by Robert Bryce
Owen, David. The Conundrum: How Scientific Innovation, Increased Efficiency, and Good Intentions Can Make Our Energy and Climate Problems Worse. New York: Riverhead, 2011.
Pinker, Steven. The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. New York: Viking, 2011.
Rapley, Bruce, and Huub Bakker, eds. Sound, Noise, Flicker and the Human Perception of Wind Farm Activity. Palmerston North: Atkinson & Rapley Consulting Ltd, 2010.
Ridley, Matt. The Rational Optimist: How Prosperity Evolves. New York: Harper-Collins, 2010.
Rodale Inc. The Noblest Invention: An Illustrated History of the Bicycle. USA: Rodale, 2003.
Rosen, William. The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention. New York: Random House, 2010.
Smil, Vaclav. Creating the Twentieth Century: Technical Innovations of 1867–1914 and Their Lasting Impact. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005.
———. Energies: An Illustrated Guide to the Biosphere and Civilization. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
———. Energy at the Crossroads: Global Perspectives and Uncertainties. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2003.
———. Energy Myths and Realities: Bringing Science to the Energy Policy Debate. Washington, DC: AEI Press, 2010.
———. Global Catastrophes and Trends: The Next Fifty Years. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2008.
———. Oil. Oxford: Oneworld Publications, 2008.
———. Prime Movers of Globalization: The History and Impact of Diesel Engines and Gas Turbines. Cambridge, MA: Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 2010.
Till, Charles E., and Yoon Il Chang. Plentiful Energy: The Story of the Integral Fast Reactor. Amazon: CreateSpace, 2011.
Topol, Eric. The Creative Destruction of Medicine: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care. New York: Basic Books, 2012.
Tucker, William. Terrestrial Energy: How Nuclear Power Will Lead the Green Revolution and End America’s Energy Odyssey. Savage, MD: Bartleby Press, 2008.
Usher, Abbott Payson. A History of Mechanical Inventions. New York: Dover Publications, 1982.
Witherell, James L. Bicycle History: A Chronological History of People, Races, and Technology. Cherokee Village, AR: McGann, 2010.
Wolman, David. The End of Money: Counterfeiters, Preachers, Techies, Dreamers—And the Coming Cashless Society. Boston: Da Capo Press, 2012.
Ziegler, Jean. Betting on Famine: Why the World Still Goes Hungry. New York: The New Press, 2013.
INDEX
Abbey, Edward, 50, 61
Academic freedom, 153
Acheson-Lilienthal Report, 258, 260
Acton Academy, 161
Adams, Amanda S., 216
Advertising companies, 39
Afghanistan, 138–139
Africa, xx, 18, 109, 132, 134, 135, 245, 264, 273
Agriculture, xxiii, 48, 50, 52, 55, 88, 92, 268
need for farmland, 151
organic, 147–149
See also Food production
AIDS, 41
Aircraft, 99, 183, 202–203. See also Air travel; Jet turbines/jetliners
Air travel, 22–23, 25, 46–47, 72, 73
AK-47s, 17–19
Aldrin, Buzz, xxiii
Amazon company, 107, 118
American Association for the Advancement of Science, 150
American Fuels Act of 2007, 225
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 34
American Wind Energy Association, 222
Ammonia, 19
Amnesty International, 18
Amplifiers, 14
Angstrom unit, 26(n), 67–71
Anquetil, Jacques, 80, 83
Apollo 11, xxiii
Apple computers, 106–107, 118
Aqueous hybrid-ion batteries, 202
Aquion Energy, 200–207, 201(photo)
Arab Spring, 152
“Are Global Wind Power Resource Estimates Overstated?” (Adams and Keith), 216
Argentina, 233, 273
Arimilli, Ravi, 30
