A Matter of Scale: Untangling the Titanic Challenge of Humanity's Clean Energy Future

by Preston Charles Urka

Read this book and help create a better future

Climate change affects us all. The manner in which we generate power globally—predominately burning high-carbon fuels—releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, worsening climate change, and we must do something to change that.

In A Matter of Scale, Preston Urka untangles the scope of electricity consumption on our planet, the technology choices, society's need for power, and most importantly the vast scale of electricity generation. This book will give you the tools you need to help you understand low-carbon possibilities and the solutions society must adopt—solutions you must advocate for—to achieve a clean energy future.

Genres: Nonfiction, Science

233 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 27, 2021

Reviews

[Amanda Hupe · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you, Goodreads and Preston Charles Urka for the opportunity to read this book!

“Although the year 2050 is somewhat arbitrary, the basic timeline of drastically reducing carbon emissions over just the next few decades is critical to our society, our economy, and our environment.”

A MATTER OF SCALE
I won A Matter of Scale: Untangling the Titanic Challenge of Humanity’s Clean Energy Future by Preston Charles Urka in a Goodreads giveaway. There is no doubt that the systems we have in place in regards to energy are not sustainable. Carbon fuels and other greenhouse gases are preventing us from stopping or even slowing down Climate Change. –even though we are more than likely past the point of no return in that regard. This book dissects different energy sources we rely on, how they work, and how it affects the environment.

This book is 233 pages of DENSE analysis. In fact, it was difficult to understand most of it. If you are well-versed in scientific verbiage, then you will be fine. I was often looking up terms and checking the notes in the back of the book to grasp the meaning of it all. This is not an average, “what do we need to do to combat Climate Change” book. I consider this book to be formatted like a textbook and I was often looking up other resources to understand each subject. The systems in place are extremely complex and just switching to solar or wind energy isn’t as easy as it sounds. For example, it is stated in the text:

“Wind is a natural phenomenon with random generation capacity. Yes, we can make weather predictions about the weather tomorrow, but we cannot force the wind to conform to tomorrow's demand load.”

A MATTER OF SCALE
There are plenty of diagrams and scales to help make sense of the heavy statistics. I feel this book is important and informative but I do wish it had more moments of clarity–plus it did get a little repetitive at times. I do recommend this book to those who have an interest in the energy sources surrounding the subject of Climate Change. I rate this book 3 out of 5 stars.

[Annabelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is not an easy read. As other reviewers have stated, it feels more like a small textbook. It is very technical and I personally found it to be difficult at times to understand.

If you think you can handle the difficultly and like reading about science with a focus in physics, chemistry, and math, then this book might be for you. I found it to be very insightful and an excellent challenge to current coal-dependent ways. The argument was thorough and though I think nuclear power may be useful, especially as a temporary substitute for coal, it still relies on nonrenewable fuel which still leaves the issue of eventual depletion.

[Steve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Disclaimer: I received this book as part of GoodReads' First Reads program.

A Matter of Scale is an in-depth look at the current state of electrical generation. It looks at the processes that are currently being used, mostly carbon intensive, and what is needed to make alternatives feasible in the future. It's a very technical book, but still very readable. It is somewhat surprising, until you actually examine the processes, how low the productivity of some of the favored green options are. Solar, for example is, at best, only productive when the sun is shining, and wind only when the wind blows. These are, at best, auxiliary options for mass energy production. The author's clear choice for massive, non-carbon producing energy production is nuclear power, which produces no greenhouse gases. This will probably anger a lot of environmental activists, but reality is reality. This book is highly technical, and may be best used as a textbook in a course on energy production. I found it an enjoyable read, but I'm sure a lot of people will be put off by the mathematics involved. If you're not afraid of that, than by all means read this book.

[Sherrie · Rating 3 out of 5]

***I won this book in a Goodreads Giveaway***

I have to preface this review by saying that I do not read appendices without a REALLY compelling reason. If something is important, it should be in the body of the text. You can thank the chemical engineering majors at Ohio State for this as I simply refused to read their lab reports by jumping back and forth every other page. If it's important, it should be in the body of the text (yes, I'm repeating that on purpose).

OK, so you can probably guess my biggest complaint about this book. I finished it at 67%! The rest was appendices, notes, references, etc. The body of the text was incredibly repetitive and I truly believe that moving a lot of the content from the appendices to the book itself would have helped remedy this.

All that said, I appreciate that this book exists. The intended audience are non-scientists who simply want to understand our options when it comes to climate change. The author does a great job of simplifying complex issues and while I did raise my "Well, actually..." hackles every now and again...I get it. The book serves a valuable purpose and I am not the intended audience. And I did learn some things! I have a more thorough understanding of the pros and cons of various renewable energy sources as they relate to our grid.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very technical, so would recommend a different book if you're looking for a quick or easy read. This is more like a small textbook. That said, if you do get through it, you'll learn a lot.

[Read Ng · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a GoodReads giveaway of a Kindle ebook.

For the layman who doesn't really care about the nuts and bolts all you really care to read is the Prolog and the Epilog. You can skip the rest.

But for those like me that want to understand where my efforts and myself stand in the grand scope of the problem you want to read everything in between. Unfortunately the realities of how to address both the need for energy and control of green house gases can not be addressed without understanding how massive the problem is. This does put the global issues into perspective. And it makes me personally want to just surrender. But I will continue to compost my own garden waste, recycle my aluminum cans, turn off unused lights, set back my thermostat, even cut back on my meat consumption, and "think green", even if my personal efforts are a fraction of a pico percent effort in the larger scope. After all, large or microscopic, I am part of the problem and part of the solution. Now I need to concentrate on turning the politics.

