At Issue Series - What Energy Sources Should Be Pursued? [Paperback]

Stuart Kallen (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 22, 2004

Modern society's utilization of fossil fuels has provided humanity with great benefits and many unintended consequences. What Energy Sources Should Be Pursued? examines the good and the bad inherent in all power sources including oil, nuclear, solar, hydrogen fuel cells, windmills, and others. (20020801)

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The topic is intriguing, and the generally vehement tome of the selections provides much for students to ponder and debate."
-- Booklist (Febraury 2003) (Booklist 20020701)

"This book is great for debate material or as a writing prompt for persuasive essays. This collection is for mature readers with the critical-thinking skills needed to understand and evaluate the materials."
-- School Library Journal (August 2002) (School Library Journal 20020615)

"The book should prove useful for research papers or debates. This is a reasoned and relatively neutral treatment."
-- School Library Journal (July 2002) (School Library Journal 20020601)

"Contributors include doctors, psychiatrists, and members of activist groups...Arguments, which are accompanied by references are well presented and occasionally quite riveting. Lots of opinion and information worth further examination."
-- Booklist (June 2002) (Booklist 20020515)

"A wealth of diagrams and illustrations helps clarify the procedures and principles essential to understanding the discussions."
-- School Library Journal (June 2002) (School Library Journal 20020401)

"Throughout this text keeps arguments even-tempered, information straightforward, and details unsensationalized."
-- Booklist (May 2002) (Booklist 20010401)

"Greenhaven's anthologies provide pertinent, original source material for researchers who are interested in varied perpectives on controversial topics. Most middle and high school libraries have books in their collections that deal with these issues, but few do so in such a clearly differentiatied, balanced manner. These slim volumes...complement and balance books that purport to deal with the topics in general or that present only one viewpoint. Recommended."
-- The Book Report (March-April 2002) (Book Report 20010401)

"Among the books many strengths is its inclusion of diverse, opinionated essayists who come from many professions and have varying expertise."
-- Booklist (April 2001) (Booklist 20010315)

"For readers who prefer to know both sides of a perspective, Greenhaven Press presents a new series - At Issue. Experts offer their opinions on controversial subjects facing our society today. The At Issue series is for the discerning reader. If you want to be well versed and understanding on a specific topic, this series will open your mind on the many sides of an issue."
-- Eclectic Book Reviews (January-April 2001) (UNKNOWN 20010101)

"Collection of starkly personal essays...First person accounts then take readers on some startling and intimate journeys. A few essays are more analytical...Some are impassioned views...In all cases, the writers include vivid details and some eye-opening viewpoints."
-- Booklist (March 2001) (Booklist 20000601)

"This series on current issues provides full-length articles that offer a range of opinions of various controversial topics. The variety of opinions presented, along with the references provided, will help students get a sense of the various aspects of the issue and encourage critical thinking. Helpful for social studies classes and high school and public libraries, for students preparing term papers."
-- Kliatt (January 2001) (KLIATT )

"This debate in a book give a broad overiew of the subject by leading advocates on all sides. The writing tens toward the technical style of the journals represented, making this most appealing as a research source."
-- School Library Journal (June 2000) (School Library Journal ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 91 pages
• Publisher: Greenhaven (October 22, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0737727586
• ISBN-13: 978-0737727586
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,203,260 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lots of views, no differentiation, July 25, 2006

By 

David Diez (Boston, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: At Issue Series - What Energy Sources Should Be Pursued? (Paperback)

If you want two different views on several energy topics (oil, nuclear energy, solar power, wind power, and hydrogen technology) but are not concerned about if the views are well-based, this is the book for you.

The problem is that there are a lot of big claims from both sides in this book and only one of the claims can be right, but this book offers no (good) way to differentiate which claims are true and which are false. For example, we have two chapter titles, "The World's Oil Supply is Plentiful" and "The World is Running Out of Oil," each that have completely contradicting conclusions, yet we are left to figure out which is true and which is false.

On a couple of the articles you can figure out which is credible and which is not. For example, the wind energy articles ("The Use of Wind Energy Should be Increased" and, not joking, "The Use of Wind Energy Should Not be Increased"), we can figure out which seems to be knowledgable by reading them carefully. For the record, many of the claims of the "Not" article such as the extensive extrapolations lack credability; the writer tried to compare Denmark to the United States when the physical size of the U.S. would help alleviate the problems at issue. Also, the "Not" article rants on and on about how we should increase energy efficiency, which we should, but that isn't what the issue is about (the author goes completely off topic multiple times as if to try to show he has some important knowlege instead of showing he has knowledge about the topic).

Anyways, it is an interesting read, but I would recommend checking out a copy from the library (just skip it altogether), unless this is just for research about the two different sides of the issue with no reflection on what is fact and what isn't. I'm going to look elsewhere for another book.

Three stars is since, under scrutiny, you can figure out that a lot of the anti-renewable energy papers are a lot of fluff with a couple legitimite complaints that are being resolved.