's too late to stop that. The worst of the pollution is dire, and poisons the food and water of billions. The technology to solve it is "early stage" (translation: doesn't work yet, or doesn't scale) or is dreams on a whiteboard. Please believe in the dream.
November 18, 2017
This is an up-to-date look at some positive options to address climate change. I found the comments on concentrated solar interesting. The giant kelp option also looked like a good option. In both cases, there are problems to be solved, but nothing seriously hard. Let's keep our fingers crossed, and put our money where our children will have a future.
December 2, 2017
Well done Tim Flannery - a book filled with facts and figures horror and hope. He covers pollution and power, explains old and new technologies for our power, light and water needs. Sunlight and seaweed to help maintain our future on this planet. Excellent.
October 27, 2019
A hopeful, optimistic look at the future. This is a quick read and an encouraging, inspiring one for those who find themselves hard to feel anything but despair when considering with the immense challenges the world faces.
November 11, 2020
This book surprised me. It invigorated and excited me to learn about new technologies and how those would tie into my biotechnology studies. It also, somehow, managed to give me hope for the future during these bleak times. I can't recommend it enough.
October 10, 2024
This was fine. It's a little bit dated now and there are a couple of mistakes. But it was otherwise a nice, optimistic look at a possible, better future. Definitely worth a read if you want to know more about what it says on the cover.
November 1, 2025
Given the rate of societal change, this book is perhaps a touch out of date - but gave an optimistic view of potential solutions to climate change and food shortages.
I enjoyed the ideas, but found them too idealistic. An interesting starting point.
I enjoyed the ideas, but found them too idealistic. An interesting starting point.
September 2, 2017
A great antidote for the depression and powerlessness I can feel when thinking of the state of the planet.
September 30, 2017
Concentrated Solar Thermal (CST)
March 7, 2018
Love love love
January 5, 2019
An interesting high level overview of current environmental issues and the positives and negatives of the range of possible solutions. Would love more detail but really enjoyed.
November 19, 2019
An easy read. Tim Flannery explains some important issues that we are facing now and suggest solutions. Some of his solutions might be too optimistic, but that is what I liked about this book.
April 15, 2021
Inspiring! Makes me want to start a seaweed farm.
May 6, 2021
I love people who write about solutions! And Tim Flannery does it so well.
September 26, 2021
Somewhat limited in what it addresses, but definitely a logical and optimistic vision for the future.
May 17, 2022
Must read
March 5, 2022
An essay rather than a book. If you want to read about seaweed there’s only one chapter on it! And you can read it as a stand-alone.
May 1, 2018
Fascinating read. Mind blown by the advancing technology that is giving us hope for a better, cleaner future.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews