What do you think?
Rate this book
Green Illusions
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Best Nonfiction (2012)We don’t have an energy crisis. We have a consumption crisis. And this book, which takes aim at cherished assumptions regarding energy, offers refreshingly straight talk about what’s wrong with the way we think and talk about the problem. Though we generally believe we can solve environmental problems with more energy—more solar cells, wind turbines, and biofuels—alternative technologies come with their own side effects and limitations. How, for instance, do solar cells cause harm? Why can’t engineers solve wind power’s biggest obstacle? Why won’t contraception solve the problem of overpopulation lying at the heart of our concerns about energy, and what will?
This practical, environmentally informed, and lucid book persuasively argues for a change of perspective. If consumption is the problem, as Ozzie Zehner suggests, then we need to shift our focus from suspect alternative energies to improving social and political fundamentals: walkable communities, improved consumption, enlightened governance, and, most notably, women’s rights. The dozens of first steps he offers are surprisingly straightforward. For instance, he introduces a simple sticker that promises a greater impact than all of the nation’s solar cells. He uncovers why carbon taxes won’t solve our energy challenges (and presents two taxes that could). Finally, he explores how future environmentalists will focus on similarly fresh alternatives that are affordable, clean, and can actually improve our well-being.
Watch a book trailer.
This practical, environmentally informed, and lucid book persuasively argues for a change of perspective. If consumption is the problem, as Ozzie Zehner suggests, then we need to shift our focus from suspect alternative energies to improving social and political fundamentals: walkable communities, improved consumption, enlightened governance, and, most notably, women’s rights. The dozens of first steps he offers are surprisingly straightforward. For instance, he introduces a simple sticker that promises a greater impact than all of the nation’s solar cells. He uncovers why carbon taxes won’t solve our energy challenges (and presents two taxes that could). Finally, he explores how future environmentalists will focus on similarly fresh alternatives that are affordable, clean, and can actually improve our well-being.
Watch a book trailer.
456 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2012
About the author
Ozzie Zehner
3 books33 followersOzzie Zehner is a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley STSC and author of Green Illusions (GreenIllusions.org).
He has spoken about energy and environmental issues on CNN, MSNBC, PBS, Science News Radio, New York Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Radio, and numerous college campuses. He has written for a variety of academic texts and magazines including Christian Science Monitor, The American Scholar, The Humanist, The Futurist, and Women’s Studies Quarterly. He also serves on the editorial board of Critical Environmentalism.
He has spoken about energy and environmental issues on CNN, MSNBC, PBS, Science News Radio, New York Public Radio, Wisconsin Public Radio, and numerous college campuses. He has written for a variety of academic texts and magazines including Christian Science Monitor, The American Scholar, The Humanist, The Futurist, and Women’s Studies Quarterly. He also serves on the editorial board of Critical Environmentalism.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 99 reviews
October 1, 2012
I picked this book up at the library hoping it would provide an accurate critique of green technologies and was sorely disappointed. It is very weak on the science and economics of each technology and very biased toward the model of everyone living in dense urban areas and using mass transit - complete with personal references to glorious periods of time lived abroad in energy paradise and fear mongering anecdotes to scare everyone away from each technology.
The errors begin no later than page 7 where the author claims solar photovoltaics would cost $44T to manufacture - a number so outrageously inflated that it is clear the author did not take the same graduate level EE solar cell class that I did in 1991 when I was required to do the same estimate. Dr. Dieter Schroder would have given him an "F" for being orders of magnitude off. Tens of billions - yes. Tens of trillions - nowhere near that. The size of the automotive and semiconductor industries provide common sense reference points for the errors in his estimate and illustrate that it is not the size of the investment that would be required, but rather how little we value the energy we use - i.e. less than our transportation and communication/information connection costs.
The errors begin no later than page 7 where the author claims solar photovoltaics would cost $44T to manufacture - a number so outrageously inflated that it is clear the author did not take the same graduate level EE solar cell class that I did in 1991 when I was required to do the same estimate. Dr. Dieter Schroder would have given him an "F" for being orders of magnitude off. Tens of billions - yes. Tens of trillions - nowhere near that. The size of the automotive and semiconductor industries provide common sense reference points for the errors in his estimate and illustrate that it is not the size of the investment that would be required, but rather how little we value the energy we use - i.e. less than our transportation and communication/information connection costs.
November 8, 2012
This is a book both devastatingly honest and realistic about the challenges we face, but also full of reasons to be hopeful. Personally, I think it is the only environmental book that really addresses the inter-connectedness of the many challenges we're confronting as a society, and Zehner does so with searing intelligence and quite a bit of humour. His critiques are forceful without being pedantic or accusatory. And his writing is extremely accessible and engaging. What's particularly impressive is that Zehner grounds his analysis in social science scholarship, yet you never feel like you're reading an academic book. He reminds us that scholarship cannot only show us where we've gone wrong in our thinking and actions, but in piercing through the fog of our own desires, carve out a realistic path forward. This is an impressive book that I believe will become a classic not only in specific studies of energy technologies, but for the environmental movement more broadly.
July 28, 2013
I want to divide this book into two sections - the first section is awesome. He explains the reality of alternative energies extremely well. I appreciated his point of view and the fact that finally someone is putting into print the realities of the situation. I should have stopped reading there because I would have given it a strong 5 star rating.
My love for this book started to wane with the second half of the book where the author connected everything to our piggish use of energy. Everything; teenage acne, sexuality, obesity, blah blah, its all connected. And the ceaseless comparison - well Europeans do it this way and only if us backwards Americans could be more like those Europeans, well, we might stand a chance. We are Americans, not Europeans, and we need solutions for our cultural and socio-economic context.
My love for this book started to wane with the second half of the book where the author connected everything to our piggish use of energy. Everything; teenage acne, sexuality, obesity, blah blah, its all connected. And the ceaseless comparison - well Europeans do it this way and only if us backwards Americans could be more like those Europeans, well, we might stand a chance. We are Americans, not Europeans, and we need solutions for our cultural and socio-economic context.
