sustainable energy – without the hot air (book review)
I’ve previously speculated about some ways to calculate a carbon footprint (see post). My methods were pretty basic, but I hope they at least gave some ideas of how we can start tabulating or carbon costs.
While other carbon calculators do exist – such as Al Gore’s Inconvenient Truth calculator – they only provide the high level information about what all goes into our carbon footprints – both individually and nationally.
For those who would like to take a more serious look at what comprises your carbon emissions, I highly recommend the book “Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air” by David MacKay.
MacKay, a Physics professor at the University of Cambridge, goes through a thorough investigation of all the direct and indirect carbon emissions that we’re each responsible for. He then tabulates those emissions against theoretical renewable energy alternatives. And I do mean theoretical – MacKay envisions such extreme scenarios as putting wind mills on almost every available acre in the UK or solar panels on every home. He focuses on what’s possible if we all used about as much renewable energy as we could.
The downside is that MacKay lives in Britain, and so his numbers are focused only on what the UK could do and don’t take into account U.S. consumption habits or potential renewable resources. But his book still provides a fantastic overview of the challenge behind actually going to a completely renewable-based energy supply, and he does it in a fun and very readable way for non-technical folks.
Best of all, MacKay gives his book away online for free, so you can download it in chapters or all at once and start reading today.
Tags: carbon emissions, energy audit, energy efficiency, green economy, greenomics, sustainability
October 9th, 2009 at 6:33 am
I love MacKay’s book. He writes in an easy to understand fashion for the lay reader, like me. I want someone to write the U.S. version so we can see how these numbers apply to our own country.
October 14th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Just found your blog and like the posts you’re making. Very well done.
November 22nd, 2009 at 6:13 pm
In real love you want the other person’s good. In romantic love you want the other person
June 3rd, 2010 at 7:33 pm
Oh boy, I adore Al Gore. How do you feel he is handeling the split ?