Armstrong, Lance, 77, 78, 81, 84
Armstrong, Neil, xxiii
Arthroscopy, 165
Assadourian, Erik, 53
Atomic weapons, 110, 112–113, 260
Attenborough, David, 62
Attoseconds, 67–71
Australia, 168, 273
Ausubel, Jesse, 150–151, 214
Authoritarianism, 153–154, 267
Automobiles, xxiv, 8, 23, 33, 35, 57, 72, 90, 123, 228, 233
electric cars, 183, 204–205
fastest car, 76(photo)
miles driven, 46–47
natural gas-fueled, 241–242
See also Ford Motor Company; Nissan Leaf automobiles; Power density: of automobile engines
Aviation sector, 183. See also Air travel; Jet turbines/jetliners
Azar, Christian, 220
Babcock & Wilcox, 254
Bacon, Sir Francis, 10, 37
Baker Hughes Incorporated, 36(caption)
Balboa, Vasco Nuñez de, 6
Bangladesh, 56
Ban Ki-Moon, xix
Bankruptcy, 226
Banks, 131, 132, 155
Barboza, David, 134
Bardeen, John, 122
Batteries, 197, 200–207, 261
energy density of, 204
laptop battery fires, 203
spending on, 202
Beatles, 15–16
Belarus, 267
Bentham, Jeremy, 39(n)
Benz, Karl Friedrich, 96
Berlin Wall, 15
Berry, Chuck, 15
Beta-carotene, 150
Bethe, Hans, 112
Better Angels of Our Nature, The: Why Violence Has Declined (Pinker), 40, 42
Betting on Famine: Why the World Still Goes Hungry (Ziegler), 232
Beyond the Wall (Abbey), 61
Bible, 130
Bicycles, 53, 54, 81(photo)
weights of, 80–81
See also Tour de France
Big Coal (Goodell), 93
Big Data, 119, 120
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, 162. See also Gates, Bill
Biofuels, 58, 211–212, 216, 219, 223–234, 277
global production of, 232
land issues concerning, 224, 228–229, 232
whoppers concerning, 225–230
Birmingham, England, 192
Birth rates, 267, 268
Black, Jack, 13
Blaze, Matt, 39
Bloomberg, Michael, 194–195, 240
Bloomberg New Energy Finance, 174
Boeing 737 aircraft, 183
Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft, 202–203
Bolt, Usain, 75
Bontempi, Guido, 83
Boosted Boards company, 261–262
Borlaug, Norman, 20
Boulton and Watt steam engines, 91, 94, 95, 96, 100
Bouazizi, Mohammed, 152
Bowland Shale formation (England), 244
Boyce, John, 44
Brains, 9–10
Brand, Stewart, 143, 257
Brattain, Walter, 122
Brayton, George, 23
Brazil, 179, 221, 226, 232, 233, 256
Breakthrough Institute, 50, 257
Bremmer, Ian, 267
Brito, Jerry, 137–138
Brookes, Tim, 15
Brookhaven National Laboratory, 255
Brooks, David, 163
Brower, David, 61–62
Bruckner, Pascal, 51
Brune, Michael, 275
Brunel, Isambard Kingdom, 74
Burden, Henry, 90
Burke, Tom, 75
Burman, Bob, 73(photo)
Bush, George W., 225, 265
Canal, Tami Monroe, 276
Canals, 89–90. See also Panama Canal
Capitalism, 62, 276
“Capitalism vs. the Climate” (Klein), 52
Carbon Crunch, The: How We’re Getting Climate Change Wrong—And How to Fix
it (Helm), 197, 219
Carbon dioxide, xx, 26, 32, 53, 55, 185, 187, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 211, 235, 236, 237, 242, 246, 256, 277
history of global emissions, 222
See also Climate change
Carlino, Gerald, 143
Carson, Rachel, 60–61
Cash, 129, 134, 135, 137. See also Paper money
Catastrophists, xxi, xxii, xxv, 49, 51, 146, 211, 275, 278
Catholic Church, 12, 28, 29
CAT scans, 165
CDs, 125, 128
Cell phones, 38, 39, 132, 152, 156
Motorola’s DynaTAC 8000X and Samsung Galaxy S3, 158
Samsung E250, 132
towers for, 206
Censorship, 153, 155(table), 157(caption)
Centennial Exhibition (1876), 96
Center for American Progress, 226
Chamberlain, Wilt, 30
Charen, Mona, 236
Chatham House, 231
Chernow, Ron, 94
Children, 150
China, 57, 134, 148, 153, 190(caption), 191, 192, 193, 196, 197, 219, 231, 239(caption), 264, 267–268, 269
natural gas in, 242–243, 273
Chivers, C. J., 17, 18
Cholera, 26