December 14, 2015
On December 9th, 1949, our US Air Force deliberately secretly contaminated the civilian area around Hanford with radioactive iodine to dispassionately study it’s tragic effects on the local populace and plant life. Wow… Would it surprise you to know that our government didn’t do this criminal act once to it’s own citizens but “has sponsored at least several hundred secret releases of radiation throughout the United States”? Double wow… This amazing book is filled with energy/sustainability related facts that are rarely told in order to keep Americans in the dark: Only 10-15% of the nitrogen in synthetic fertilizer gets into the food we eat, the rest goes into the water systems and creates dead zones like in the Gulf of Mexico. Sure, synthetic fertilizer dramatically increased agricultural yields, but who ever tells you that one must always factor in the resultant whopping 810% increase in energy inputs required against the much smaller 346% Green Revolution increase in production? In the US we built our towns and cities on the best soil (located near waterways) which is now trapped thoughtlessly under asphalt. Most Americans don’t know that the Clean Water Act doesn’t limit coal related pollutants such as arsenic and lead on purpose (thank you lobbyists). The best example of what deregulation in practice looks like is the Niger Delta today. Ozzie exposes the scam behind LEED certification and smartly posits that our energy crisis is cultural rather than technological. What’s our energy future? Years ago, our great-great-grandparents thought petroleum would save the day because now the whales didn’t have to disappear due to demand for whale oil. Today, once again we believe we think we have solved the problem – this time with our false green celebrities: Solar and Wind Power. But beyond the fact that they alone won’t cut it, you just can’t have a sustainable economy without a 90% reduction in energy use and a huge increase in women’s rights, community, re-localization, simplicity, humility, and service. Why not expect solar, wind or technology to save us? Read this great book and find out…
July 5, 2013
This is a much needed slap in the face to our mainstream environmental movement. The central premise of the book argues that we are focusing far too much on clean energy production to the exclusion of a reduction in energy consumption. For example, we should be promoting more walkable and bikeable urban communities instead of fantasizing about furnishing our suburban McMansion with the latest and greatest electric car, the latter of which is still incredibly resource-intensive and wasteful in its production and disposal phases. There are far more effective methods to protect the planet that already see regular use in other developed nations, but are not flashy enough to sell in our consumerist culture.
The author also informs the reader about the environmental downsides to solar, wind, and other alternative technologies. He cites extensively from government and industry sources to make a rigorous case that is still fair and nuanced enough to be mindful of the benefits and drawbacks to each sector.
Perhaps the book is strongest in its ability to link environmental issues to social ones. The average eco-friendly citizen would probably not suspect that the plight of women or child advertisement have anything to do with carbon emissions. The author makes a cogent case for their relevance to the green movement.
If you read only one book about the environment and the social ills that plague us, make it this one.
The author also informs the reader about the environmental downsides to solar, wind, and other alternative technologies. He cites extensively from government and industry sources to make a rigorous case that is still fair and nuanced enough to be mindful of the benefits and drawbacks to each sector.
Perhaps the book is strongest in its ability to link environmental issues to social ones. The average eco-friendly citizen would probably not suspect that the plight of women or child advertisement have anything to do with carbon emissions. The author makes a cogent case for their relevance to the green movement.
If you read only one book about the environment and the social ills that plague us, make it this one.
April 19, 2015
If this were just some conservative oil loving blowhard's diatribe about how alternative energy sucks I would have never bothered picking up the book. It isn't though. Instead this book demonstrates how we fail to see the amount of production and consumption of energy as the problem and we instead fantasize about a future with all the energy we need powered by wind turbines, solar panels, and hydrogen fuel cells.
If you are a liberal who loves solar cells you may hate the first seven chapters which point out the shortcomings of alternative energy, however if you stick around for the whole book it is really worthwhile and you may just rethink your stance on how to go about attempting to solve our energy/climate change problem.
Overall i think it is a worthy read. I wouldn't advise getting too caught up with the figures in the early chapters though, the point is alternative energy sources cannot sustain our level of consumption. Just really focus on the main points: increased production will not help our situation, as anyone with basic economic knowledge can see (all increased capacity will do is shift the supply curve and cause market equilibrium to be at a lower price and higher quantity), we need to look to simple cost effective methods to curb consumption (passive solar, smaller housing, walkable and bikeable communities, womens rights, etc.) and the barriers to curbing consumption are primarily social and cultural, not technological.
If you are a liberal who loves solar cells you may hate the first seven chapters which point out the shortcomings of alternative energy, however if you stick around for the whole book it is really worthwhile and you may just rethink your stance on how to go about attempting to solve our energy/climate change problem.
Overall i think it is a worthy read. I wouldn't advise getting too caught up with the figures in the early chapters though, the point is alternative energy sources cannot sustain our level of consumption. Just really focus on the main points: increased production will not help our situation, as anyone with basic economic knowledge can see (all increased capacity will do is shift the supply curve and cause market equilibrium to be at a lower price and higher quantity), we need to look to simple cost effective methods to curb consumption (passive solar, smaller housing, walkable and bikeable communities, womens rights, etc.) and the barriers to curbing consumption are primarily social and cultural, not technological.
November 13, 2012
Zehner is like us - he does not know the answers, but this book lays out the bigger questions we should be asking and thinking about. The first part of the book exposes a lot of the dirty secrets about clean energy. The latter parts deal with how to move forward. And, the ideas seem a lot more convincing and realistic than a lot of the other ideas floating around out there in green tech la la land.
November 9, 2012
This has given me insight into how easily we humans are fooled into believing what we want. Going green has become a religion - a notion I have considered but never followed through with research.
August 4, 2013
Latest book I read was Green Illusions by Ozzie Zehner. For once it was a book I have no preconceptions and I didn't really have a clue what was coming. I don't even know how I actually picked it up and ordered it, but I'm glad I did.
Green Illusions is a book explaining what current green initiatives there are ongoing in the world and why many of those will never solve the actual problem of us ruining the globe. It goes through in very detail solar power, wind power and all other electricity based green thinking ventures.
Book is provocative and maybe even exaggerating about some of the things, but it definitely makes people think. Raising thought is the sole purpose of the book, so I at least forgive the colorful and bit overstating way on looking at these things. I don't believe all the things are so black and white as proposed in the book, but I do undersign most of the thoughts from the book.
Book goes beyond normal green thinking philosophies as it talks about women's rights, population growth, cutting consumption and lot more. It is a comprehensive look on what the problems currently are, why the current solutions don't work and what are the best things to start with for the future.
It is an excellent book and really glad I read it. It is bit too much looking the world from American perspective, but that is understandable from the writers background and also because US is big part of the problem and the solution.
I recommend this book to everyone. I don't see who shouldn't read this. I really hope this raises thoughts within everyone's head. Maybe this book gets people to not to buy the second car or from building too big house or even cutting the trees from shadowing houses. It is provocative book and no one should buy everything from the book without thinking, but there's a lot to learn for everyone here. Please read it.
This review was originally published in my blog - here
Green Illusions is a book explaining what current green initiatives there are ongoing in the world and why many of those will never solve the actual problem of us ruining the globe. It goes through in very detail solar power, wind power and all other electricity based green thinking ventures.
Book is provocative and maybe even exaggerating about some of the things, but it definitely makes people think. Raising thought is the sole purpose of the book, so I at least forgive the colorful and bit overstating way on looking at these things. I don't believe all the things are so black and white as proposed in the book, but I do undersign most of the thoughts from the book.
Book goes beyond normal green thinking philosophies as it talks about women's rights, population growth, cutting consumption and lot more. It is a comprehensive look on what the problems currently are, why the current solutions don't work and what are the best things to start with for the future.
