Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming

by Miriam Horn, Fred Krupp

How to harness the great forces of capitalism to save the world from catastrophe. The forecasts are grim and time is running out, but that’s not the end of the story. In this book, Fred Krupp, longtime president of Environmental Defense Fund, brings a surprisingly hopeful We can solve global warming. And in doing so, we will build the new industries, jobs, and fortunes of the twenty-first century.In these pages the reader will encounter the bold innovators and investors who are reinventing energy and the ways we use it. These entrepreneurs are poised to remake the world’s biggest business and save the planet―if America’s political leaders give them a fair chance to compete.12 illustrations

Genres: Science, Nonfiction, Environment, Climate Change, Nature, Green, Stem

306 pages, Paperback

First published March 11, 2008

About the author

Miriam Horn is the author of two previous books, including the New York Times best-selling Earth: The Sequel. She works at Environmental Defense Fund and lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Nat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm about half way through the book. It's encouraging that there are so many 'capitalists' out there who are trying to help us through the energy crisis - global warming debacle. If only there weren't so many already established who are threatened by anything other than more oil, more oil, and still more oil. If you're a believer in capitalism seizing new opportunities to excel, I think you will find this book interesting. If you're someone who's feeling a bit over-whelmed by the environmental issues we face with energy and climate change, you may find some solace in reading about some pretty amazing people who are working for a better future.

[Randy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really more of a "pamphlet" than a book - this only has value if you read it very near the publication date. I suspect that virtually everything in it will be completely out of date within months.

Nevertheless, it's well organized and presented. If you're interested in the business opportunities around green technologies, it is a must read.

[Bill Leach · Rating 3 out of 5]

Harnessing the Sun - Part I
- a 100 mile square could supply U.S. electrical needs
- in 2007, PV was 6.6 GW worldwide
- in 2007, PV cost $4 /w or $7 /w installed
- currently, PV in Las Vegas is 11 cents/kwhr, competitive with the utility
- when the price drops to $1 /w, it is competitive with coal
- Sharp intends to increase it's production of PV to 100 GW by 2030
- Crystalline PV cells require silicon with less than one impurity per trillion. The supply of cry. silicon is a limitation.
- InnovaLight is creating nano-silicon from unpurified silicon, doping it and spraying on to a stainless steel backing with an industrial printer. They cut the silicon needed from 15 g to 0.04 g /cell. By the end of 2009, expect to produce 100 MW at $0.30 /w. Their quantum dots generate more than one electron per photon although the extra photons have not yet been harvested.
- Miasole creates thin film PV using CIGS (copper, indium, calcium, selenium). The material can serve as a roofing material without glass protection, resulting in low installed cost. However, there is a global shortage of indium.
- SolarTech (a consortium of manufacturers with PG & E) has developed an investment vehicle whereas the capital costs are paid and the customer buys the power at preferred rates. This overcomes the capital cost hurdle.
- NanoSolar is shipping CIGS films
- Stion says it can spray film on windows to make them generate electricity
- First Solar has developed a cadmium telluride deposition process. They are making 2 x 4 ft modules that deliver 9% efficiency for $2 /w. They have long term contracts for 795 MW.
- Energy Innovations believes in concentration. The sun provides 1 KW/sq meter at the earth's surface, compared to 1 KW / sq inch from a hair dryer.
- ESolar pursues a circle of heliostats around a stirling engine
- Google named ESolar a partner in their RECC (Renewable Energy Cheaper than Coal) program.
- Energy Innovations uses collectors that funnel the light to a PV cell. They use SpectroLab cells, which are the world's most efficient cells. In Dec 2006, they set a record of 40.7 %. Different layers absorb different wavelengths. Every 2 days they make 1 MW of capacity. They have orders for 1 GW.
- it is argued that a cap and trade system would greatly spur development.

