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Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air
 
 

Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air (Paperback)

by David J.C. MacKay (Author)
4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (68 customer reviews)
RRP: £19.95
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Product Description

Review

"This book is a tour de force...as a work of popular science it is exemplary." --The Economist

"This is to energy and climate what Freakonomics is to economics." --Cory Doctorow, boingboing.net

"This year's must-read book about tackling our future energy needs." --The Guardian

"...A high priority book on a high priority problem." --William W Hogan, Harvard University

"For anyone with influence on energy policy, whether in government, business or a campaign group, this book should be compulsory reading."
--Tony Juniper-Former Executive Director, Friends of the Earth

Product Description

Addressing the sustainable energy crisis in an objective manner, this enlightening book analyzes the relevant numbers and organizes a plan for change on both a personal level and an international scale--for Europe, the Untied States, and the world. In case study format, this informative reference answers questions surrounding nuclear energy, the potential of sustainable fossil fuels, and the possibilities of sharing renewable power with foreign countries. While underlining the difficulty of minimizing consumption, the tone remains positive as it debunks misinformation and clearly explains the calculations of expenditure per person to encourage people to make individual changes that will benefit the world at large.

Inside This Book (Learn More)
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Customer Reviews

68 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.9 out of 5 stars (68 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
61 of 62 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding. Most important book on this topic for the next 20 years., 11 Feb 2009
By Dr. F. Stajano "filologo disneyano" (Cambridge, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Where will our energy come from? Oil and coal are running out and cause global warming, nuclear plants are potential Chernobyls that nobody wants in their back yard, wind turbines kill birds and spoil the landscape... We've got a serious problem, right? Right. But it's not "Which technology should we shift to?", it's rather "Why can't people add up?".

In a nutshell, David MacKay's brilliant book is about working out a budget, as if on the back of an envelope, with the red column listing how much energy we consume and the green column listing how much we produce (or could produce using various technologies). Can this budget be balanced? And how? In one brief but insightful chapter after another, the author gives us a few simple intellectual tools to figure out the answer for ourselves: not much more than the four operations and a bit of common sense, plus a useful human-scale framework for thinking sensibly about energy. With the sharp mind of the scientist, to the tune of "numbers, not adjectives", he mercilessly cuts through the fog of empty propaganda words that has surrounded the energy debate to date.

"Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach him how to fish and you feed him for life", says the Chinese proverb. MacKay gives no answers; instead, he gently and entertainingly teaches readers how to fish them out for themselves. The author, who is a professor in the Physics department at Cambridge, couples open-mindedness and intellectual rigour with an admirable talent for making quantitative ideas easy to understand and even satisfyingly fun to work out. After responding with a simple calculation to the objection that building a nuclear power plant would consume "huge" amounts of concrete and steel and therefore cause "huge" pollution, for example, he notes with characteristic wit: "Please don't get me wrong: I'm not trying to be pro-nuclear. I'm just pro-arithmetic."

This book is an amazing performance: sharp, accurate, quantitative and at the same time clear, entertaining and compelling, not to mention beautifully illustrated with great photographs and informative diagrams and maps. A scientific book as hard to put down as a good novel. It's a labour of love (three years in the making) and it shows. It's even available at no charge as a full-quality pdf download from the author's own web site. Despite that, I've bought five extra paper copies, besides my own, as presents for friends with whom I wanted to share this all-important message about our future. I have never done this before with any other book. If there were a way to give this book more than five stars, I definitely would.
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34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Read, re-read, then buy it for everyone you know, 10 Feb 2009
Quite staggeringly brilliant. Real science, real numbers, and real, strong conclusions, but with such a light, accessible approach that the reader doesn't even notice how difficult the concepts are that they have just understood. This book explains exactly why we need to urgently find sources of sustainable energy, painting a complete picture of where all the energy goes, and the pros and cons of every potentially sustainable option: changes to fossil fuel use, improvements in energy efficiency, renewable energy sources, nuclear, everything.

What makes it particularly good is that the book's stated goal is primarily to work out how, for the foreseeable future, we could possibly keep on using the same amount of energy we use today. If nothing else, this book shows beautifully that questions of energy and questions of environmental catastrophe can be de-coupled. Whether people believe that the Earth is warming up or not is irrelevant: we need sustainable energy sources either way! So buy it for the eco-sceptic in your life, and then they may just stop whinging about low-energy light bulbs...
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26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Probably the best book I have ever read, 24 Feb 2009
By J. Callan (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This is the book I was waiting for: someone has done the research and put credible broad-brush energy numbers down on paper, and it's surprisingly entertaining as a bonus.

If you want to know the scale of the sustainable energy/climate change problems we face, and what scale the possible solutions need to be, get this book. If you'd prefer to believe that buying a Prius will save the world, don't get this book.

It's a stunning achievement and it should be made compulsory reading for anyone involved in government.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Please Seriously Query this Book before Walking away from it
There are important issues with Prof. David JC Mackay's book. It is certainly written pleasantly, and quantified information is provided clearly. Read more
Published 3 days ago by Mr. Christopher J. Mccoy

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing book on sustainable energy
I spend my days swinging from one extreme to the other: worrying that we're going to run out of oil within mere decades and then marvelling at the technological improvements and... Read more
Published 6 days ago by Helena

5.0 out of 5 stars A fantastically clear-eyed and ideology-free review of our position
David CJ MacKay provides humour, a light touch, an inquiring and foregone-conclusion-free investigation into all this climate change business. Read more
Published 9 days ago by Paul Mitchell-Gears

5.0 out of 5 stars Essential reading for us all
Essential because climate change is accepted, even if man-made contributions are not accepted as largely responsible by many. Read more
Published 11 days ago by Mr. M. A. Adams

5.0 out of 5 stars Straight to the point
This books provides intelligently worked out numerical estimates of the quantities of energy which might feasibly be generated by the various methods we have now, or might have... Read more
Published 21 days ago by Daniel J. Burridge

5.0 out of 5 stars Just cut the waffle
Refreshing to see a book that isn't too afraid of putting numbers behind the arguments in a simple way that anyone with GCSE level maths can easily understand - and we certainly... Read more
Published 26 days ago by Beech500

5.0 out of 5 stars a must read, for everyone
Brilliant. Finally a discussion based on facts, sense, and arguments, and not ideology!
A must read for every citizen. (And all decision makers, needless to say.)
Published 28 days ago by D. Kreil

4.0 out of 5 stars Energy choices
A well-written book with sufficient technical backing to inform the technically minded without boring the non-specialist. Read more
Published 28 days ago by Rev. C. M. Miles

5.0 out of 5 stars Good Seller
The delivery was quick and the condition of the book was excellent. I would recommend this seller.
Published 1 month ago by K. C. Ling

5.0 out of 5 stars Hooray for the Disintermediation of Energy Science!
Most of what we hear about energy science (and climate change) comes via the questionable filter of journalism. Read more
Published 1 month ago by AlanMusicMan

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