Christensen, Clayton, 161
Cities, 48, 141–145, 192, 240, 277
as green, 143
Civil War, 133(caption)
Clamadieu, Jean-Pierre, 270
Clark, Pilita, 235
Clean Energy Systems, 185–187
Climate change, xx, 32, 51, 54, 62, 192, 219, 223
and N2N (natural gas to nuclear), 235–246, 256
preparedness for, 239–240
See also Carbon dioxide
Clinton, Bill, 226
“Cloud Begins with Coal, The” (Mills)
Cloud computing. See under Computers
Club of Rome, 61, 180
Coal, xxi, xxv, 31–32, 90, 93, 118, 135, 188–199, 202, 217, 219, 237, 242, 247, 258, 271
first use of, 192, 249
global consumption of, 189–190, 190(graph), 237
imports of, 194
North Antelope Rochelle Mine (Wyoming), 188, 189(photo)
reserves of, 272
Upper Big Branch mine in West Virginia, 192
Collapse anxiety, xx–xxi, xxiii
Columbus, Christopher, 74
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), 153
Compagnie Universelle du Canal Interocéanique de Panama, 6
Computers, 106–120, 124, 162, 175, 177
cloud computing, 106–107, 109
ENIAC computer, 109, 110(photo), 113, 115
first general-purpose computer, 109
laptop battery fires, 203
MANIAC computer, 13(caption), 116–117, 116(photo)
random access memory (RAM), 117
Confederate States of America, 133(caption)
Conscious Capitalism (Mackey and Sisodia), 42
Consumption, 48, 52, 53, 56, 189, 272. See also under Oil
Copenhagen, 235
Coppi, Fauso, 83
Corkum, Paul, 67–71, 68(photo), 71
Corliss, George, 95–97
Corn, 230–231, 233. See also Ethanol
Corporations, 52
Corruption, 138–139, 267, 268
Costanza, Robert, 62–63
Costs, xxii, xxiii, 6, 11, 127, 174
of air travel, 22–23, 24(graph)
of cell phones, 158
of computing/computer storage, 107, 124
of electricity in US, 240, 241(table), 270, 271(table)
of fuel, 206
concerning Fukushima site in Japan, 252
of health care, 168
of industrial commodities, 44, 45(graph)
of microscopes and telescopes, 29
of Model T automobiles, 98
of nuclear reactors, 248, 257
of oil and gas production, 34, 174, 177
of patent trolls, 266
of school tuition, 160–161
of sequencing human genome, 166–167
of solar photovoltaic panels, 45, 46(graph)
of X-rays, 166
See also Prices
Cotton, 93, 268
Coursera, 163
Covidien company, 167–168
CPJ. See Committee to Protect Journalists
Creative Destruction of Medicine, The: How the Digital Revolution Will Create Better Health Care (Topol), 165, 168
Credit cards, 129, 131, 160
Crick, Francis, 70, 71
Cuba, 153
Curiosity Rover, xxiii
Curtiss JN-4 aircraft, 99
Cycling, 77. See also Bicycles; Tour de France
Daschle, Tom, 226
Dastoor, Sanjay, 262
Data-management companies, 39
DDT pesticide, 61(n)
Deans, Bob, 220
Deaths, 18–19, 41, 73(caption), 146
in automobile and air travel, 47
of bats and birds by wind turbines, 212–213
of coal miners, 192
in earthquake and tsunami in 2011, 252
Deepwater Horizon oil spill, 37
De Forest, Lee, 12, 16–17
Degrowth, xxi, 50–64, 211, 277
De La Rue company, 132
de La Salle, Jean-Baptiste, 162
de Lesseps, Ferdinand, 4, 6
de Meun, Jean, 59
Deming, David, 50
Democracy Index, 153
Demographics, 267, 268, 274
Denmark, 270
Density, xxii, 9, 53, 77, 122, 150, 182–184, 219, 234. See also Energy: energy density; Power density
Derailleurs, 80, 82
Descartes, René, 141
Developing countries, 42, 48, 132, 139, 148, 149, 156, 193, 195, 196(caption), 231, 239(caption)
Devon Energy, 171, 177
Diabetes, 167
Diddley, Bo, 15
Diesel, Rudolf, 21
Diesel engines/fuel, 21–26, 176(caption), 190, 206, 240, 243
soy biodiesel, 224–225
Digital communications, 37–40. See also Computers; Internet
Digital information storage, 108(graph)
Digital money/mobile payments, 131, 135, 136–140