Harnessing the Sun - Part II
- between 1984-1990 Luz built 9 solar thermal plants with parabolic mirrors in the Majove desert, totaling 354 MW. The uncertainty in the 10% energy tax credit starting in 1986 lead to financial difficulties.
- heat is an efficient way to store energy. A lunchbox thermos filled with boiling water can store about the same amount of energy as a laptop battery.
- Ausra is expanding the heat storage component to extend the hours of operation of a plant. Likely to put storage tanks below ground. A 150 MW plant would use storage the size of a grain silo (10 M dia - 30 m tall). They calculate that a 700 MW plant with 20 hours storage would produce electricity for $0.07 /kwhr.
SES has a design where a single reflector dish powers a stirling engine to produce electricity
- high temp solar heat plants hope to reach 24% efficiency
- Jay Apt of the Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center says that the cost of CO2 reduction is $400-$650 /ton for PV - 10 times the cost of capture and sequestration for coal plants, and 100 times the cost of conservation.
- PV: 11% of New Mexico's land could power the entire US network. 3% of Morocco could power the entire European grid.
- Transmission lines are a large component of the cost of renewables.
- Solar heat plants produce 6 times the power per unit area than wind does. Biofuels need 30 times the land area when compared to solar heat.
- estimated costs of HVDC transmission is 1.5 cents /W to bring energy from the S.W> deserts to the N.E.

Biofuels
- Amyris has re-engineered the metabolism of yeast to ferment sugar into a pure hydrocarbon. They have also developed plug-and-play mods to produce plastics and industrial chemicals.
- switchgrass, one of the fastest growing plants, is still 1/100 as efficient as a PV cell, at 0.03%
- Biofuels require nutrients, immense water (1000 tons per ton of crop), and the processes of growing, harvesting and processing. Biofuel plants are increasing the use of coal for firing boilers.
- When pumping gas into a car, the transfer is equivalent to 10 MW. The concentration of energy in gasoline is unmatched.
- Brazil, making ethanol from sugar cane, has replaced 40% of its gasoline usage
- Europe had been subsidizing biofuels from palm oil, until they found that rainforest was being cut down to make plantations thus increasing atmospheric carbon
- converting the entire U.S. soy production to biofuel would meet just 6% of the U.S. diesel demand, and displace soy production into the tropics, resulting in deforestation
- - displacing 30% of the U.S. gasoline consumption would require 200 million acres, about half of the cropland
- some argue that restoration of forest and savannah would have a bigger effect than biofuels. Preservation would sequester nine times as much carbon and preserve bio-diversity.
- corn based ethanol has captured the majority of U.S. subsidies, and comprises 90% of the biofuel production
- However, it pits food against fuel. The corn to fill a 25 gallon tank would feed a person for a year.
- Biofuels get just 25 % more energy out than goes in, have negligible impact on carbon emissions, and actually boost NOX.
- The OECD has called for an end to all biofuel subsidies
- Amyris was launched to produce Artemisinin from yeast to cure malaria, dropping the cost from $2.50 /cure to $1.00 /cure
- Amyris plans to produce a fuel with better properties than JET-A with zero sum carbon emissions at a $40 /barrel of oil equivalent by 2010-11.

New Sources of Biofuels
- Verenium is constructing biofuel plants that process cellulose. Bacteria are used to produce an enzyme to break down the cellulose.
- Diversa is searching environments to find better bacteria
- Aerivida is developing genes that cause plants to create cellulose converting enzymes. The enzymes do not become active until high temperatures are encountered in the processing.
- Choren is using the 1920's Fischer-Tropsch process which heats wood wastes in a low oxygen environment to produce syngas. This is then reacted over a catalyst to produce liquid hydrocarbons. A production cost equivalent of $70 /barrel of oil is projected. F-T is heat and pressure intensive - therefore expensive.
- GreenFuel has built algae bioreactors that remove CO2 (82% on sunny days, and 50% cloudy) and NOX (85%) from power plant stack gases
- They have built a prototype at the Arizona Public Service Redhawk plant
- A problem is the amount of light - too much or too little will kill the algae
- The algae are partially harvested every few days
- Algae biofuels use 1/10 the land as palm oil, and 1/100 the land as corn based fuel
- Redhawk is a 1000 MW natural gas plant. Algae grown on 1000 acres would absorb half the carbon emitted by the plant.
- Management of the algae continues to be a problem
- GreenFuel is going to tackle the 2000 MW Four Corners Power plant (coal). It ranks 18th for carbon emission, and is the worst for nitrogen emission.

