Understanding the Global Energy Crisis

Understanding the Global Energy Crisis PDF Author: Richard A. Simmons
Publisher: Purdue University Press
ISBN: 1612493106
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 345

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Book Description
We are facing a global energy crisis caused by world population growth, an escalating increase in demand, and continued dependence on fossil-based fuels for generation. It is widely accepted that increases in greenhouse gas concentration levels, if not reversed, will result in major changes to world climate with consequential effects on our society and economy. This is just the kind of intractable problem that Purdue University's Global Policy Research Institute seeks to address in the Purdue Studies in Public Policy series by promoting the engagement between policy makers and experts in fields such as engineering and technology. Major steps forward in the development and use of technology are required. In order to achieve solutions of the required scale and magnitude within a limited timeline, it is essential that engineers be not only technologically-adept but also aware of the wider social and political issues that policy-makers face. Likewise, it is also imperative that policy makers liaise closely with the academic community in order to realize advances. This book is designed to bridge the gap between these two groups, with a particular emphasis on educating the socially-conscious engineers and technologists of the future. In this accessibly-written volume, central issues in global energy are discussed through interdisciplinary dialogue between experts from both North America and Europe. The first section provides an overview of the nature of the global energy crisis approached from historical, political, and sociocultural perspectives. In the second section, expert contributors outline the technology and policy issues facing the development of major conventional and renewable energy sources. The third and final section explores policy and technology challenges and opportunities in the distribution and consumption of energy, in sectors such as transportation and the built environment. The book's epilogue suggests some future scenarios in energy distribution and use.

Understanding the Global Energy Crisis

Understanding the Global Energy Crisis PDF Author: Richard A. Simmons
Publisher: Purdue University Press
ISBN: 1612493106
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 345

Get Book Here

Book Description
We are facing a global energy crisis caused by world population growth, an escalating increase in demand, and continued dependence on fossil-based fuels for generation. It is widely accepted that increases in greenhouse gas concentration levels, if not reversed, will result in major changes to world climate with consequential effects on our society and economy. This is just the kind of intractable problem that Purdue University's Global Policy Research Institute seeks to address in the Purdue Studies in Public Policy series by promoting the engagement between policy makers and experts in fields such as engineering and technology. Major steps forward in the development and use of technology are required. In order to achieve solutions of the required scale and magnitude within a limited timeline, it is essential that engineers be not only technologically-adept but also aware of the wider social and political issues that policy-makers face. Likewise, it is also imperative that policy makers liaise closely with the academic community in order to realize advances. This book is designed to bridge the gap between these two groups, with a particular emphasis on educating the socially-conscious engineers and technologists of the future. In this accessibly-written volume, central issues in global energy are discussed through interdisciplinary dialogue between experts from both North America and Europe. The first section provides an overview of the nature of the global energy crisis approached from historical, political, and sociocultural perspectives. In the second section, expert contributors outline the technology and policy issues facing the development of major conventional and renewable energy sources. The third and final section explores policy and technology challenges and opportunities in the distribution and consumption of energy, in sectors such as transportation and the built environment. The book's epilogue suggests some future scenarios in energy distribution and use.

The Final Energy Crisis

The Final Energy Crisis PDF Author: Sheila Newman
Publisher: Pluto Press (UK)
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 416

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Book Description
Thoroughly revised and updated edition of this comprehensive survey of resource depletion.

Energy Crisis

Energy Crisis PDF Author: Ralph Nansen
Publisher: Collector's Guide Publishing
ISBN: 9781926592060
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Our troubled world -- The energy eras -- Solar power satellites begin -- Our energy situation today -- Global warming -- The solution -- The fourth energy era -- A development plan -- What others think -- What is next? -- Stopping energy wars -- Bring energy to the entire world -- The plugged in Earth -- Satellite technology today -- Our future.

The Community Resilience Reader

The Community Resilience Reader PDF Author: Daniel Lerch
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 1610918606
Category : Architecture
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
National and global efforts have failed to stop climate change, transition from fossil fuels, and reduce inequality. We must now confront these and other increasingly complex problems by building resilience at the community level. The Community Resilience Reader combines a fresh look at the challenges humanity faces in the 21st century, the essential tools of resilience science, and the wisdom of activists, scholars, and analysts working on the ground to present a new vision for creating resilience. It shows that resilience is a process, not a goal; how it requires learning to adapt but also preparing to transform; and that it starts and ends with the people living in a community. From Post Carbon Institute, the producers of the award-winning The Post Carbon Reader, The Community Resilience Reader is a valuable resource for community leaders, college students, and concerned citizens.

Drilling Down

Drilling Down PDF Author: Joseph A. Tainter
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1441976779
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 248

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Book Description
For more than a century, oil has been the engine of growth for a society that delivers an unprecedented standard of living to many. We now take for granted that economic growth is good, necessary, and even inevitable, but also feel a sense of unease about the simultaneous growth of complexity in the processes and institutions that generate and manage that growth. As societies grow more complex through the bounty of cheap energy, they also confront problems that seem to increase in number and severity. In this era of fossil fuels, cheap energy and increasing complexity have been in a mutually-reinforcing spiral. The more energy we have and the more problems our societies confront, the more we grow complex and require still more energy. How did our demand for energy, our technological prowess, the resulting need for complex problem solving, and the end of easy oil conspire to make the Deepwater Horizon oil spill increasingly likely, if not inevitable? This book explains the real causal factors leading up to the worst environmental catastrophe in U.S. history, a disaster from which it will take decades to recover.

