Art & Energy


Book Description

In Art & Energy, Barry Lord argues that human creativity is deeply linked to the resources available on Earth for our survival. From our ancient mastery of fire through our exploitation of coal, oil, and gas, to the development of today's renewable energy sources, each new source of energy fundamentally transforms our art and culture—how we interact with the world, organize our communities, communicate and conceive of and assign value to art. By analyzing art, artists, and museums across eras and continents, Lord demonstrates how our cultural values and artistic expression are formed by our efforts to access and control the energy sources that make these cultures possible.




How to Avoid a Climate Disaster


Book Description

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BEST SELLER • In this urgent, authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical—and accessible—plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid a climate catastrophe. Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science, and finance, he has focused on what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide to certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only explains why we need to work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases, but also details what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. Drawing on his understanding of innovation and what it takes to get new ideas into the market, he describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions, where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively, where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete, practical plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions—suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers, and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise. As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but if we follow the plan he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.




Wood Energy in the ECE Region


Book Description

This publication highlights the use of wood for energy and includes the most recent statistics on wood energy markets across the UNECE region. It aims to communicate the relevance of wood energy in the region and help bridge information about the forest and energy sectors. It also intends to offer some of the best-available information on the role that wood energy can play in various sectors to support environmental, energy, and socio-economic strategies toward a greener economy. It focuses on commercial wood energy uses in the UNECE including energy generated for cooking, heating and electricity generation.




Wood Energy News


Book Description




Nature's Trust


Book Description

This book exposes the dysfunction of environmental law and offers a transformative approach based on the public trust doctrine. An ancient and enduring principle, the public trust doctrine empowers citizens to protect their inalienable property rights to crucial resources. This book shows how a trust principle can apply from the local to global level to protect the planet.




Renewable Energy Sources and Climate Change Mitigation


Book Description

This Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Special Report (IPCC-SRREN) assesses the potential role of renewable energy in the mitigation of climate change. It covers the six most important renewable energy sources - bioenergy, solar, geothermal, hydropower, ocean and wind energy - as well as their integration into present and future energy systems. It considers the environmental and social consequences associated with the deployment of these technologies, and presents strategies to overcome technical as well as non-technical obstacles to their application and diffusion. SRREN brings a broad spectrum of technology-specific experts together with scientists studying energy systems as a whole. Prepared following strict IPCC procedures, it presents an impartial assessment of the current state of knowledge: it is policy relevant but not policy prescriptive. SRREN is an invaluable assessment of the potential role of renewable energy for the mitigation of climate change for policymakers, the private sector, and academic researchers.




Biochar for Environmental Management


Book Description

Biochar is the carbon-rich product which occurs when biomass (such as wood, manure or crop residues) is heated in a closed container with little or no available air. It can be used to improve agriculture and the environment in several ways, and its persistence in soil and nutrient-retention properties make it an ideal soil amendment to increase crop yields. In addition to this, biochar sequestration, in combination with sustainable biomass production, can be carbon-negative and therefore used to actively remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, with potentially major implications for mitigation of climate change. Biochar production can also be combined with bioenergy production through the use of the gases that are given off in the pyrolysis process. The first edition of this book, published in 2009, was the definitive work reviewing the expanding research literature on this topic. Since then, the rate of research activity has increased at least ten-fold, and biochar products are now commercially available as soil amendments. This second edition includes not only substantially updated chapters, but also additional chapters: on environmental risk assessment; on new uses of biochar in composting and potting mixes; a new and controversial field of studying the effects of biochar on soil carbon cycles; on traditional use with very recent discoveries that biochar was used not only in the Amazon but also in Africa and Asia; on changes in water availability and soil water dynamics; and on sustainability and certification. The book therefore continues to represent the most comprehensive compilation of current knowledge on all aspects of biochar.




Energy to 2050


Book Description

Analysing the interaction between energy and climate change mitigation issues requires the adoption of a long-term perspective - looking up to fifty years ahead. The future cannot be predicted, particularly over longer periods. However, strategic planning and political decisions demand that we explore options for the future - and these are best developed through scenarios (conjectures as to what might happen in the future based on our past and present experience of the world and on plausible speculation about how these trends may further evolve). This volume looks at different types of scenarios, evaluating how they can be used to analyse specific aspects of the interaction between energy and environment over the longer term. It examines "exploratory scenarios" (based on different expectations of technical and/or policy developments over the next 50 years) and "normative scenarios" (based on a set of desirable features or "norms" that the future world should possess). These long-term scenarios complement the IEA's World Energy Outlook, which presents a mid-term business-as-usual scenario with some variants.




Global Climate Change and Human Health


Book Description

Learn the foundations of climate science and human health Global Climate Change and Human Health examines the environmental crisis from a public health and clinical health perspective, giving students and clinicians the information they need to prepare for the future of health care. Edited by George Luber, associate director for climate change at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Jay Lemery, associate professor at the University of Colorado School of Medicine and section chief of Wilderness and Environmental Medicine in the Department of Emergency Medicine, and including chapters written by luminaries in the field, this landmark book provides a comprehensive introduction to climate change and health. Students will learn about climate changes direct effect on health, including extreme weather events, altered and degraded ecosystems, and threats to human security and welfare. Discussions on mitigation and adaptation strategies, including disease surveillance, communications, and greening health care, as well as a primer on the core concepts of climate change science are presented. Each chapter has a specific section on the clinical correlations of the impact of climate change on health. Informative illustrations depict increasing aeroallergens, shifting vector habitats, emergent risks, and more. Visual teaching materials broken down by chapter (including PowerPoint lecture slides) are available for instructors. This book shows how human health will be —and already has been — affected and how health care practitioners need to start preparing. Understand the science behind climate change and climate variability Learn how the availability of food and clean water will affect public health Consider the diseases that will surge as vector populations swell Discover mitigation strategies targeted toward the health care community Understanding how climate change affects human rights and how international institutions are responding Increased temperatures bring algal blooms that threaten clean water. Degraded air quality brings allergies, asthma, and respiratory diseases. Ground pollutants lower the nutritional value of food crops. It's clear that climate change is very much a public health concern, and Global Climate Change and Human Health helps those preparing to be on the front lines of health care.