Not that I disagree with the conclusion, but the extra effort to justify the nuclear option almost comes across as the author has prejudged the options and has made the data fit the desired results. Not that he did, just that it comes across that way.

Minor side issue, I want to know more about heat pump water heaters. And although it continues to always be "within the next 30 years" I still have hopes on fusion reactors.

Now go plant a tree.

This was a GoodReads.

[Scott · Rating 2 out of 5]

I frequently try to get people to think about scale when it comes to many issues. The sheer size of industries, the number of people required to allow you to do something as simple as make a cup of coffee in the morning, it's truly staggering and the human mind is not equipped to conceptualize such things. As such, I was really looking forward to this book as it applied that reasoning to climate change and the actions that will be necessary to combat it.

This was unfortunately a bit of a disappointment for me.

Firstly, It's clear (and explicitly stated in the introduction) that I'm not the intended audience. I have an extensive scientific background, and this is clearly aimed at a lay audience.

That said, the style was awkward and problematic for me. It read like the slides written for a presentation on this topic at a public lecture series a university hosts, complete with bulleted lists and numerous instances of restating the same idea multiple times on the same page.

This could have benefitted greatly from more editing. The frequent use of "however" stood out at me, with one instance in particular burned into my brain where the author had the final sentence of one paragraph and the first of the next begin with, "However, ...."

I think the message here is laudable, but the attempted delivery unfortunately fell short of the mark as clunky from the scale of individual, awkward sentences to the organization of larger chunks.

[Danny Brzozowski · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned so much! I'm very excited about this book because it is very accessible and taught me a lot about existing low carbon energy generation technology as it relates to how the electric grid actually works and how we can generate the inconceivably large amounts of energy needed to power the planet. I also changed my mind about the safety and feasibility of nuclear power after learning about modern plants which use molten salt rather than water as a coolant, which eliminates the risk of a meltdown and devastating steam explosion, which is what we think of when we think of a nuclear reactor blowing up. (I'm ashamed to admit I thought that was a nuclear explosion but turns out that's not actually possible.) I am a high school biology teacher, teaching a bioethics and science policy class next year, and I'm considering adopting selections from this book in my class.

[M.H. · Rating 3 out of 5]

**won a copy via Goodreads giveaways***

An interesting glimpse into a technical niche of the electricity production/transmission industry, boiled down for the layman as much as in probably possible. It clearly outlines the challenges for the critical industry's future in relation to the realities of economics, climate change, societal need, and even the physics of electricity. It is a bit repetitive, and wades into some mathematics that will probably make most readers' eyes glaze over. But in the end it suggests some "practical solutions"--for lack of a better term considering the scale of the problems. It recognizes that these solutions are likely to be controversial, but the arguments are reasonable, the conclusions are not dogmatic, and on the whole the book was thought-provoking.

[M · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you for the free e-book from the first reads program here.

It is very refreshing to read about tackling the greatest issue at a titanic scale. Meatless mondays and plastic straws will only get us so far. This book goes through all the options available to us to reduce emissions while still providing energy. I learned a lot about the grid, power consumption, and waste. Some of you might not like the answer but the details are presented succinctly showing the best path forward to keep the lights on.

[Murray Sondergard · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although other reviewers have been critical of the technical nature of this book, in my opinion this is one of the best summaries of the issues associated with managing the transition to a low carbon future (and low carbon grid) that I have read (full disclosure: I have an engineering degree). This book makes a clearer case for the need for nuclear power generation than several other recent books on the subject.

[Emily · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn’t love this book. I understand the intent, but it seemed more like an argument for putting the entire world on nuclear power, and I wasn’t sold. It was extremely repetitive, and while I learned some things, it just wasn’t an enjoyable read.

I received a copy of this book for free through Goodreads Giveaways.

[Christine · Rating 2 out of 5]

I won this book through Goodreads Giveaways and am voluntarily leaving a review.

This book is really technical and hard to read. It really is more like a textbook, which makes it less accessible. I’m sure the science and recommendations are sound, but I can’t explain them because it was too much.

[Thomas Lambe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this. I was very attracted to this title given it's current relevance. This is a textbook-like work and many readers will be off-put by this. It is, however, a fantastic read. If the reader can get through the technical element of this work, they will really learn a ton and be better off for their efforts. Highly recommend this.

[Olivia Gregorich · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’m a huge proponent of renewables—I talked my parents into installing solar panels when I was still in college (over 10 years ago now). And Im so glad I read this book— I found this to be a great introduction to how some of our energy systems work and the considerations that must be weighed when investing in renewable energy infrastructure. I definitely have a more nuanced understanding overall of the pros and cons and the individual energy sources—particularly nuclear (shocker—produces the least amount of waste relative to use and materials to build and holds the greatest potential, plus new designs for plants have only gotten safer and safer by magnitudes).

My only difficulty was that I found a lot of information was repeated throughout the book which meant it perhaps could have been shorter, though it did make every point abundantly clear.

I would recommend this book for anyone who wants an overview of these systems. It was not overly technical but still communicated the necessities of energy at a titanic scale along with considerations of land use and investment that has changed how I will approach these conversations and the policies I support. Preston did a great job explaining the concepts in ways that were approachable as a layperson.

[Jennifer Talwar · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has certainly given me a bigger understanding as to all the aspects around using cleaner energy. I heard some homeowners have grown edible mushrooms under the solar panels and if my memory serves me correctly, doesn’t the Sears tower use that same heat pump method mentioned in the book?

[Debbie Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very educational. I won this book in a Goodreads contest.

[Carol & Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was a good read