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

Overall a fascinating book EXCEPT for the section on transportation (pp 216-231); it reads like a PR piece for the U.S. automobile industry and/or a junior high report. Very strange, considering the quality of the rest.

I recommend this book to those people who are in any way swayed by economic arguments as to the cost of tackling climate change. As with the advent of any new technological change from the spinning loom on; there are entrenched interests who will fight tooth and nail to stop change on the basis of societal cost. This book does a good job of proving that changing of our energy usage and improving our energy efficiencies can be beneficial - to our wallets and to our children's future. Try to recommend it to a politician or captain of industry near you.

Fred Krupp's environmental activism has given him an extraordinary view of what it takes for business and greens to collaborate for mutual success. His group, Environmental Defense, shook up McDonald's with a consumer revolt over plastic containers and 10 years later Krupp shook hands with McD's CEO on having done the right thing for both the environment and business. In 2007, he helped negotiate a reasonable path forward for a dirty coal power plant. C-suite executives, their sustainability people and communicators have no better guide through the current war on carbon than Krupp's book.

Overall, a very good discussion of technologies that, at some point, will help meet the world's energy needs. Unfortunately, too many environmental groups, like author Fred Krupp's Environmental Defense Fund, refuse to even consider nuclear power, a technology that is already available and widely used around the world to produce huge amounts of essentially greenhouse gas-free electricity. The book devotes about two pages to nuclear power near the end, but they read like a half-hearted afterthought. Nuclear is not 100% pristine and risk-free, but no energy source is, they all have pluses and minuses. Certainly let's pursue solar, wind and other renewables, but let's be realistic and explore all the options.

This book details the global crisis stemming from our energy usage and the related carbon emissions, and pushes cap and trade standards/policy as the optimal solution. Although the primary concern here is the environment, the economic & defense implications are also clear. Chapter by chapter, it delves into various alternative sources of cleaner energy by detailing accounts of multiple entrepreneurs and scientists in each field. The science gets a little technical for a layman at times, but I learned enough as I read to keep me going. Overall, I am much more informed for having read it, and hopeful that some of these new technologies will improve the future.