It is an excellent book and really glad I read it. It is bit too much looking the world from American perspective, but that is understandable from the writers background and also because US is big part of the problem and the solution.
I recommend this book to everyone. I don't see who shouldn't read this. I really hope this raises thoughts within everyone's head. Maybe this book gets people to not to buy the second car or from building too big house or even cutting the trees from shadowing houses. It is provocative book and no one should buy everything from the book without thinking, but there's a lot to learn for everyone here. Please read it.
This review was originally published in my blog - here
June 9, 2012
This is an amazing book that everyone interested in alternative energies should read. In fact I think ALL of our policy makers should have this book as mandatory reading. The book is easily read, fast paced and full of good anecdotes and straight forward thinking on the 'business' of alternative energy sources. Mr. Zehner offers so many practical solutions to our growing energy crisis. Green Illusions will turn your Alternative Energy thinking on it's head. As I said, Green Illusions is a must read for all students, educators and policy makers concerned with the growing energy crisis
February 22, 2016
Everyone should read this book. At first, it seems to have been written by some oil company, as it points out the shortcomings of green alternative sources of energy. It does present some real eye-opening revelations. The second half of the book covers the social engineering that would help to alleviate our over-consumption of energy. Many of those changes, though admittedly something I would like to see implemented, are too pie-in-the-sky grand to accomplish. It's a book that is very provocative.
November 9, 2012
I bet this book will change your opinion of putting solar cells on buildings for environmental and health benefits. I definitely thought solar energy through photovoltaic cells was great for the environment. I had overlooked other possibilities. Highly recommend for other environmentally-minded people.
January 28, 2015
Zehner, albeit with a confronting voice, attacks pillars of the "Green Revolution" bringing needed scrutiny to a movement that has been politicized and undeveloped in the minds of the general public for some time. Most of it surprised me, some didn't. This is a great lens to look at if you're in the Sustainability or Conservation fields.
November 9, 2012
This isn't a big oil book. It is a Deep Green book. Prof. Zehner tells some great stories and shows the real facts that are hidden by corporate influences (even those you thought were green).
September 13, 2018
There are many holy cows in the environmental debate. The imminent dangers of climate change is one. The imperative to completely switch to renewable energy sources as a solution to global warming is another. The debate, however, is highly polarized. In general, if one is politically conservative or to the Right, he develops a confirmation bias against the alarmist prognosis of climate change and the position that renewable energy solutions are a panacea. On the other hand, if one is on the Left or a liberal, then that person develops a confirmation bias towards the dire consequences of Global warming and opts totally for renewable energy solutions. As things stand, Western governments, mainstream environmental movements, establishment scientists and mainstream media have successfully sold us the ideal of total adoption of renewable energy as the way forward. Ozzie Zehner, in this book, takes a critical and refreshing look at this question. He does not question the arguments on climate change or its consequences. Instead, he questions the simplistic notion that all solutions for the problems of climate change begin and end with our total embrace of renewable energy systems like solar power, wind energy, biofuels, hydrogen, geo-thermal, hydropower etc..
To start with, the book argues that none of the above-mentioned alternative energy sources are as environmentally beneficial or carbon-negative or even carbon-neutral. Over seven substantial chapters, he takes each one of these renewable sources and exposes what he calls ‘their dirty little secrets’. He shows that the life cycle of bio-fuels eventually results in accelerated climate change due to destruction of rainforests, as per the experience in Brazil; manufacture of solar cells result in large emission of toxic greenhouse gases like hexafluoroethane C2F6, Nitrogen trifluoride NF3 and sulphur hexafluoride SF6 , which are twelve to seventeen thousand times more potent than CO2. ; the life cycle of wind turbines, their production, transport, maintenance and final disposal result in wind power becoming carbon negative. As for hydrogen fuel cells, the production of hydrogen requires more energy than the cell eventually provides. One can use solar power to produce hydrogen but an experiment in California in 1994 showed that it took ten hours to produce one kg of hydrogen, which is equivalet to just a gallon of gasoline. What about other ideas like ‘it takes only 2.6% of the area of the Sahara desert to produce all the power the world needs using solar cells’? With today’s solar cell technology, the author says that it is possible if only we can find $123 trillion to make it happen as well as provide for another $694 billion annually for its maintenance.
With all these dampeners on renewable energy solutions, is Zehner saying that we must simply burn coal as usual? No, he says that environmentalists have got it wrong by looking at solutions for ‘clean energy’. He points out that more and more energy availability will only lower costs of energy, thereby generating even more demand for energy. Instead, we need to curb our rampant consumerism without asking the scientists and engineers to solve the problem for us,. To do this, Zehner says it is important that taxation in society must shift focus away from income to consumption. The pricing of goods and services must be recalibrated to reflect their negative effects on the environment in their production. The other thing is to take a good look at packaging in the US as one-third of all garbage generated in the US is packaging material. Other suggestions include moving away from living in the suburbs to cities, which can make communities more walkable and friendly to public transit and allow use of more bicycles and so on.
There may be many critiques of Zehner’s position on renewable energy. It is not easily possible for the average person to conclusively determine as to which side is telling the truth. However, when I read about past and present experience in Europe and on proposed plans in California, I am inclined to give credence to many of Zehner’s statements of caution on clean energy. Let us look at some of them.
European countries have decades-long experience on Green energy expansion through subsidies. But, recent reports in this decade have concluded that Spain, Germany, UK and France are rolling back subsidies for clean energy because they are unaffordable and unsustainable. Denmark, a clean-energy giant, with more than two decades’ pursuit of wind power, has not seen any reduction in half its energy output still coming from coal. Development of wind power is said to cause loss of jobs in the economy, grid stability problems, high subsidization, higher retail electricity rates, and usage issues. Consumers feel zapped because they have to pay twice for power, once for the renewable power and then again for the back-up system. The subsidies seem to have been too good to last long and make renewable energy viable on this model. All this has happened in spite of wind and solar-generated electricity enjoying subsidies nearly 50 times higher per unit of energy output than ordinary coal and 100 times higher than natural gas.