Digital Motion X-Ray, 166
DiMaggio, Joe, 30
Disasters, 41, 240. See also Earthquakes; Fukushima Daiichi nuclear facility in Japan
Discourse Upon the Origin and the Foundation of the Inequality Among Mankind (Rousseau), 60
Diseases, xix, 26, 41, 167
DNA, 70, 166–167
Dollar currency, 268
Dom Pedro, 96
Doping, 77, 83–84
Draft horses, 87–88, 89(photo), 92
Dream of Innovation, The (Morris), 89
Drill bits, 33–37, 177, 178(photo)
Drilling rigs for oil, 171–177, 243, 244, 274
AC top-drive rig, 175, 176(photo), 177
Drought, xix, xx, 88
Drugs, 137, 138
Duke Energy, 213
Durgin, Scott, 188
Dylan, Bob, 14
Dyson, George, 112–113, 11, 115, 116(caption), 117
Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet (McKibben), 55
Eagles, 213
Earthquakes, 251, 252
Easterbrook, Gregg, xx
East Germany, 16
Eckert, J. Presper, 113
Economic issues, xx, 133(caption), 152, 268
downsizing the economy, 62
economic growth, xxv, 51, 53, 63, 85, 143, 212, 275, 277, 278 (see also Degrowth)
global economy, xxv, 21, 26, 37, 62, 143–144, 173–174, 219
See also GDP
Economist The, 38, 44
Edison, Thomas, 12, 30–33, 31(photo), 33, 126(photo), 127–128, 191, 202
Education, 12, 42, 48, 269
declining college enrollments, 161
education reform, 265, 266
online,
157, 159–163
Ehrlich, Paul, 61, 146, 180, 275
Ehsani, Mark, 9
Einstein, Albert, 70(n)
Electricity, 12, 30, 31, 32–33, 45, 57, 63, 98, 117, 142(photo), 162, 168, 176(caption), 185, 186, 188, 189, 194, 201(caption), 202, 248, 260
consumed by ENIAC computer, 113
consumed by tech companies, 118–119, 120
first use on a large scale, 8
global use of, 206, 221, 222, 237
and innovation, 191
shortages of, 193
use in Vietnam, 195–196
and wealth creation, 195(graph)
See also Batteries; Costs: of electricity in US
Electronic Frontier Foundation, 155
Electrons, 12 13(caption), 33, 67, 69, 190, 202
Emmanuelli, Jaime, 262, 263(photo), 264
Employment, 143, 264
Endoscopy, 165
endoscopic capsule, 167–168
Energy, xx, xxiii, xxv, 54, 270–271
energy density, 9(n), 21, 53, 244
energy independence, 227
energy policy, 211–234
energy poverty, 195, 196(caption), 237
energy starvation plan of Bill McKibben, 55–58
global demand, 46(caption), 232, 238–239, 239(graph)
green energy, 184(graph)
per-capita energy use, 58(graph)
renewable energy, 51, 52, 55, 57, 58, 59, 119, 174, 198–199, 211, 220, 225, 226, 249, 256, 270, 277
See also Biofuels; Electricity; Nuclear energy; Oil; Power; Solar energy; Wind energy
Energy Information Administration, 238, 273
Engines, 72, 76(caption), 85, 90, 92, 94, 237
Ford Eco-Boost engine, 102, 103, 104, 105
internal combustion engines, 23, 96, 98, 211
natural gas-fired, 240
See also Diesel engines/fuel; Power density: of automobile engines; Steam engines
ENIAC computer. See under Computers
Entrepreneurs, xxiii, xxv, 54, 89, 94, 106, 165, 207, 262, 264, 269, 276
Environmental Defense Fund, 220
Environmental issues, xx, xxii, xxiii, 61, 149, 277
environmental groups, xxi, xxii, 50–51, 62, 195, 219, 220
VOC emissions, 48
See also Climate change; Nuclear energy: embraced by environmentalists;
Pollution
Environmental Research Letters, 216
EPA. See United States: Environmental Protection Agency
Essay on the Principle of Population, An (Malthus), xx, 146
Ethanol, 212, 224, 225, 226, 228, 231, 233
European Platform Against Windfarms, 214
European Union, 134, 233, 267, 270, 273
Eusociality, 141
Evans, Cadel, 82
Evenson, Heath, 185, 186(photo)
Exceptionalism, American, 264
Explosives, 19, 20, 112
Facebook, 118, 152, 163
Fallows, James, 153
Fender, Leo, 14
Fertilizer, 19–20, 48, 147, 150, 273