Ocean Energy
- AquaBuoy comes in 250 KW modules. Wave action pumps water through a generator.
- PG & E has applied to build two 40 MW wave farms
- WaveGen uses a capture pocket where the water flow compresses air which is run through a turbine
- WaveDragon is a large barge with an expected capacity of 4-7 MW
- Scottish Sea Snake undulates in the waves where rams in the joints pump oil to drive a generator. A 500 ft snake makes 700 KW.
- Ocean Power Delivery will build a 3 MW unit off Scotland
- Siemens has a 600 MW tidal plant planned for S. Korea, scaled completion to 2018.

Power From the Earth
- UTC is building 225 KW geothermal turbines with a projected cost of 7 cents/kwhr - unclear whether this includes the drilling and casing
- California's Geysers plant uses U/G water which reaches 350 deg C, causing it to flash into steam at the surface. Following a decline in output, water is now injected. Geysers has been in operation for 40 years.
- Untrained Bernie Karl feels there is a huge potential in hot water from oil wells (120-150 deg C). Texas produces the equivalent of 10,000 MW of energy in the form of waste water.
- The 1978 U.S. Geological Survey identified potential geothermal resources of 23,000 MW and estimated undiscovered resources of another 127,000 MW. A new report is expected for 2008.

Reconsidering Coal
- Recoverable reserves of coal could supply worldwide energy needs for a hundred years
- Coal emits twice the carbon /kwhr as does natural gas
- while normal coal plants are around 35% efficient, super-critical (550-590 deg C) plants can exceed 40%
- Eli Gal developed a regenerative process for using ammonia to absorb CO2. Flue gases are cooled to 5-10 deg C, reaction takes place, and when heated to 120 deg C the CO2 is released
- amine regeneration now uses 30% of the plant energy. Improvements should reduce this to 20%.
- chilled ammonia is projected to use 10-15% of plant energy, adding 25% to the cost of electricity. It will cost $20 / ton CO2, plus another $5-10 for transportation and sequestration. This is less than the price of carbon futures in Europe.
- Eli is working with Alstom to build pilot plants for AEP.
- China is adding a 500 MW coal plant every 4 days. They consume more coal than the US, Europe and Japan combined. China emits 20% of the worlds CO2.
- Carbozyme is developing membranes to absorb CO2 based on carbonic anhydrase which is used by mammals to transfer CO2.
- individual filters are 2 metres long. 6000 would remove the carbon for a 400 MW plant, using 10-15% of the energy output, increasing the cost of electricity by 20%
- integrated gasification combined cycle (IGCC) plants use a second turbine to recover energy from hot exhaust gases. The high pressures of the gasification step result in lower gas volumes making CO2 removal more efficient.
- FutureGen is a US government funded zero emission IGCC plant planned for completion in 2012.
- GreatPoint Energy is developing a catalyst process that will gasify coal and turn it into nearly pure methane at $3.50 /MCF
- Underground coal gasification (UCG) is being developed by Ergo Energy. It can be implemented stepwise by first burning the syngas in a conventional plant, then replacing the plant with an IGCC plant.
- China has a large UCG program
- the lower temps of UCG result in less mercury, sulphur and NOX
- claim to be able to produce electricity and sequester at a cost not much above conventional coal w/o capture.
- sequestration of 15% of the necessary global reduction in carbon would require handling 1.5 times the daily volume of the oil industry
- if 21% of the U.S. coal emissions were liquefied for storage, the volume would equal the volume of oil the U.S. consumes
- Stanford University believes there is enough capacity in salt basins, mature oil fields and deep coal seams to hold several centuries of emissions