What about our own experience in California? In 2015, a group of scientists, activists and celebrities, led by Mark Jacobson, the director of the Atmosphere and Energy Program at Stanford, released a report called ‘50 States 50 Plans’ in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that lays out individual plans for all 50 states to reach 100 percent renewable energy for all purposes: electricity, transportation, heating and cooling, and industry. It has political support from people like Bernie Sanders. The state of CA seems to be considering a 100% shift to renewable energy by 2045. However, there are others who have questioned the viability of the proposal. In 2017, a rebuttal appeared from a team of prominent researchers in the same journal, saying that the ‘50 states 50 plans’ paper used invalid modeling tools, contained modeling errors, and made implausible and inadequately supported assumptions. Naturally, Mark Jacobson et al defended their paper and accused the critics of allegiance to fossil fuels or nuclear power lobbies. The rebuttal researchers are affiliated with prominent institutions like Carnegie Mellon, the Carnegie Institution for Science, the Brookings Institution, and Stanford University. Their rebuttal includes data on conflict of interest. They caution that incorrect assumptions or miscalculations can lead to spending public resources on the wrong technologies, underestimating the research and development still required, or abandoning sources that might ultimately be necessary to reach the stated goals. As an example, Georgia, which has a coastline of about 100 miles long and a total area of more than 59,000 square miles, is proposed to get 35 percent of its energy from offshore wind—none of which has been developed to date. Alaska, which has a fragmented power system due to its immensity and the remoteness of many communities, is slated to get 70 percent of its energy from wind, both offshore and onshore. These projections are deemed eyebrow-raising and in an era of political gridlock and bitter arguments over climate change, the political barriers also need to be considered as formidable.
The other issue which often crops up is battery storage technology. High profile efforts by Elon Musk on his Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada and a 100-MW battery array in South Australia have raised hopes of lithium ion batteries as the solution to balance fluctuating wind and solar energy on the grid. California is mulling four giant lithium-ion storage facilities of 300 MW each, starting by 2020. California is already slated to get 50 percent of its electricity from clean sources by 2020, and the legislature is considering a bill that would require it to reach 100 percent by 2045. A detailed article in a reputed MIT journal by James Temple analyses these issues and says that batteries as backup is likely an unaffordable solution. CA currently has 150,000 megawatt-hours of energy storage in total, mainly pumped hydroelectric storage, with a small share of batteries. Assuming lithium-ion batteries will cost only a third of what they do now, building the level of renewable generation and storage necessary to reach the state’s goals would drive up costs exponentially, from $49 per megawatt-hour of generation at 50 percent to $1,612 at 100 percent. Extending it further, meeting 80 percent of US electricity demand with wind and solar would require either a nationwide high-speed transmission system, which can balance renewable generation over hundreds of miles or 12 hours of electricity storage for the whole system. At current prices, the cost would be above $2.5 trillion. In addition, experts say that it takes anywhere from six to ten years to bring a battery technology that works in the lab to the marketplace. These are cautionary notes in the head-long rush towards renewable sources.
Given the polarized atmosphere of the debate, it is likely that all of Zehner’s arguments on renewable sources may be dismissed as polemic. But the book asks us to keep an open mind above all the hype and look at cheaper, simpler alternatives through lifestyles. Even if substantial lifestyle changes don’t happen, as has always been the case, it is important for Californians to consider the lessons from the European experience in moving to a 100% renewable future by 2045. The same should be the case before buying into Elon Musk’s vision of batteries as a storage solution for our states and cities.
To start with, the book argues that none of the above-mentioned alternative energy sources are as environmentally beneficial or carbon-negative or even carbon-neutral. Over seven substantial chapters, he takes each one of these renewable sources and exposes what he calls ‘their dirty little secrets’. He shows that the life cycle of bio-fuels eventually results in accelerated climate change due to destruction of rainforests, as per the experience in Brazil; manufacture of solar cells result in large emission of toxic greenhouse gases like hexafluoroethane C2F6, Nitrogen trifluoride NF3 and sulphur hexafluoride SF6 , which are twelve to seventeen thousand times more potent than CO2. ; the life cycle of wind turbines, their production, transport, maintenance and final disposal result in wind power becoming carbon negative. As for hydrogen fuel cells, the production of hydrogen requires more energy than the cell eventually provides. One can use solar power to produce hydrogen but an experiment in California in 1994 showed that it took ten hours to produce one kg of hydrogen, which is equivalet to just a gallon of gasoline. What about other ideas like ‘it takes only 2.6% of the area of the Sahara desert to produce all the power the world needs using solar cells’? With today’s solar cell technology, the author says that it is possible if only we can find $123 trillion to make it happen as well as provide for another $694 billion annually for its maintenance.
With all these dampeners on renewable energy solutions, is Zehner saying that we must simply burn coal as usual? No, he says that environmentalists have got it wrong by looking at solutions for ‘clean energy’. He points out that more and more energy availability will only lower costs of energy, thereby generating even more demand for energy. Instead, we need to curb our rampant consumerism without asking the scientists and engineers to solve the problem for us,. To do this, Zehner says it is important that taxation in society must shift focus away from income to consumption. The pricing of goods and services must be recalibrated to reflect their negative effects on the environment in their production. The other thing is to take a good look at packaging in the US as one-third of all garbage generated in the US is packaging material. Other suggestions include moving away from living in the suburbs to cities, which can make communities more walkable and friendly to public transit and allow use of more bicycles and so on.
There may be many critiques of Zehner’s position on renewable energy. It is not easily possible for the average person to conclusively determine as to which side is telling the truth. However, when I read about past and present experience in Europe and on proposed plans in California, I am inclined to give credence to many of Zehner’s statements of caution on clean energy. Let us look at some of them.
European countries have decades-long experience on Green energy expansion through subsidies. But, recent reports in this decade have concluded that Spain, Germany, UK and France are rolling back subsidies for clean energy because they are unaffordable and unsustainable. Denmark, a clean-energy giant, with more than two decades’ pursuit of wind power, has not seen any reduction in half its energy output still coming from coal. Development of wind power is said to cause loss of jobs in the economy, grid stability problems, high subsidization, higher retail electricity rates, and usage issues. Consumers feel zapped because they have to pay twice for power, once for the renewable power and then again for the back-up system. The subsidies seem to have been too good to last long and make renewable energy viable on this model. All this has happened in spite of wind and solar-generated electricity enjoying subsidies nearly 50 times higher per unit of energy output than ordinary coal and 100 times higher than natural gas.
What about our own experience in California? In 2015, a group of scientists, activists and celebrities, led by Mark Jacobson, the director of the Atmosphere and Energy Program at Stanford, released a report called ‘50 States 50 Plans’ in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, that lays out individual plans for all 50 states to reach 100 percent renewable energy for all purposes: electricity, transportation, heating and cooling, and industry. It has political support from people like Bernie Sanders. The state of CA seems to be considering a 100% shift to renewable energy by 2045. However, there are others who have questioned the viability of the proposal. In 2017, a rebuttal appeared from a team of prominent researchers in the same journal, saying that the ‘50 states 50 plans’ paper used invalid modeling tools, contained modeling errors, and made implausible and inadequately supported assumptions. Naturally, Mark Jacobson et al defended their paper and accused the critics of allegiance to fossil fuels or nuclear power lobbies. The rebuttal researchers are affiliated with prominent institutions like Carnegie Mellon, the Carnegie Institution for Science, the Brookings Institution, and Stanford University. Their rebuttal includes data on conflict of interest. They caution that incorrect assumptions or miscalculations can lead to spending public resources on the wrong technologies, underestimating the research and development still required, or abandoning sources that might ultimately be necessary to reach the stated goals. As an example, Georgia, which has a coastline of about 100 miles long and a total area of more than 59,000 square miles, is proposed to get 35 percent of its energy from offshore wind—none of which has been developed to date. Alaska, which has a fragmented power system due to its immensity and the remoteness of many communities, is slated to get 70 percent of its energy from wind, both offshore and onshore. These projections are deemed eyebrow-raising and in an era of political gridlock and bitter arguments over climate change, the political barriers also need to be considered as formidable.
