A Nobel prize-winning chemist once came up with a list of the top 10 problems facing humanity. In it, he prioritized energy as the number one problem because it is the key to unlocking all the rest. After all, adequate energy resources are a prerequisite for overcoming our most pressing problems, such as providing education, improving the environment, and alleviating poverty.
Power Trip
Amazon
Energy is humanity's ultimate obstacle—and also its most promising opportunity. Such high stakes set the stage for Michael E. Webber's latest book, Power Trip: The Story of Energy.
Thankfully for the reader, Webber takes a systematic approach to this sprawling subject. After a brief introduction, he explores the role of energy in six thematic chapters ranging from wealth and water to cities and transportation. Insights abound, such as the paradoxical relationship between water and energy: “It is a great irony that energy lets us treat and clean water, but that energy production also puts water quality at serious risk.”
Speaking of curious connections, another is the relationship between wealth and energy. Common sense may dictate that there's a linear relationship there, but Webber reveals that “there is an even better correlation between electricity consumption and wealth.” As a matter of fact, countries that use their energy for sophisticated purposes, such as generating electricity, are richer than those that do not.
Moving beyond water and wealth, perhaps the most important argument Webber makes deals with decarbonization. As we know, decarbonization refers to the reduction of greenhouse gases released into our atmosphere. Echoing other energy experts, Webber asserts that it is, perhaps, the defining challenge of the twenty-first century. A bold claim, surely, but one backed up with logic: If energy is our most profound problem, and decarbonization is energy's defining challenge—that would make decarbonization our biggest problem's biggest problem.
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