| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £5.50
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £5.50, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
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
"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 United 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)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
90 of 92 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
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.
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.
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It's rare to find a book that is so full of good, scientific facts and well-researched figures, and yet is so enjoyable to read.
Well-worth reading from beginning to end, it's also fun to dip into. The prose is light-hearted and chatty - by far the best way to get across a serious message - and the book is beautifully produced, with interesting charts, page layouts and illustrations - even some of the captions make for amusing reading. You can feel the author's sense of humour leaking through all over the place.
I think we should be lobbying the BBC to make this into a documentary series. It would also be a great basis for A-level physics teaching. There aren't many books which fit both roles so well.
A splendid gift for anyone you know who is interested in realistic, rather than emotional, ways to deal with today's energy challenges. Recommended.
Well-worth reading from beginning to end, it's also fun to dip into. The prose is light-hearted and chatty - by far the best way to get across a serious message - and the book is beautifully produced, with interesting charts, page layouts and illustrations - even some of the captions make for amusing reading. You can feel the author's sense of humour leaking through all over the place.
I think we should be lobbying the BBC to make this into a documentary series. It would also be a great basis for A-level physics teaching. There aren't many books which fit both roles so well.
A splendid gift for anyone you know who is interested in realistic, rather than emotional, ways to deal with today's energy challenges. Recommended.
33 of 34 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
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.
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.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Sustainable Energy - with a cool head
This book is so amazing that I needed to take it on
vacation with me to find time to take in the detail.
The basic message is simple. Read more
vacation with me to find time to take in the detail.
The basic message is simple. Read more
Published 18 days ago by Alan Rayner
not just hot air
I bought this book to help with a report I'm writing about sustainability in the cosmetics industry. Read more
Published 1 month ago by S. L. A. De-brabander
Great book for layman and expert!
I suspect that this book review may qualify as the longest ever in the Guinness Book of Records. I make no apologies for this because this book contains as many authoritative,... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Devil
Excellent: Sustainable Energy
Excellent - already given to my grandson (he's 16 and complaining about boring science) !
The short modules method of writing makes it easy to focus on one topic very... Read more
The short modules method of writing makes it easy to focus on one topic very... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Noswen
Excellent realistic numerical
This is one of the best books I have read regarding environment and energy consumption.
The correlation between CO2 concentration (energy consumption from the time of... Read more
The correlation between CO2 concentration (energy consumption from the time of... Read more
Published 8 months ago by CS
One of the best books you'll ever read on energy.
When I started reading this book I thought it would be clearly bias, as most of the book on energy and sustainability. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Mantas
Truths and Myths of Renewable Energy
Excellent book and very thought-provoking. Recommended reading for anyone with an interest in renewable energy and concerned about the future.
Published 9 months ago by David Smyth
A solid grounding in renewable energy
While writing my dissertation I realised there is a giant gaping hole in scientific literature. No matter how hard I tried (and I spent weeks searching) I couldnt find anything... Read more
Published 10 months ago by R. J. G. Bell
A student's opinion
Required reading for all thinking people. Essential reading for all those who hold forth on the subject of energy and the future.
Published 14 months ago by Student
Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air
This book is a must for those interested in energy and sustainability. It has plenty of objective and understandable data, used to establish a constructive discussion on the... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Ivan
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Business, Finance & Law
- Books > Science & Nature > Engineering & Technology > Civil Engineering > Environmental
- Books > Science & Nature > Engineering & Technology > Electrical > Energy
- Books > Science & Nature > Engineering & Technology > Energy Technology > Alternative Energy
- Books > Scientific, Technical & Medical
- Shops > Amazon Green
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