The other issue which often crops up is battery storage technology. High profile efforts by Elon Musk on his Tesla Gigafactory in Nevada and a 100-MW battery array in South Australia have raised hopes of lithium ion batteries as the solution to balance fluctuating wind and solar energy on the grid. California is mulling four giant lithium-ion storage facilities of 300 MW each, starting by 2020. California is already slated to get 50 percent of its electricity from clean sources by 2020, and the legislature is considering a bill that would require it to reach 100 percent by 2045. A detailed article in a reputed MIT journal by James Temple analyses these issues and says that batteries as backup is likely an unaffordable solution. CA currently has 150,000 megawatt-hours of energy storage in total, mainly pumped hydroelectric storage, with a small share of batteries. Assuming lithium-ion batteries will cost only a third of what they do now, building the level of renewable generation and storage necessary to reach the state’s goals would drive up costs exponentially, from $49 per megawatt-hour of generation at 50 percent to $1,612 at 100 percent. Extending it further, meeting 80 percent of US electricity demand with wind and solar would require either a nationwide high-speed transmission system, which can balance renewable generation over hundreds of miles or 12 hours of electricity storage for the whole system. At current prices, the cost would be above $2.5 trillion. In addition, experts say that it takes anywhere from six to ten years to bring a battery technology that works in the lab to the marketplace. These are cautionary notes in the head-long rush towards renewable sources.
Given the polarized atmosphere of the debate, it is likely that all of Zehner’s arguments on renewable sources may be dismissed as polemic. But the book asks us to keep an open mind above all the hype and look at cheaper, simpler alternatives through lifestyles. Even if substantial lifestyle changes don’t happen, as has always been the case, it is important for Californians to consider the lessons from the European experience in moving to a 100% renewable future by 2045. The same should be the case before buying into Elon Musk’s vision of batteries as a storage solution for our states and cities.
December 23, 2020
I was surprised by how much I liked this. Just scanning some reviews I was prepared for a very polemical and contentious take on alternative energy, possibly from a conservative-in-disguise standpoint, and while it may arguably have been that (except for the conservative part) I also found myself pretty easily agreeing with everything Zehner wrote.
The subject is too broad to go over every point here, but the main gist of the book is Zehner's assertion that focusing on alternative methods of energy production is a dangerous and oftentimes deceitful distraction from the only viable solution to our looming environmental cataclysm.
The solution is energy reduction. He states it many times: we need to focus on reduction and not production. In this way he is able to identify any poor, irrelevant or misguided proposal for what it is; if at root it's working toward a status quo of continued or increased energy production it is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
The most original idea he brings to the debate is his insistence that you can't separate environmentalism from other issues like women's rights (reproductive rights and sex education --> birth control --> population control), military spending (arms production is one of the largest users of fossil fuels and producers of environmental pollutants), city zoning and walkable communities (well-planned communities reduce energy consumption) and income inequality and consumer culture (the wealthy feel entitled to consume and waste in mind-boggling quantities). The section on child advertising is shockingly relevant and eye-opening.
I had never thought of environmentalism as inextricably linked to all of these other issues and I appreciate the new perspective. At the same time, linking them together makes "saving the planet" feel like an even more daunting task, because outside of women's rights and local zoning ordinances it essentially depends on defeating Big Oil and other mega-corporations that will literally kill before giving up their profit margins.
And that's where Zehner comes off as either naive or disingenuous: offering solutions such as voting and campaign finance reform, carbon taxing and other regulations, the creation of a "Department of Efficiency," and decoupling energy profit and production. He is clearly intelligent enough to recognize that all of these ideas are utter pipe dreams in our current political and cultural context. It's hard to envision a scenario short of revolution in which the entrenched monied interests would cede this kind of territory, and an obvious first step would appear to be the revocation of corporate personhood, a virtually impossible task that he never mentions. So I'm a little confused as to how realistic he actually considers his "solutions."
Other than that the problems with the book were minor. He gets somewhat repetitive toward the end and there is some bloat in the middle chapters on women's rights and the "Architecture of Community" where he veers off into fairly tangential territory (the need for bicycle insurance is one of his more bizarre and thankfully short sections). Otherwise, besides some ill-advised pretentions toward lyricism and metaphors, the book was highly readable.
More than readable, however, is that this book is capital-i-Important. It's the 2nd Important book I've read in a month after the devastating must-read The New Jim Crow (see my review). This one is not quite as pressing for me because it doesn't directly deal with issues of justice and civil rights, but it's a necessary read nonetheless.
Oh, and not to attack another Goodreader, but I'll just say it's rather curious that the top-rated review of this book by a healthy margin is LITERALLY the only one-star review in two pages of ratings -- it's even the only rating of less than three stars. I'm not saying he may not make a good point (although he never responded when asked to back it up), but it's certainly not representative of the overwhelming consensus on this book. I'm not sure how it could have gotten liked so much unless there are certain interests invested in making it more visible. . .
But enough conspiracy for the day! Speaking of which, I was way off on my suspicion that Zehner could be some sort of conservative or tea party shill; he's really so far left that he is post-environmentalist (in a good way). And I'm optimistic that this book could become a bible of sorts for post-environmentalism, that it could help reframe the movement so that it becomes more -- ahem -- efficient.
Not Bad Reviews
@pointblaek
The subject is too broad to go over every point here, but the main gist of the book is Zehner's assertion that focusing on alternative methods of energy production is a dangerous and oftentimes deceitful distraction from the only viable solution to our looming environmental cataclysm.
The solution is energy reduction. He states it many times: we need to focus on reduction and not production. In this way he is able to identify any poor, irrelevant or misguided proposal for what it is; if at root it's working toward a status quo of continued or increased energy production it is part of the problem, not part of the solution.
The most original idea he brings to the debate is his insistence that you can't separate environmentalism from other issues like women's rights (reproductive rights and sex education --> birth control --> population control), military spending (arms production is one of the largest users of fossil fuels and producers of environmental pollutants), city zoning and walkable communities (well-planned communities reduce energy consumption) and income inequality and consumer culture (the wealthy feel entitled to consume and waste in mind-boggling quantities). The section on child advertising is shockingly relevant and eye-opening.
