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The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the Worldwide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth Paperback – August 25, 2003

by Jeremy Rifkin (Author)
4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 42 ratings
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The road to global security," writes Jeremy Rifkin, "lies in lessening our dependence on Middle East oil and making sure that all people on Earth have access to the energy they need to sustain life. Weaning the world off oil and turning it toward hydrogen is a promissory note for a safer world." Rifkin's international bestseller The Hydrogen Economy presents the clearest, most comprehensive case for moving ourselves away from the destructive and waning years of the oil era toward a new kind of energy regime. Hydrogen-one of the most abundant substances in the universe-holds the key, Rifkin argues, to a cleaner, safer, and more sustainable world.
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  1. Print length
    304 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    TarcherPerigee
  4. Publication date
    August 25, 2003
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 0.75 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1585422541
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1585422548
  8. See all details
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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

One of the most popular social thinkers of our time, Jeremy Rifkin is the bestselling author of The European Dream, The Hydrogen Economy, The Age of Access, The Biotech Century, and The End of Work. A fellow at the Wharton School's Executive Education Program, he is president of The Foundation on Economic Trends in Bethesda, MD.

Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ TarcherPerigee; 1st edition (August 25, 2003)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 304 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1585422541
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1585422548
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12 ounces
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 0.75 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 42 ratings

About the author

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Jeremy Rifkin

Jeremy Rifkin

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One of the most popular social thinkers of our time, Jeremy Rifkin is the bestselling author of The European Dream, The Hydrogen Economy, The Age of Access, The Biotech Century, and The End of Work. A fellow at the Wharton School's Executive Education Program and an adviser to several European Union heads of state, he is the president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Bethesda, Maryland.

Customer reviews

4.3 out of 5 stars
4.3 out of 5
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42 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

IPhone480
5.0 out of 5 stars great book, old book but a dynamite primer
Reviewed in the United States on May 28, 2021
Verified Purchase
Excellent to understand the long game without being bogged down with numbing math, physics and chemistry. I first read this book in 2002. I was transfixed. Now I am following actual deployment of so many technologies that will usher in a new age.
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Michael S.
5.0 out of 5 stars hydrogen
Reviewed in the United States on December 18, 2013
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an early take on hydrogen as a potential oil replacement. where there is surplus electricity there is the potential for hydrogen generation by splitting the water molecule.
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Brian
5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating ideas
Reviewed in the United States on May 20, 2012
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A great book with a novel concept on redesigning our energy infrastructure. Recommend to average reader or anyone interested in energy systems.
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Dianne Roberts
1.0 out of 5 stars Simply Awful - How Does this Guy Get to Keep Writing Books?
Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2005
I put this book down probably quicker than any other book I can think of in recent memory. It's simply awful.

I can't agree with even the paltry 2 or 3 star reviews who say that the first half of the book was good, but that it misses the point (as well as basic physics, thermodynamics, economics, . . . etc.)

Even the first half of this book is awful. The first chapter was the first sign that you're in trouble. It basically just lists a bunch of "stuff" that's going on: Globalization, Protesters in the streets against it, Telecommunications, Biotech, and . . . err . . . oh yeah, let's not forget 9/11 . . . and . . . Barbara Streisand isn't as good as she used to be, blah, blah, blah. I guess this is supposed to count for serious analysis because after just listing a bunch of trends he decries how there's been no serious analysis about Globalization. (Does this guy live under a rock!?!? Maybe an ivy covered one at Wharton where he apparently teaches . . . note to self: Don't get accepted to Wharton.) The rest of the first chapter describes the oil industry in terms starker than Orwell described Big Brother. But don't despair! The Hydrogen Energy Web will save us all! It will be like what the internet was for communications but for like energy or something like that, and it will destroy the evil oil companies, and it'll make everyone rich, we'll all be able to move back to countryside (I'm serious, he's basically claiming that), it will lay golden eggs, make your first born smarter and prettier, make your hair grow back, etc. Where will get the hydrogen? Oh it comes from stars or something, it's the most abundant element in the universe! OK, who will set up this web? (I'm not kidding here, again) Well, big corporations stole the internet before VOLUNTEER GROUPS could set it up, so we'll have VOLUNTEER GROUPS create the hydrogen energy web this time around. Oh, err, big companies will still be needed to, like, make all the hardware, and all the software (he actually concedes this point in a dismissive sentence), will be needed to send people out to fix any problems, to coordinate it, to, well, actually build it, but somehow it will be made by volunteer groups anyway and big companies won't really be a part of it. Even though they will be. But they won't. LOOK OVER THERE! A giant ball of oil company induced global warming is heading straight for us!!!

The second chapter is even better. He complains about how many classifications of oil reserves there are. With completely non-sensical names like "identified reserves", "non-identified reserves", and whatnot (boo-hoo, boo-hoo, there's just soooo many of them) he concludes that they can only have been created to confuse people so that the big oil executives and politicians can manipulate, confuse, and deceive the stupid masses into believing something or another about oil. (I was never quite certain what that was supposed to be. Oh well.) But not Mr. Rifkin! He's beaten them. He's defined "conventional oil" all himself, which excludes all oil that has been found but is currently uneconomical to extract and sell, all oil in polar regions, and all oil underneath the oceans. He does this to prove that we're running out of oil, and that the big oil companies are cooking the books. Tonight I'm going eat "conventional food" which will exclude all food in two thirds of the Kitchen, and all food in, say, the Living Room, to prove to my family that we're all going to starve to death. Don't tell me I'm wrong son! You're cooking the books!! Don't you see we're all going to DIE!