Today's Solutions
- tropical deforestation is the second biggest cause of carbon emission
- "extractive reserves" are being set up in the Amazon where the forest is preserved but the harvesting of crops (such as Brazil nuts) is allowed. They now cover 40% of the Amazon - about 750,000 sq miles
- Brazil could be paid to prevent deforestation. Brazil's incremental cost is < $2 /ton
- methane has a heat trapping effect 20 times greater than CO2
- Bio-gas systems are recovering methane from manure. EPA says 7000 farms could generate 700 MW
- Idaho's Whiteside dairy uses equipment from Intrepid Technology to create methane which it sells to Inter-Mountain Gas. Expect pay back of around 3 years.
- Landfills account for 1/4 of the methane emissions in the U.S. About 425 (2006) use the methane to produce electricity
- Efficiency is the cheapest carbon reduction
- GridPoint has developed a refrigerator sized device that sits in the basement and stores electricity off peak to be used on peak
- Much discussion of car efficiency improvements and electric cars
- In 2007, the Japanese fleet averaged 45 mpg, Europe 44 mpg. The U.S. agreed to get the American fleet to 35 mpg by 2020. Not clear whether this is the same mix.

Conclusion
- A cap and trade system for carbon would spur development of low cost energy alternatives

[Alex Furst · Rating 3 out of 5]

Earth: The Sequel - The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming by Fred Krupp.
3/5 rating.
Book #136 of 2019. Read November 30, 2019.

This book delves into a vast array of technologies that are being developed to combat global warming.Though I thought this was somewhat interesting, it got too into the weeds on many of the technologies - and remember, this is from an eco-minded engineer... I certainly learned a decent amount about some of the tech that might be able to save our future, but I think there are much better books out there about this kind of info. It did drive home the importance of implementing some kind of market-based leveling to more fairly price in carbon (cap-and-trade, carbon tax etc.). As Fred stated: "The market has to demand it. The power industry doesn't go beyond what it's required to achieve."

Unless you are a nerdy engineer or really into the actual functioning of the future environmental technologies, you can probably skip this book.

Quotes:
"'When you were talking to the president about this cap-and-trade idea, I frankly thought you'd lost it,' he said to Fred. 'But now that there's a way to make money from cutting pollution, I have a dozen proposals for emissions reductions from my own employees on the shop floor, and a dozen more from outside consultants. The environment isn't just a money loser - it's a profit center. I have to admit it's a powerful law.'"
"Within five years, U.S. utilities cut emissions 30 percent more than the law required, even while increasing electric generation from coal by 6.8 percent and reducing retail electricity prices. During that same period, the U.S. economy grew by a healthy 5.4 percent. Dire predictions that the program would eventually cost more than $6 billion a year proved wildly off base; recent studies peg the actual cost at between $1.1 and $1.8 billion. And by 2000, scientists were documenting decreased sulfates in Adirondack lakes, improved visibility in national parks, and widespread benefits to human health."
"A 2006 study by engineering consultant firm Black & Veatch found that solar thermal plants create twice as many jobs as coal and gas plants and produce eight times the retained revenues in the states in which they are located."
"To fill one 25-gallon tank with corn ethanol requires enough grain to feed one person for an entire year."
"The Amyris researchers dismissed corn-based ethanol as too flawed: its energy density is just 70 percent that of gasoline; it requires huge amounts of energy to separate the 10 percent of ethanol (the grain alcohol) produced from the 90 percent fermentation steep (the beer); and because it is miscible with water, and there is always some water in pipelines, it must be transported in fuel-burning trucks to avoid dilution."
"If the world continues along its current course, the U.S. Department of Energy predicts, global coal consumption will almost double by 2030. The potential consequences for the environment are sobering to contemplate: if burned in conventional plants, carbon dioxide emissions from coal over just the next twenty-five years will exceed total coal emissions from the last two and half centuries."
"The market has to demand it. The power industry doesn't go beyond what it's required to achieve."
"A November 2007 report published by McKinsey & Company found that the United States could cut projected greenhouse gas emissions almost in half by 2030 without major new technology or lifestyle changes, provided we have the right policy incentives and start soon. Fully 40 percent of those reductions would more than pay for themselves, creating net savings. Efficiency would provide about a third of the total."
"The United States has lagged behind other developed countries on this score. While the whole European fleet averaged 44.2 miles a gallon in 2007, and Japanese cars edged above 45 miles per gallon, the U.S. Congress finally agreed to require American cars and light trucks to average 35 miles a gallon - by 2020."
"As the nation responsible for the largest portion (nearly 30 percent) of man-made greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere, the United States has the obligation to lead. And as the richest nation on earth, and the sole superpower in economic as well as geopolitical terms, the United States has the unique ability to lead. Developing nations racing to modernize cannot be expected to act if the largest and richest emitter will not. Some argue that the United States should not make a move until China or India do. But the United States has never followed China's lead in foreign policy - nor should it do so now."