The Politics of Energy Crises

The Politics of Energy Crises PDF Author: Juliet E. Carlisle
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190264640
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 249

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Book Description
Introduction -- Energy crises and agenda setting -- Public opinion during an energy crisis -- The question of trust -- The Yom Kippur Arab-Israeli War: the crisis of 1973-74 -- The Iranian oil crisis: 1979-1980 -- The Persian Gulf War: 1990-1991 -- The era of peak oil energy prices: the oil shocks of 1999-2000 and 2007-08 -- Conclusion

Lights Out

Lights Out PDF Author: Jason Makansi
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0470174307
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 322

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Book Description
A behind-the-scenes exposure why our electricity system is headed for a state of emergency-and what can be done to head it off Most people don't realize that skyrocketing global energy demand and economic growth severely affect the supply of electricity. Between production (power plants) and delivery is an antiquated, "third-world" transmission grid that is in desperate need of hardening against breakdowns, terrorist attacks, inadequate carrying capacity, and operational obsolescence. And while electricity doesn't hold the headlines or dramatic power of oil, the ability to ensure its uninterrupted supply at a reasonable price is even more essential to global survival and prosperity. Lights Out is today's most detailed, in-depth examination of this largely unreported looming energy crisis. Written by one of the world's top electricity industry experts, this powerful book covers numerous hot button economic and political issues-free markets versus regulation; energy independence versus foreign imports; nuclear power, global warming, and other environmental issues; and much more. Beyond just uncovering and illuminating the problems, however, it proposes a comprehensive road map of technical solutions and regulatory reform from both the production and demand sides of the equation-a framework for rethinking, rebuilding, and enhancing the entire electricity production and delivery infrastructure. Prescriptive and provocative, Lights Out will redefine the simmering debate on how the world can-and must-act now to head off a global catastrophe, one that could eventually wreak even more havoc than the ongoing oil crisis. Jason Makansi is the President of Pearl Street, Inc., a consulting firm; Principal of PS Liquidity Advisors, an advisory service for energy technology companies raising capital; and Executive Director of the Energy Storage Council, a public-policy advocacy organization. A prolific author, respected industry thought leader, and seasoned communicator, Mr. Makansi has been analyzing the technological, business, and regulatory issues in electricity production and delivery for over twenty-five years. He earned a BS in chemical engineering from Columbia University. His earlier books include An Investor’s Guide to the Electricity Economy, also published by John Wiley & Sons, and Managing Steam: An Engineering Guide to Commercial, Industrial, and Utility Systems.

World Energy Crisis

World Energy Crisis PDF Author: David E. Newton
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN:
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 132

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Book Description
This book provides a historical background for the world's current energy problems, describing how the Industrial Revolution has led us to the impending end of the "Age of Fossil Fuels," and describes possible solutions for averting a global crisis. World Energy Crisis: A Reference Handbook provides a thorough investigation of a controversial topic: our current global energy situation, and what actions should be taken to prevent a crippling fuel-supply catastrophe in the future. The book presents a historical background for current energy problems that discusses the supply and consumption of various forms of energy at different periods of history, covering the evolution of energy use in civilization beginning with human muscle power, the successive eras of mechanized industry and transportation, and our current dependence on fossil fuels. The author explains geopolitical factors regarding energy; details controversial new ways of extending the fossil fuel supply, including the exploitation of tar sands and oil shale as well as new technologies like hydraulic fracturing; and examines the various environmental concerns that are integral to extracting energy from natural resources—and the results of consuming them.

Energy Crises

Energy Crises PDF Author: Jay Hakes
Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
ISBN: 0806169729
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 578

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Book Description
The 1970s were a decade of historic American energy crises—major interruptions in oil supplies from the Middle East, the country’s most dangerous nuclear accident, and chronic shortages of natural gas. In Energy Crises, Jay Hakes brings his expertise in energy and presidential history to bear on the questions of why these crises occurred, how different choices might have prevented or ameliorated them, and what they have meant for the half-century since—and likely the half-century ahead. Hakes deftly intertwines the domestic and international aspects of the long-misunderstood fuel shortages that still affect our lives today. This approach, drawing on previously unavailable and inaccessible records, affords an insider’s view of decision-making by three U.S. presidents, the influence of their sometimes-combative aides, and their often tortuous relations with the rulers of Iran and Saudi Arabia. Hakes skillfully dissects inept federal attempts to regulate oil prices and allocation, but also identifies the decade’s more positive legacies—from the nation’s first massive commitment to the development of alternative energy sources other than nuclear power, to the initial movement toward a less polluting, more efficient energy economy. The 1970s brought about a tectonic shift in the world of energy. Tracing these consequences to their origins in policy and practice, Hakes makes their lessons available at a critical moment—as the nation faces the challenge of climate change resulting from the burning of fossil fuels.

High Noon for Natural Gas

High Noon for Natural Gas PDF Author: Julian Darley
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 284

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Book Description
Blackouts, rising gas prices, changes to the Clean Air Act, proposals to open wilderness and protected offshore areas to gas drilling, and increasing dependence on natural gas for electricity generation. What do all these developments have in common, and why should we care? In this timely expose, author Julian Darley takes a hard-hitting look at natural gas as an energy source that rapidly went from nuisance to crutch. Darley outlines the implications of our increased dependence on this energy source and why it has the potential to cause serious environmental, political, and economic consequences. In High Noon for Natural Gas readers can expect to find a critical analysis of government policy on energy, as well as a meticulously researched warning about our next potentially catastrophic energy crisis. Did you know that: Natural Gas (NG) is the second most important energy source after oil; In the U.S. alone, NG is used to supply 20% of all electricity and 60% of all home heating; NG is absolutely critical to the manufacture of agricultural fertilizers; In the U.S. the NG supply is at critically low levels, and early in 2003 we came within days of blackouts and heating shutdowns; Matt Simmons, the world's foremost private energy banker, is now warning that economic growth in the U.S. is under threat due to the looming NG crisis?