I had never thought of environmentalism as inextricably linked to all of these other issues and I appreciate the new perspective. At the same time, linking them together makes "saving the planet" feel like an even more daunting task, because outside of women's rights and local zoning ordinances it essentially depends on defeating Big Oil and other mega-corporations that will literally kill before giving up their profit margins.
And that's where Zehner comes off as either naive or disingenuous: offering solutions such as voting and campaign finance reform, carbon taxing and other regulations, the creation of a "Department of Efficiency," and decoupling energy profit and production. He is clearly intelligent enough to recognize that all of these ideas are utter pipe dreams in our current political and cultural context. It's hard to envision a scenario short of revolution in which the entrenched monied interests would cede this kind of territory, and an obvious first step would appear to be the revocation of corporate personhood, a virtually impossible task that he never mentions. So I'm a little confused as to how realistic he actually considers his "solutions."
Other than that the problems with the book were minor. He gets somewhat repetitive toward the end and there is some bloat in the middle chapters on women's rights and the "Architecture of Community" where he veers off into fairly tangential territory (the need for bicycle insurance is one of his more bizarre and thankfully short sections). Otherwise, besides some ill-advised pretentions toward lyricism and metaphors, the book was highly readable.
More than readable, however, is that this book is capital-i-Important. It's the 2nd Important book I've read in a month after the devastating must-read The New Jim Crow (see my review). This one is not quite as pressing for me because it doesn't directly deal with issues of justice and civil rights, but it's a necessary read nonetheless.
Oh, and not to attack another Goodreader, but I'll just say it's rather curious that the top-rated review of this book by a healthy margin is LITERALLY the only one-star review in two pages of ratings -- it's even the only rating of less than three stars. I'm not saying he may not make a good point (although he never responded when asked to back it up), but it's certainly not representative of the overwhelming consensus on this book. I'm not sure how it could have gotten liked so much unless there are certain interests invested in making it more visible. . .
But enough conspiracy for the day! Speaking of which, I was way off on my suspicion that Zehner could be some sort of conservative or tea party shill; he's really so far left that he is post-environmentalist (in a good way). And I'm optimistic that this book could become a bible of sorts for post-environmentalism, that it could help reframe the movement so that it becomes more -- ahem -- efficient.
Not Bad Reviews
@pointblaek
January 18, 2014
This is a book directed towards Americans about their energy usage and how best to obtain it and use it. As such, it accomplishes its task, but it does so in a very uneven way. The beginning chapters are about the alternatives to fossil fuels. Clearly, it is aimed at the "soft" environmentalists who think that being an environmentalist is as simple as just opposing what the Republicans want. (No diehard Republican would be caught dead reading this book.) In short, the book quite effectively tears down all the popular "green" solutions, for a variety of reasons: too costly, too "dirty", too difficult, too inadequate, etc. Moreover, the author points out how getting more "green" energy, assuming it was easy to get, would simply increase the demand for energy, rather than replace "dirty" energy. At this point, the book shifts gears. Frankly, the author handles the adjustment very poorly. Imagine your high school math teacher being Sir Laurence Olivier dressed as Hamlet. It just was too much "eloquence" and not enough rationale. Also, it was sort of like trying to figure out what someone, who is mumbling to themselves, is really talking about. Yet, eventually, after a rather odd section on how a lack of women's rights is a big reason why we use so much energy, only some of which relates to what I, at least, think of as women's rights issues, the author goes into a series of chapters on using less energy and why it would work well, especially since it works elsewhere in the world so well. This is not a perfect book for its purpose, but it is definitely worth reading for what it does accomplish. Read it and be enlightened.
January 31, 2016
Before reading the book, I, like many others, was under the impression that alternative energy solutions was the answer to our growing environmental problems. This book is the proverbial other-side-of-the-coin.
As an uneducated (at least in the field of alternative energy) the arguments presented make a lot of sense and plausible, though a sceptic might find it to be an anti-greenwash campaign - my mind just cannot fathom that green technologies are not that green, perhaps in my naivety and optimism. Nevertheless, Ozzie manages to clear a lot of myths around and addresses the misconceptions regarding alternative energy. At least now, I can consider myself to be "informed" about what my (and the world's) possible options are.
Like I mentioned above, the book can open the eyes of many diehard believers (such as me) that perhaps our dreams aren't as rosy as we'd like it to be. However, Ozzie does provide a solution - one that requires an overhauling of human mentalities and tendencies (read - almost impossible today), but it's a start that is being seen in many small pockets of the world today.
Good book with good insights and arguments. 3/5 stars.
As an uneducated (at least in the field of alternative energy) the arguments presented make a lot of sense and plausible, though a sceptic might find it to be an anti-greenwash campaign - my mind just cannot fathom that green technologies are not that green, perhaps in my naivety and optimism. Nevertheless, Ozzie manages to clear a lot of myths around and addresses the misconceptions regarding alternative energy. At least now, I can consider myself to be "informed" about what my (and the world's) possible options are.
Like I mentioned above, the book can open the eyes of many diehard believers (such as me) that perhaps our dreams aren't as rosy as we'd like it to be. However, Ozzie does provide a solution - one that requires an overhauling of human mentalities and tendencies (read - almost impossible today), but it's a start that is being seen in many small pockets of the world today.
Good book with good insights and arguments. 3/5 stars.
April 11, 2013
The alternative energy movement/industry has been co-opted by Big Oil and is a massive ruse to get subsidies. Solar power is inefficient. Wind power suffers from unpredictable supply issues and adverse environmental side effects. The risk of nuclear(fission) power is too high. Fusion is unfeasible. Hybrid cars are a red herring and a PR gimmick by the oil and car industries. So where do we go from here?
The author's basic premise is that technology is not a panacea and we need to completely revise our way of thinking about energy. "Jevon's paradox arises again and again in the various incarnations throughout the history of energy use: Increases in energy efficiency make energy services relatively cheaper, encouraging greater consumption". In other words, correcting energy consumption should be our focus, rather than increasing energy production. Basically, "Alternative-energy techs are only as durable as the contexts we create for them".
The author's basic premise is that technology is not a panacea and we need to completely revise our way of thinking about energy. "Jevon's paradox arises again and again in the various incarnations throughout the history of energy use: Increases in energy efficiency make energy services relatively cheaper, encouraging greater consumption". In other words, correcting energy consumption should be our focus, rather than increasing energy production. Basically, "Alternative-energy techs are only as durable as the contexts we create for them".
April 20, 2016
This book is important. For anyone with any interest in the planet, our society, and sustainability, Green Illusions is a must. Anyone lacking an interest in the aforementioned topics should quickly read up on climate change and environmental degradation. These "phenomena" are continually being worsened by our ridiculously excessive consumption.
This book shattered the "alternative energy" dream that most environmentalists are clinging to for the much less sexy strategy of conservation. Zehner makes the incredibly good point that alternative energy only succeeds when we compare it with fossil fuels. Furthermore, cheaper energy and more energy always result in... more energy usage! Societies need huge doses of social justice, regulation, and conservation before alternative energy should logically be embraced. This book is pivotal as the environmental movement evaluates its options.