[John Findlay · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was published in 2008, and I read it in 2025. Since it is a book about evolving technologies to address Climate Change, it is seriously out of date. The technologies were quite interesting, although sometimes hard to understand, but I don't think it is necessary to understand everything. The author's premise is that if countries employed "cap and trade" systems to manage the carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, there would be an incentive to develop better technologies and the market would sort out which ones work best. I can appreciate that logic. A benefit of reading the book years after it published is that one can look up the technologies and companies today to see how things turned out. As might be expected, there are many failures. But the book is optomistic that the system can work if only it would be implemented in America as it has been in Europe. The book is interesting, but I would prefer a more current outlook.

[mel · Rating 3 out of 5]

Each chapter covers a different alternative energy avenue and follows different entrepreneurs and investors as they innovate to make alternative energy sources commercially viable options. The book is farely blunt in advocating for a carbon cap and trade system in the US, presenting it as a seemingly "end-all" solution in almost every chapter. It gets repetitive, but is definitely an optimistic survey of the alternative energy field in the US. It's a good introduction, but follow-up research is necessary to understand the full pros AND cons of each alternative energy source.

[Monserrat Gomez · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was very informative.

[Alejandro L · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good general overview of general energy sector, but fairly outdated

[Ben Siems · Rating 4 out of 5]

"If we fail, and we might, the rich and strong will have the last safe places on earth. And the billions of poor people will either figure out a way to take those places back, or die trying." -from Earth: The Sequel

In a sense, this book could be classified as propaganda, in that the entire intent of it is to convince the reader to support a specific plan to advance the development of clean energy and mitigate climate change: the enactment of a federal cap on carbon emissions. However, unlike in most works promoting a specific political cause, there is no attempt made to obscure the authors' intent. Almost from the very first paragraph, authors Krupp and Horn state their thesis clearly and then set about presenting extensive and thoroughly sourced evidence to support their proposal. Thus, even though the "propaganda" label has been thrown out by critics of this book, Earth: The Sequel is more fairly viewed as simply very strong, persuasive, expository writing.

The main thing one learns from reading this book is that there are a great many brilliant minds working on the problem of reinventing energy, and good reason to hope at least some of them will succeed. Imagine, for example, a coal-fired power plant that captures over 95% of its carbon emissions before they enter the atmosphere, then releases that carbon as carbon dioxide into a network of on-site greenhouses, where the gas is then gobbled up by hungry algae in tanks. The algae is then converted into burnable ethanol, which then replaces coal as the power source for the plant. Burning the ethanol releases the carbon (the SAME carbon as was previously captured), which is then sent back to the greenhouses to grow more algae. The result: a power plant that in a few years time reaches near zero carbon emissions and has all the fuel it needs to operate grown right on site — no drilling, no mining, no fuel transport. Could such a sci-fi contraption ever exist? We'll know soon, because the prototype is already being built in Arizona.

