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Prescription for the Planet: The Painless Remedy for Our Energy & Environmental Crises
 
 
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Prescription for the Planet: The Painless Remedy for Our Energy & Environmental Crises (Paperback)

~ Tom Blees (Author)
Key Phrases: hydrogen initiative, integral fast reactor, pyroprocessing facilities, United States, Three Mile Island, North Korea (more...)
4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
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Editorial Reviews

Product Description

An end to greenhouse gas emissions, a global framework to control nuclear proliferation, a preemptive remedy to looming water wars, and unlimited energy worldwide are just a few of the concrete solutions offered up in Tom Blees's brilliant and timely Prescription for the Planet. Everyone is worried about global warming, energy wars, resource depletion, and air pollution. But nobody has yet come up with a real plan to resolve these problems that can actually work-until now. Prescription for the Planet proposes a workable blueprint to virtually eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of this century and solve a host of other seemingly intractable global problems.

Solving our planet's most pressing dilemmas requires more than simply setting goals. We need a roadmap to reach them. Technologies that work fine on a small scale cannot necessarily be ramped up to global size. Worldwide environmental and social problems require a bold vision for the future that includes feasible planet-wide solutions with all the details. Prescription for the Planet explains how a trio of little-known yet profoundly revolutionary technologies, coupled with their judicious use in an atmosphere of global cooperation, can be the springboard that carries humanity to an era beyond scarcity. And with competition for previously scarce resources no longer an issue, the main incentives for warfare will be eliminated.

Explaining not only the means to solve our most pressing problems but how those solutions can painlessly lead to improving the standard of living of everyone on the planet, Blees's lucid and provocatively written Prescription for the Planet has arrived not a moment too soon. There is something here for everyone, be they a policymaker, environmental activist, or any concerned citizen hoping for a better future.



From the Author

Faced with global crises on all sides, national leaders and policymakers are either lost in denial or groping blindly for solutions. Will they desperately attempt to merely manage problems like global warming, pollution, and resource wars, or will they overturn the old order in favor of a new world paradigm that actually solves these problems and promises a better life for all?

Those policymakers who sound the alarm over these issues and declare sweeping goals like energy independence and drastic cuts in greenhouse gas emissions are hailed for their bold vision, yet none of them have offered a viable plan to reach those goals. But wishing will not make it so. We need real solutions, and we need them now.

Prescription for the Planet provides a roadmap to the post-scarcity era. It explains in clear and straightforward prose how three little-known technologies can be employed in a wondrous synergy to neutralize many of the most pressing dilemmas of our time. And unlike those who warn how painful their partial remedies will be, the way forward will not only be painless but will result in an improvement in the standard of living for everyone on the planet. From limitless and economical clean energy supplies to cheap zero-emission fuel for vehicles to recycling solutions that recover virtually everything without any extra effort on the part of individuals, Prescription for the Planet points the way to a future of almost unbelievable possibility. This is a call to transform the planet through a global energy and environmental revolution. You are cordially invited to participate.

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Product Details

  • Paperback: 422 pages
  • Publisher: BookSurge Publishing (September 16, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1419655825
  • ISBN-13: 978-1419655821
  • Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 1.2 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #203,692 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
hydrogen initiative, integral fast reactor, pyroprocessing facilities, energy embassy, energy embassies, boron recycling, plasma converters, thermal nuclear plants, thermal reactor fuel, boron car, plasma conversion, plasma burners, plasma plant, fossil fuel companies, breeder technology, passive safety systems, nuclear power research, thermal reactors, global warming gases, aerosol sulfates, fast reactors, nuclear batteries, boron oxide
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
United States, Three Mile Island, North Korea, Argonne National Laboratory, John Kerry, Department of Energy, Congressional Record, Graham Cowan, Yucca Mountain, Oak Ridge, International Atomic Energy Agency, Middle East, President Bush, Kyoto Accords, Third World, International Energy Agency, Sir Nicholas, Greg Palast, News International Edition, Charles Till, Lucie County, Grist Environmental News, Asian Brown Cloud, Geological Survey, Intergovernmental Panel
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26 of 31 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars IFRs and energy democracy, October 15, 2008
By G. Meyerson (Greensboro, North Carolina USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This book is a must read for people who want to be informed about our worsening energy and ecology crisis. Before I read this book, I was opposed to nuclear power for the usual reasons: weapons proliferation and the waste problem. But also because I had read that in fact nuclear power was not as clean as advertised nor as cost competitive as advertised and was, moreover, not a renewable form of energy, as it depends upon depleting stocks of uranium, which would become an especially acute problem in the event of "a nuclear renaissance." Before I read this book, I was also of the opinion that growth economies (meaning for now global capitalism) were in the process of becoming unsustainable, that, as a consequence, our global economy would itself unravel due to increasing energy costs and the inability of renewable technologies genuinely and humanely to solve the global transport problem of finding real replacements for the billions of gallons of gasoline consumed by the global economy, and the billions more gallons required to fuel the growth imperative. I was thus attracted to the most egalitarian versions of Richard Heinberg's power down/relocalization thesis.