This book shattered the "alternative energy" dream that most environmentalists are clinging to for the much less sexy strategy of conservation. Zehner makes the incredibly good point that alternative energy only succeeds when we compare it with fossil fuels. Furthermore, cheaper energy and more energy always result in... more energy usage! Societies need huge doses of social justice, regulation, and conservation before alternative energy should logically be embraced. This book is pivotal as the environmental movement evaluates its options.
March 17, 2013
Let me summarize this book for you and save you a great deal of time.
The beginning of the book (7 chapters) is about how alternative sources of energy won't produce much energy and how all sources of energy create pollution of one kind or another.
The second half of the book is about how we can reduce energy usage, both through using less energy without significantly reducing quality of life and reducing the population. He does offer clear specific (and ethical) examples of how to do these things.
The book simply gives the details of these ideas, with a lot of detail especially on why solar cells and wind power aren't terribly amazing. So if you want the details, get this book right away it offers a lot of details.
The beginning of the book (7 chapters) is about how alternative sources of energy won't produce much energy and how all sources of energy create pollution of one kind or another.
The second half of the book is about how we can reduce energy usage, both through using less energy without significantly reducing quality of life and reducing the population. He does offer clear specific (and ethical) examples of how to do these things.
The book simply gives the details of these ideas, with a lot of detail especially on why solar cells and wind power aren't terribly amazing. So if you want the details, get this book right away it offers a lot of details.
November 14, 2012
We had to read this for class and write a response paper. I wrote about the section on carbon taxes vs energy taxes. The author argues that carbon taxes allow other side effects of energy production like radiation, groundwater pollution, and deforestation to go ahead without the same tax penalty. So, energy production would shift to those technologies and leave us with different problems. He argues for ENERGY tax instead, which brings down all energy consumption, not just the carbon based types.
April 16, 2015
I'm not sure if it's confirmation bias, but this book echoes many of the concerns I have with going green. The first half was excellent factually describing the shortfalls of existing energy sources. The second half was thought provoking presenting many energy conservation solutions and wins I had never considered.
I would recommend to anyone who thinks they care about the environment.
I would recommend to anyone who thinks they care about the environment.
June 17, 2012
I like that the varying sides of arguments for or against a type of energy weren't the same ones that we're beaten over the head with.
September 10, 2012
Wow - an eyeopener. A great realistic look at the limitations of renewables, and strong answers - we must simply use less energy! Practical and clear eyed.
Read
September 26, 2012I found this book to be an interesting, academic and critical evaluation of the current state of environmentalism. It includes a frank discussion on natural gas as an "alternative fuel."
October 29, 2012
Very informative, should have been a 4 but it took me 2 months to finish it!!!!
November 10, 2012
My favourite book on environmentalism. I read for a class at University.
September 9, 2012
INteresting evaluation of the pro & cons of green energy
February 7, 2015
I had assumed that options such as solar and wind power were great alternatives to oil and coal. This books sheds light on the fact that all options have downsides (whether it's having to anchor wind turbines 80 feet down into huge concrete slabs (1,700 cubic yards) or how unrecyclable solar panels are at the end of their relatively short lives).
Really this is about our learning to do more, with less [energy].Not only did he evaluate these popular green energy alternatives, but he discusses steps we can take and steps that businesses and producers can take to make a real difference. This book may also leave you longing to live in Sweden or The Netherlands.
Extremely glad I read this book and I plan on reading "Green Metropolis" (per one of his citations) next.
Discussion on some of the alternative energy possibilities:
Regarding hydrogen power: "The idea that level of energy use is unimportant and not connected to environmental is constructed by describing fuel cells as intrinsically clean in themselves and producing only water as exhaust" (119).
"Worldwide hydropower provides 15% of the electrical power. Some enthusiastic proponents claim that hydro could grow 3-fold if the planet's capacity were fully exploited. However, tapping into that capacity would displace many thousands of people, disrupt fishing industries, place neighborhoods at greater risk for flooding, and lead to a long list of other problems" (134).
"Natural gas produces less CO2 when burned than other fossil fuels, its extraction operations induce corresponding harms...This geological violent process [fracking]leaves behind copious amounts of injection effluent and permanently alters geological formations surrounding one of the nation's most prized fresh-water sources. Fracking also releases enough methane to more than cancel out any greenhouse-gas benefits that natural gas promoters so aggressively tout...natural gas operations also bring a variety of toxic chemicals and petroleum compounds to the surface. These effluents are often, incidentally, radioactive" (141).
Authors solutions include:
Women's Rights
"A girl growing up in the US is 5x more likely to become pregnant than a girl growing up in France. And an American girl is 3x more likely than a French girl to undergo an abortion. . . Almost all teenage pregnancies in the US are unplanned BUT so are about 1/2 of other pregnancies. Worldwide there are about 80 million unintended pregnancies every year, which lead to enough offspring to fully populate a Chicago every month" (218).
"An American child born today adds an average of 10,407 tons of CO2 to the carbon legacy of her mother. That's almost 6x more CO2 than the mother's own lifetime emissions. Furthermore, the ecological costs of that child and her children far outweigh even the combined energy-saving choices from all a mother's other good decisions, like buying a fuel-efficient car, recycling, using energy-saving appliances and light bulbs...Just lowering teen birth rates alone to European levels would prevent the need to generate over 30 billion kilowatt-hours of energy annually (the amount required to support this growth in population" (219).
Noteworthy Quotations:
"Green labels permit purchasers to believe that the products within create some sort of positive impact on the environment. But at their absolute best, green labels act merely as an approximate guide to discerning which articles are LEAST HARMFUL--which product cycles have resulted in the lowest or perhaps most easily remedied effects on the biosphere" (page 226).
"The BEST material consumption is LESS material consumption" (page 227).
"A healthy majority of Europeans are satisfied with the basic social and governmental conventions that make their more egalitarian way of life possible. And there's not as much pressure to stockpile earnings for later in life since European nations provide health care and elder care to all citizens. I appreciated the European health care system while living there. My doctor stressed preventative health, and when I did feel ill, I was able to see her promptly (she even did house calls). I was actually surprised when I learned that per capita health care spending is lower in Europe than in the Unites States" (page 240).
"...If you have a bank account with more than $100, then chances are you are among the richest 15% of the world's population already--if you make $25,000 per year or more, you're in the top 10% of earners. And even though a majority of Americans are among the world's richest 10%, we tend more often to compare ourselves with the top few percent than with the poorer 90%...In fact, we spend a sizable chunk of our income on junk...I am talking about junk in the most literal sense." (Ibid.)
"Universal health care and a trustworthy pension system will free Americans from the anxiety of each creating their own individual safety nets" (page 245).