At times, the science presented in this book gets a little dense, but one could easily skim across those passages without losing the narrative flow at all. Overall, Earth: The Sequel is a very engaging, inspiring read for anyone interested in the future of U.S. energy policy, and the planet as a whole.

[Theo · Rating 4 out of 5]

As I've been reading about renewable and alt. energy for the past couple of years this book was interesting to read as it provides a great summary of the last 10-20 years of renewable energy resource. It provides a good overview of where the industry is and where it may be going. Perhaps it's strongest point though is the emphasis that the author places on a "cap-and-trade" system to encourage growth in the field.

While it is a good point that a cap and trade system will allow many people to get in on the action and profit even from small innovation the author gets a bit redundant and slightly pushy.

As a summary of available renewable technologies and a starting point for enthusiasm for the field it's a great book and a quick read. He gives a fairly thorough history of the available technologies, though he usually failed to discuss some of the technologies' weakest points. For instance, in his discussion about thin film solar using CIGS he failed to mention that there are likely not enough raw resources available in the world to support production of enough panels to power the world...or even more a significant chunk of the world's power. He also fails to bring up what is perhaps the most difficult aspect of renewable energy technology, the energy inputs to create vs. the lifetime expected energy output. For many technologies it likely takes as much fossil fuel to manufacture as the technology would displace.

Overall I enjoyed this book as an introduction to the field but would have like a bit more analysis and in depth coverage of the technologies.

[Jerry · Rating 4 out of 5]

1. Climate change is a big problem.
2. There are many exciting technologies - solar, biomass, hydropower, geothermal, wind, clean coal, better batteries, etc. - that can collectively help us deal with climate change.
3. There are interesting people behind these technologies, each with a unique story to tell. They are innovative entrepreneurs that recognize the challenge and see an opportunity.
4. The field of environmental technology is moving fast, but it isn't moving fast enough.
5. To help move this field further, it is important for Congress to adopt some sort of cap-and-trade system to put a price on carbon. This is not a novel idea, because it has been done with sulfur dioxide and acid rain was dramatically reduced. Once companies feel that there is a profit to make in reducing their carbon footprint, they will come through with technology that we have not even heard of yet.
6. There is hope in solving climate change, arguably one of the biggest challenges confronting this generation.

The book was written largely for the lay public, but it can also be a good overview read for people in tune with modern science. If you want details, I'm afraid you might have to look somewhere else for that. But as an overview, this is a great book.

[Ralph Hermansen · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you vote or want to be an informed citizen, you must read "Earth: The Sequel" by Fred Krupp and Miriam Horn. I thought that I was up to speed on renewable energy, alternate energy, or global warming, but my eyes were opened wider from reading this book. It is written in a interesting style, making personal the success stories of inventors and entrepreneurs. The same material could make your mind wander without the human interest approach. Fred Krupp is a strong advocate of "cap and trade" legistration. Our government is trying to pass such legistration this summer of 2009. Krupp makes strong arguments for it. Advancements will not be made without a level playing field. The coal and other carbon burners have used our atmosphere as their personal sewer for too long. The free enterprise system will kick in under "cap and trade" and radically reduce greenhouse gases and the need to purchase vast amounts of oil from arab countries. Our oil purchases make our enemies stronger and richer.
Please read this book and help nudge our politicians in the right direction.

Ralph Hermansen July 14, 2009

[Shannon Hedges · Rating 4 out of 5]

There’s an optimism in this work that’s noteworthy. Krupp and Horn present an array of alternative energy sources, emphasizing their viability. We all know we need technologies that are advantageous economically while delivering on environmental agendas. Krupp and Horn highlight cutting-edge companies, most interestingly, solar ones, as they discuss the potential of biofuels and geothermal, solar, and oceanic energy. An important theme of the book is the need for a trade program and carbon cap in free markets. As of yet, clean tech developers just can’t compete with fossil fuel industries, which we’re terribly dependent upon. My interests lean more towards consumer-demand and the disproportionate use of our limited resources, and I thought this would be discussed in more detail. Still, it’s a great look into the pros and cons of different answers to global warming and the energy crisis. They don’t discuss the windustry, which disappoints me-- I'm oddly fascinated by wind energy. Overall, it’s a great read if you’re interested in energy innovations.

