Balanced, articulate, and informative.
A concise analysis of the complex issues surrounding the world’s transition to renewable sources of energy.
While the voices of partisans are loud, emotional, and often irrational, Usher (Faculty Director/Tamer Center for Social Enterprise, Columbia Business School) is calm and devoted to the facts, reporting on the current market and noting trends. He describes his book as “a primer on the economic fundamentals driving the global transition to renewables,” which is an apt description: He provides a compact source of information for the public, consumers, investors, and policymakers on the inevitable transition and its possible consequences. Putting renewables in perspective, Usher looks back at the transition from wood to coal and from coal-fired electricity to nuclear-powered (which he dismisses as a now diminishing option) and gas-powered electricity. Transitions, he points out, are driven largely by economics, they are often hampered and slow, and they have both positive and negative consequences. Much of the material here is from the author’s courses at Columbia Business School. While nonstudents may find some of the formulas, graphs, and charts daunting, the text is generally straightforward and highly readable, and there is a useful glossary. Usher focuses on two particular sources of renewable energy: wind and solar, both of which, under currently available technologies, are unlimited and globally abundant. China and India, he demonstrates, are taking the lead in the transition; the five largest solar firms are located in these two countries, and China is now the world’s single largest market for electric vehicles. The author also looks at the implications for oil-producing nations such as Saudi Arabia. The chapter on financing, which includes a discussion of the challenges and major hurdles, will be of special interest to investors. In the final chapter, Usher rightly stresses the inevitability of the transition and the need to accelerate the process.
Balanced, articulate, and informative.Pub Date: Jan. 1, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-231-18784-8
Page Count: 192
Publisher: Columbia Univ.
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2018
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2018
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both...
Italian theoretical physicist Rovelli (General Relativity: The Most Beautiful of Theories, 2015, etc.) shares his thoughts on the broader scientific and philosophical implications of the great revolution that has taken place over the past century.
These seven lessons, which first appeared as articles in the Sunday supplement of the Italian newspaper Sole 24 Ore, are addressed to readers with little knowledge of physics. In less than 100 pages, the author, who teaches physics in both France and the United States, cogently covers the great accomplishments of the past and the open questions still baffling physicists today. In the first lesson, he focuses on Einstein's theory of general relativity. He describes Einstein's recognition that gravity "is not diffused through space [but] is that space itself" as "a stroke of pure genius." In the second lesson, Rovelli deals with the puzzling features of quantum physics that challenge our picture of reality. In the remaining sections, the author introduces the constant fluctuations of atoms, the granular nature of space, and more. "It is hardly surprising that there are more things in heaven and earth, dear reader, than have been dreamed of in our philosophy—or in our physics,” he writes. Rovelli also discusses the issues raised in loop quantum gravity, a theory that he co-developed. These issues lead to his extraordinary claim that the passage of time is not fundamental but rather derived from the granular nature of space. The author suggests that there have been two separate pathways throughout human history: mythology and the accumulation of knowledge through observation. He believes that scientists today share the same curiosity about nature exhibited by early man.
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both scientists and general readers.Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-18441-3
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A magnificent account of a central reality of our times, incorporating deep scientific expertise, broad political and social knowledge, and ethical insight, and Idled with beautifully written biographical sketches of the men and women who created nuclear physics. Rhodes describes in detail the great scientific achievements that led up to the invention of the atomic bomb. Everything of importance is examined, from the discovery of the atomic nucleus and of nuclear fission to the emergence of quantum physics, the invention of the mass-spectroscope and of the cyclotron, the creation of such man-made elements as plutonium and tritium, and implementation of the nuclear chain reaction in uranium. Even more important, Rhodes shows how these achievements were thrust into the arms of the state, which culminated in the unfolding of the nuclear arms race. Often brilliantly, he records the rise of fascism and of anti-Semitism, and the intensification of nationalist ambitions. He traces the outbreak of WW II, which provoked a hysterical rivalry among nations to devise the bomb. This book contains a grim description of Japanese resistance, and of the horrible psychological numbing that caused an unparalleled tolerance for human suffering and destruction. Rhodes depicts the Faustian scale of the Manhattan Project. His account of the dropping of the bomb itself, and of the awful firebombing that prepared its way, is unforgettable. Although Rhodes' gallery of names and events is sometimes dizzying, his scientific discussions often daunting, he has written a book of great drama and sweep. A superb accomplishment.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1986
ISBN: 0684813785
Page Count: 932
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1986
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