Blees' book has turned many of my assumptions upside down and so anyone who shares these assumptions needs to read this book and come to terms with the implications of Blees' excellent arguments. To wit: the nuclear power provided by Integral Fast Reactors (IFR) can provide clean, safe and for all practical purposes renewable power for a growing economy provided this power is properly regulated (I'll return to this issue below). The transportation problems can be solved by burning boron as fuel (a 100% recyclable resource) and the waste problem inevitably caused by exponential growth can be at least partially solved by fully recycling all waste in plasma converters, which themselves can provide both significant power (the heat from these converters can turn a turbine to generate electricity) and important products: non toxic vitrified slag (which Blees notes can be used to refurbish ocean reefs), rock wool (to be used to insulate our houses--it is superior to fiber glass or cellulose) and clean syngas, which can assume the role played by petroleum in the production of products beyond fuel itself. Blees's discussion of how these three elements of a new energy economy can be introduced and integrated is detailed and convincing. Other forms of renewable energy can play a significant role also, though it is his argument that only IFRs can deal with the awesome scale problems of powering a global economy which would still need to grow. Tom's critique of biofuels is devastating and in line with the excellent critiques proferred by both the powerdown people and the red greens (John Bellamy Foster, Fred Magdoff); his critique of the "hydrogen economy" is also devastating (similar to critiques by Joseph Romm or David Strahan); his critique of a solar grand plan must be paid heed by solar enthusiasts of various political stripes.


The heart of this book, though, really resides with the plausibility of the IFR. His central argument is that these reactors can solve the principal problems plaguing other forms of nuclear power. It handles the nuclear waste problem by eating it to produce power: The nuclear waste would fire up the IFRs and our stocks of depleted uranium alone would keep the reactors going for a couple hundred years (factoring in substantial economic growth) due to the stunning efficiency of these reactors, an efficiency enabled by the fact that "a fast reactor can burn up virtually all of the uranium in the ore," not just one percent of the ore as in thermal reactors. This means no uranium mining and milling for hundreds of years.

The plutonium bred by the reactor will be fed back into it to produce more energy and cannot be weaponized due to the different pyroprocessing that occurs in the IFR reactor. In this process, plutonium is not isolated, a prerequisite to its weaponization. The IFR breeders can produce enough nonweaponizable plutonium to start up another IFR in seven years. Moreover, these reactors can be produced quickly (100 per year starting in 2015, with the goal of building 3500 by 2050)), according to Blees, with improvements in modular design, which would facilitate standardization, thus bringing down cost and construction lead time.

Importantly, nuclear accidents would be made virtually impossible due to the integration of "passive" safety features in the reactors, which rely on "the inherent physical properties of the reactor's components to shut it down." (129)

Blees is no shill for the nuclear industry and is in fact quite hostile to corporate power. He thinks that these IFRs must be both run and regulated by a globally accountable, international and public body of experts. Blees has in mind a global energy democracy in which profit would play minimal if any role. Blees realizes that democratizing energy in this way, including technology sharing, will be fought by vested interests. But he thinks that the severity of the climate crisis will persuade people of the necessity of global public ownership over energy resources. My greatest disagreements with this book focus on the scale of conflict that would emerge around such proposals. Blees' energy democracy is a great idea, but I doubt the ruling elites would go for it no matter how much sense it makes. Blees is banking on the unique character of the climate crisis to convert a significant sector of our elites to humanity's cause and not their class interests. Let's hope he's right, but I'm less optimistic that this revolution will be as "painless" as Blees suggests.