[Yofish · Rating 4 out of 5]

Co-Written by the president of the Environmental Defense Fund. About new ways of generating energy. A couple chapters on solar, a couple on biomass (it hadn't occurred to me that the genetically altered algae are plants, and so need CO2, and so the logical place to build a facility is right next to the coal-burning plants), one on geothermal, one on ocean energy. Sort of a Nova-Science-Now feel to it, bopping around different topics and often focusing on a particular person trying to change the world. Because it's a book, it suffers from being out of date. But the really weird thing here is that it's written in 2008, and keeps talking about how the carbon cap and trade thing is the answer. Had a good balance of science and understandability. And because he's the EDF guy, he has some bona fides and doesn't gloss over whether, say, running a giant wire over the bottom of the ocean (to carry the electricity you generated by the waves) is a bad idea for other reasons. He doesn't seem overly preachy, either --- except about carbon cap and trade.

Really 4.25

[Stephen Journeay · Rating 2 out of 5]

October 2016. A review of the benefits of alternative (non-carbon based) energy sources and how they could blossom if a carbon dioxide limit were established with trading credits that would price this externality into the energy market. I suppose this book was cutting edge when written in 2008 I read it in 2016: the interesting thing reading it eight years later is how most of the innovations has not developed as projected and none of the alternatives have become a factor in the market. People are still working to bring many of the technologies discussed in this book to production, but most are still years away. If you are interested in the development of alternative energy, you should read this for a recent historical perspective. Wind power, which had already established a beachhead due to tax credits has become a factor in Europe and parts of the United States. Silicon-based photo-voltaic solar has been growing but is not yet a market force.

[Edwin]

The Race to Reinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming The Earth's environment has limits. Fred Krupp, president of the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) has long recognized that those limits can ignite economic growth and ecological prosperity at the same time. Earth: The Sequel written by Krupp and Miriam Horn, a journalist and staffer at EDF, begins with a case study of how we can solve global warming and improve our economy by addressing the need for limits. In the early 1980's sulfur dioxide emissions from coal fired power plants caused acid rain, damaging forests and aquatic life. We had reached the limits of how much sulfur dioxide we could pump...

http://feeds.treehugger.com/~r/treehu...

[Todd Martin · Rating 3 out of 5]

A dryly written but well researched survey of current alternative energy technologies and the companies behind them. Topics include: solar electricity, solar thermal, bio-fuels, bio-scrubbers, wave power ....

The author outlines each technology and it's benefits as it relates to global warming. The book makes the argument that market based regulations are the best means of making these technologies competitive (given the large subsidies currently available to conventional fossil fuels) including: initiation of an emissions cap & trade policy and change in financing regulations to encourage investment in alternative energy.

It's a shame the writing wasn't so boring.

[GateGypsy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was really intrigued by the descriptions of alternate energies, proven and unproven. The numbers were a little mind-boggling, but I thought the information was useful and enlightening. The author was definitely heavily in favour of countries (most especially the United States) enacting a "Cap and Trade" system for carbon, just like the one used to solve the acid rain crisis. He makes a very good argument. Although some of the solutions and alternatives presented in this book don't strike me as necessarily wise, I really look forward to the time (very soon, I hope) that these things are in the mainstream consciousness and market!