"Today American cartoons stand as the only English-language children's programs in the world to take breaks for advertising. Canada, Great Britain, and many other nations have long banned television ads to young children. Two decades ago Sweden banned not only television ads but also all other forms of advertising targeting children under the age of twelve. Child psychologists hail the ban a success. One study curiously found that in letters to Santa, Swedish children requested 'significantly fewer items' than their foreign counterparts exposed to advertising" (page 248)
GDH Gross Domestic Health indicators--
-Gross National Happiness
-Happy Planet Index
-Genuine Progress Indicator and Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare
-Gini Coefficient of Wealth Disparity
-Quality of life Survey (page 256)
"In the US, the land cultivated with turf grass exceeds the total irrigated cropland dedicated to wheat, corn, and soybeans combined. Sustaining this colossal growing project costs upward of $40billion a year and requires 35 million pounds of pesticides, a stunning sum of petrochemical fertilizers, millions of gallons of gasoline to power lawn equipment, and a full third of the nation's residential water supply... Americans dedicate all of these resources to supporting showy yards that, according to one recent study, families spend 'negligible' time actually enjoying or even using.
**In fact, the principal activity in the America's lawn is maintenance. The ultimate purpose of the yard, it would seem, is self-justifying; its function is to be cared for.**" (page 268).
"Yet according to a University of Michigan and Cornell study, roughly 70% of people report they'd be happier with lower salaries if it meant living closer to their friends" (page276).
http://www.greenillusions.org/
One way to make a difference is stopping some of the junk mail we receive, so you can go hear and take a step in the right direction, right now!
https://www.redplum.com/tools/redplum...
Really this is about our learning to do more, with less [energy].Not only did he evaluate these popular green energy alternatives, but he discusses steps we can take and steps that businesses and producers can take to make a real difference. This book may also leave you longing to live in Sweden or The Netherlands.
Extremely glad I read this book and I plan on reading "Green Metropolis" (per one of his citations) next.
Discussion on some of the alternative energy possibilities:
Regarding hydrogen power: "The idea that level of energy use is unimportant and not connected to environmental is constructed by describing fuel cells as intrinsically clean in themselves and producing only water as exhaust" (119).
"Worldwide hydropower provides 15% of the electrical power. Some enthusiastic proponents claim that hydro could grow 3-fold if the planet's capacity were fully exploited. However, tapping into that capacity would displace many thousands of people, disrupt fishing industries, place neighborhoods at greater risk for flooding, and lead to a long list of other problems" (134).
"Natural gas produces less CO2 when burned than other fossil fuels, its extraction operations induce corresponding harms...This geological violent process [fracking]leaves behind copious amounts of injection effluent and permanently alters geological formations surrounding one of the nation's most prized fresh-water sources. Fracking also releases enough methane to more than cancel out any greenhouse-gas benefits that natural gas promoters so aggressively tout...natural gas operations also bring a variety of toxic chemicals and petroleum compounds to the surface. These effluents are often, incidentally, radioactive" (141).
Authors solutions include:
Women's Rights
"A girl growing up in the US is 5x more likely to become pregnant than a girl growing up in France. And an American girl is 3x more likely than a French girl to undergo an abortion. . . Almost all teenage pregnancies in the US are unplanned BUT so are about 1/2 of other pregnancies. Worldwide there are about 80 million unintended pregnancies every year, which lead to enough offspring to fully populate a Chicago every month" (218).
"An American child born today adds an average of 10,407 tons of CO2 to the carbon legacy of her mother. That's almost 6x more CO2 than the mother's own lifetime emissions. Furthermore, the ecological costs of that child and her children far outweigh even the combined energy-saving choices from all a mother's other good decisions, like buying a fuel-efficient car, recycling, using energy-saving appliances and light bulbs...Just lowering teen birth rates alone to European levels would prevent the need to generate over 30 billion kilowatt-hours of energy annually (the amount required to support this growth in population" (219).
Noteworthy Quotations:
"Green labels permit purchasers to believe that the products within create some sort of positive impact on the environment. But at their absolute best, green labels act merely as an approximate guide to discerning which articles are LEAST HARMFUL--which product cycles have resulted in the lowest or perhaps most easily remedied effects on the biosphere" (page 226).
"The BEST material consumption is LESS material consumption" (page 227).
"A healthy majority of Europeans are satisfied with the basic social and governmental conventions that make their more egalitarian way of life possible. And there's not as much pressure to stockpile earnings for later in life since European nations provide health care and elder care to all citizens. I appreciated the European health care system while living there. My doctor stressed preventative health, and when I did feel ill, I was able to see her promptly (she even did house calls). I was actually surprised when I learned that per capita health care spending is lower in Europe than in the Unites States" (page 240).
"...If you have a bank account with more than $100, then chances are you are among the richest 15% of the world's population already--if you make $25,000 per year or more, you're in the top 10% of earners. And even though a majority of Americans are among the world's richest 10%, we tend more often to compare ourselves with the top few percent than with the poorer 90%...In fact, we spend a sizable chunk of our income on junk...I am talking about junk in the most literal sense." (Ibid.)
"Universal health care and a trustworthy pension system will free Americans from the anxiety of each creating their own individual safety nets" (page 245).
"Today American cartoons stand as the only English-language children's programs in the world to take breaks for advertising. Canada, Great Britain, and many other nations have long banned television ads to young children. Two decades ago Sweden banned not only television ads but also all other forms of advertising targeting children under the age of twelve. Child psychologists hail the ban a success. One study curiously found that in letters to Santa, Swedish children requested 'significantly fewer items' than their foreign counterparts exposed to advertising" (page 248)
GDH Gross Domestic Health indicators--
-Gross National Happiness
-Happy Planet Index
-Genuine Progress Indicator and Index of Sustainable Economic Welfare
-Gini Coefficient of Wealth Disparity
-Quality of life Survey (page 256)
"In the US, the land cultivated with turf grass exceeds the total irrigated cropland dedicated to wheat, corn, and soybeans combined. Sustaining this colossal growing project costs upward of $40billion a year and requires 35 million pounds of pesticides, a stunning sum of petrochemical fertilizers, millions of gallons of gasoline to power lawn equipment, and a full third of the nation's residential water supply... Americans dedicate all of these resources to supporting showy yards that, according to one recent study, families spend 'negligible' time actually enjoying or even using.
**In fact, the principal activity in the America's lawn is maintenance. The ultimate purpose of the yard, it would seem, is self-justifying; its function is to be cared for.**" (page 268).
"Yet according to a University of Michigan and Cornell study, roughly 70% of people report they'd be happier with lower salaries if it meant living closer to their friends" (page276).
http://www.greenillusions.org/
One way to make a difference is stopping some of the junk mail we receive, so you can go hear and take a step in the right direction, right now!
https://www.redplum.com/tools/redplum...
Displaying 1 - 30 of 99 reviews