That said, Blees's solutions make possible the kind of relatively clean growth I did not think was possible under current global regimes. Still, if such a new energy regime as Blees proposes can solve the climate crisis, this is not to say, in my opinion, that a growth regime is fully compatible with a healthy planet and thus a healthy humanity. There are other resources crucial to us--the world's soils, forests and oceans come to mind--that a constantly expanding global economy can destroy even if we recycle all the world's garbage and stop global warming.

Before I read this book, I did not think contemporary global capitalism could sustain itself for long, due to its pathological inequity and its seeming inability to solve the energy and ecological challenge. Blees' book seems to offer immediate solutions to our energy and ecology problems while breathing new life into some kind of growth economy--whether that economy can rightly be called capitalist given its commitment to energy democracy and democratic planning is a question, perhaps, for Blees's next book.


I think it's hard to exaggerate the IMPORTANCE of this book. Those who are opposed to nuclear power have a responsibility to read and respond to Blees' arguments.

I hope that the book's uncanny timeliness--released in the midst of the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression, a fact that ought to open people's minds to his critique of the free market--allows it to have the mass impact that it deserves.
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16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The Way Foreward, September 20, 2008
Finally a plain spoken description of three existing technologies that are capable of solving America's problems of dependence on foreign oil, and the impacts of climate change.

Backed by the scientists and engineers who have developed these technologies, the author clearly lays out how the technologies interlock to close the waste cycle, thus precluding the need for further resource extraction. The application of these technologies worldwide have the potential to significantly attenuate the impacts of global warming. The implementation of these technologies has the potential to end the resource wars that currently dominate the geopolitical landscape of the 21st century.

If you are interested in solutions to our energy problems, and a real solution to world peace please consider reading, and passing on this book as it may be the most important text of the 21st century.
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13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars We need to take Tom Blees' pill!, September 20, 2008
This is it! A real solution. We need to get these ideas out there. We can solve our global warming, nuclear proliferation and waste, energy dependence, and pollution problems using existing technologies. Mr. Blees has clearly cracked the code - we just need to read this book and then push for these solutions.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars Pity about the politics
The author has brought together an account of some truly interesting technologies and for this I very much appreciated this book. Read more
Published 21 days ago by Terje Petersen

1.0 out of 5 stars Mediocre, poor conclusions that cannot be drawn from facts presented
I was traveling to Massachusetts from DC. I hate flying. Anyway, during the flight I went into the bathroom. As I sat down, I saw a book on the floor. Read more
Published 1 month ago by C. Mallory

1.0 out of 5 stars Waste of paper
This author has done more damage to the environment by wasting paper on this irresponsible and illogical stream of conscious riff. What are your qualifications? Read more
Published 1 month ago by Hannibal Hamlin

5.0 out of 5 stars prescription fo the planet
Tom Blees is correct with his warning at the beginning of his book: "Once you finish this book and realize that there are actually completely feasible near-term solutions to these... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Miriam Sacks

5.0 out of 5 stars Read this or kill us all.
Time is short. Read this. Share this. Talk it up with friends.

Respected NASA climatologist James Hansen appeared on the Charlie Rose show recently and recommended... Read more
Published 5 months ago by The Squandered Squire

5.0 out of 5 stars A must read for a dangerously ignorant public
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Published 7 months ago by Zachary Moitoza

5.0 out of 5 stars Finally, some common sense!
Tom Blees has written a very readable book in very understandable language that delivers a very sensible message about energy and its impact on our world. Read more
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5.0 out of 5 stars Outstanding Research and Clearly Articulated
I teach environmental politics to undergrads and post grads and will be recommending this book as one of the most important research resources for students interested in genuine,... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Haydon Manning

5.0 out of 5 stars NEW HOPE FOR OUR PLANET
THE BOOK THOROUGHLY COVERS THE INS AND OUTS OF PRODUCING OUR PLANETS ENERGY NEEDS WELL INTO 20050. THE SOLUTIONS ARE READILY AVAILABLE. Read more
Published 8 months ago by John Lynn

5.0 out of 5 stars Read then Share with Your Friends and Legislators
Recognizing that a business as usual approach will squander the time and opportunity we have, Mr. Blees lays out a comprehensive plan to address major global issues. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Borkenkat

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