[Bob · Rating 5 out of 5]

A timely book with important information about how many technical developments and entrepreneurs are ready to go with new ways of powering our society on a more sustainable basis. An important point for me is that the new ways are being developed by scientists and inventors here but are beginning to be adopted by business and government elsewhere. We are providing the intellectual underpinnings that are being neglected here and will cause USA's turn at global leadership to come to an end. We can hope the 2009 turns the corner on that trend and we value and promote our own innovation. See also "Apollo's Fire" for similar encouragement.

[Greg · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book does a good job of explaining the basics of emerging energy producing/conserving technologies. It gets into good detail in the description of how each technology works and includes discussions of positive and negative aspects of each. The book is somewhat heavy in interviews with CEOs of various start-up companies. Because of this, I left the book believing that the implementation of each technology is just around the corner, which probably isn't true. But, the book does make the continued case that national or global caps on fossil fuels will be necessary for the continued growth and eventual implementation of alternate energy sources.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book argues for a cap and trade system but it does it in a different way than most books. It talks about all of the technologies that are out there and the entrepreneurs that are trying to make them into businesses. The authors do this to support their thesis that free market capitalism is the best way to combat climate change. The book does a good job of covering the technologies. If you want to know what companies are operating in each space and what technologies are being developed, this is a good book to read.

[Charlie George · Rating 2 out of 5]

The introduction was fabulous and sold me on the merits of carbon cap-and-trade.

But the rest was a shotgun approach to future technology developments and dubious predictions by start-ups trying to attract capital. With a heavy dose of "the market will solve everything" because our capitalist system is the best way to harness human ingenuity and blah blah blah.

Granted, the argument is much improved by the imperative to factor in true life-cycle costs of burning fossil fuels. But it is still a 1-D theme.

[John Spigarelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

Detailed view of the energy crisis as is today. Extremely technical writing, many engineering and design concepts that make sense after researching them.

A scary reality that fossil fuel leaves us only dependent on rouge nations, greed driving political policy, and the fact that the United States of America, due to it's close minded 1950's energy mentality is sinking quickly with no life raft.

[Jenny · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides a lot of information about options for new energy efficient and carbon reducing technologies as well as market based incentives for adoption. It includes information about the personalities behind the ideas and companies that may provide solutions to our energy needs in the future.

However, it was written before the start of the current banking crisis which may make it difficult for companies to come up with the needed capital to fully develop their technologies.

[David Kroodsma · Rating 3 out of 5]

I skimmed this book, to see what Fred had to say. Basically, there are technical solutions out there that can solve global warming.

I wanted him to make a stronger case that we need to set up the regulation to promote these technologies. That, I think is the most important argument, and while he made it, I felt like he let me down. Of course, I did just skim the book.

[Allison Myers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good and informative book- I loved all of it. I would recommend this, though, only to people who are geeky about renewable energy and climate change stuff- could be a little too technical if you're not nerdy over it. I found the stuff in this book absolutely amazing and learned so much about whats already going on with the alternative energy world.

[Emily Mellow · Rating 3 out of 5]

OK so I didn't actually finish reading it, but what I did read was very interesting... just not a subject matter that I can devote so much time to. Anyone with more than a passing interest in future alternative technologies would do well to read this, though. I tried to get Nik to read it for me, so I could absorb it's content through his skin, but he is taking a literary break right now.

[Boman · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good book to get excited about the possibility for change, but the overall flow was poor. Really just a series of descriptions of innovative technologies. Fairly good spectrum or ideas, but many key ideas such as energy storage are not as well addressed as they should be given their importance.

Perfect for flipping through while traveling- little sustained focus required.

[Kip · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a good book. Published in 2008, it may already be outdated. It covers the science of global warming, but really it's about the economics of carbon and the entrepreneurs/ investors/ companies that are in the race to find a solution. Authors make compelling arguments that 'cap and trade' is part of that solution.

[Albert · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read this a while back, when Dubya was still prez, but still recall just how optimistic it is, showing how it really is possible to turn things around, especially with the right kind of political will. And guess what, in that department, thanks to prez's like Dubya the US is one way behind her peers. But now there is hope.