This book is not only awful, it's duplicitous. One of the few mentions of nuclear power is to say in two sentences basically: Utilities put a lot money into nuclear in the '60's and '70's. In the '80's the utilities made the consumer bear the brunt of a lot cost overruns and power plant shutdowns. The idea is to imply that nuclear power was a giant failure with a bunch of cost overruns and power plants that couldn't keep running. Both sentences might be technically true (because there's no mention of nuclear power in the second), but they're crafted to make you imply a conclusion without any specific evidence or argument.

Let's be clear: This book is a political diatribe. Big oil bad, Hydrogen good because it will do all these wonderful things. How will it do all these wonderful things? Some unconvincing arguments, red herrings, and incomplete and inconclusive examples and complete hypotheticals.

One of the biggest flaws is how it handles (or, more accurately, fails to) where hydrogen will come from, since it is not a primary energy source the way oil, coal, or nuclear is. It will take more energy to extract hydrogen from either natural gas or water than we will ever be able to get from the extracted hydrogen, thanks to the second law of thermodynamics. This is the critical question of what will replace oil, period, and only four pages are dedicated to it. The author's answer is solar. His argument for solar? Well, basically, solars's getting cheaper. That's not a complete argument! Is it FEASIBLE to power the world off solar? To power the United States off solar today would require a solar array the size of a small state! And you'd have to make another state size solar array to handle the growth in energy demand. God forbid the sun not shine one day. (Or maybe we'll have to invade the Middle East still because they have like 364 sunny days a year over there, leaving us at the mercy of the islamist anyway. Norway will probably invade Southern California too.) Solar by itself is getting cheaper, great, what about it's cost RELATIVE to other sources? There's zero discussion about using coal, or nuclear to power electrolysis of hydrogen.

This book is mostly a political posture. He puts forward a fantasy political vision, and tries to scare you into thinking it's the only thing that will save us from impending doom with some false techno-babble in lieu of any actual coherent plan or argument.

There are only two possible ways this book could help solve energy problems. One, you could burn it instead of heating oil this winter. Or two, if some magical invention could tap into all the hot air this author blows out his pipe we could use it to turn a turbine. Probably forever. I'm hoping for this latter option, but planning on the first.
56 people found this helpful
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epl53078
5.0 out of 5 stars A must read-why we must move to a hydrogen economy
Reviewed in the United States on June 18, 2007
This book details exactly why we must move away from our dependence on fossil fuels, from the geopolitical struggles to the environmental issues, and sets forth the absolute benefits for hydrogen based energy-it is 100% renewable, and the technology to harness it would equalize all members of the human race.

Does it give technical details as to how hydrogen energy could be harnessed? No. Those are details best left to the research scientists and the engineers. But it gives the general public all the reasons why we should be demanding our scientists and engineers develop this technology and then make it available to the general public.

Read this book because you want to equalize society. Read this book because you want to equalize the human race.
2 people found this helpful
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Mohamed Alhaj
4.0 out of 5 stars Good but falls short of the title
Reviewed in the United States on July 8, 2015
The best thing about Rifkin's books is that they always start from the past, then pass by the present, then end with the future. This makes his books very readable and provides an excellent context for his arguments. I gave this book a 4 star rating instead of a 5 star rating because it fell short of it's title. He only devoted 1 out of 9 chapters to hydrogen and even then did not provide a detailed vision. Nonetheless, examining the changing ratio of hydrogen to carbon atoms with each succeeding energy source in history provides the most compelling prediction for hydrogen as our future energy source:

Wood = 1 hydrogen : 10 carbon
Coal = 5 hydrogen : 10 carbon
Oil = 20 hydrogen : 10 carbon
Natural Gas = 40 hydrogen : 10 carbon

The question then becomes, how to organize an integrated & efficient energy flow system to make use of hydrogen? This is were Rifkin falls short, bearing in mind that this book was published in 2002. Rifkin has another more recent book "The 3rd Industrial Revolution" where his vision is more articulated.

My own vision for a Hydrogen Economy is a little more futuristic:

1) Hydrogen Cold Fusion ... the ultimate generation of electricity
2) Wireless Transmission ... the ultimate distribution of electricity
3) Solid State Batteries ... the ultimate storage of electricity
One person found this helpful
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Marco Bing
5.0 out of 5 stars Parfait !
Reviewed in France on November 1, 2018
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Le livre est arrivé en très bon état et à l'heure ... parfait !
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シリウス７
4.0 out of 5 stars 迅速に対応していただきました。
Reviewed in Japan on June 22, 2018
Verified Purchase
かなりボリュームのある本です。翻訳されたものなので、理解に一苦労でしたが、内容は充実していました。
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あまぞん
3.0 out of 5 stars エネルギーを融通しあう社会
Reviewed in Japan on March 19, 2007
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昔はマキが各家にあって貴重なエネルギー源でした。将来は昔のようにエネルギーをみんなが持っていてそれを融通しあうという話がなるほどでした。
4 people found this helpful
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