Buying Time
Environmental Collapse and the Future of Energy
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- USD 24.99
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- USD 24.99
Descripción editorial
WE KNOW, from repeated failures to predict and prevent catastrophes ranging from the Great Tohoku Earthquake to the global financial crisis of 2008, that complex adaptive systems, such as those found in nature or in economies, are actually very hard to predict, much less influence. Today, we face environmental degradation caused in large part by the use of fossil fuels, ever-declining efficiencies in extracting them, a pace of development for renewable energy insufficient for replacement of the fossil fuels we are burning through, and population growth that is likely to add two billion people globally by 2045. Despite partial recovery since the financial crisis of 2008, growth remains sluggish, and large budget deficits persist across much of the developed world. Meanwhile, developing states face their own challenges, stemming from unbalanced growth. Against this backdrop, and in light of the urgent need to pay closer heed to our environment, the last thing the world needs is an energy crisis triggered not merely by recurrent scares over supply, but by more lasting structural changes in our ability to use fossil fuels with reckless abandon. Buying Time applies lessons learned the hard way from the global economic crisis of the past decade, to offer an overview of the state of the environment and our energy future. Grounded in subtle thinking about complex systems, including the economy, energy, and the environment, this book underscores the connections linking them all. Kaz Makabe is a veteran financial systems expert who lived through the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. He nevertheless concludes that nuclear energy is the bridge than can help us cross over the abyss we face.
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Civilization will come crashing down from climate change and other planetary crises unless we switch to clean energy, according to this uneven primer on sustainability by fund manager Makabe. He tours a variety of looming disasters, focusing on climate change but also touching on an array of phenomena including species loss, water shortages, and rising unemployment and economic instability caused by the impending "robot takeover." Makabe argues that energy is the thread connecting all these dysfunctions and broaches a sketchy theory of how "complex adaptive systems" from the Roman Empire to the modern global financial system erode and eventually implode when their marginal energy surpluses dwindle. He's more compelling when discussing specific energy policies. A section on renewable energy sources is hopeful about their potential to help replace fossil fuels but skeptical about their ability to do it alone, especially unreliable intermittent sources such as wind and solar power. The book's strongest chapters contain an extensive discussion of nuclear power that dispels much of the alarmism surrounding the technology and contends that it must play a major role in a low-carbon power system. Makabe rambles at times, but he synthesizes a wealth of illuminating information into a lucid, thoughtful analysis of the future of energy systems. Illus.