First let me start off by saying that this is a very good book. I enjoyed reading it a great deal. It is well written with an easy tempo in which the details are not boring. This is engaging subject matter and while other authors on this topic put me right to sleep with their droning on and on, Mr. Roberts does not. He has the engaging style of a good story teller. While there are a few rays of hope outlined in the work, I have this feeling that the worst predictions will happen long before the so called powers that be will come to the worlds rescue and clean up their act. The scariest part of this story is that the worst is actually unfolding right before our very eyes and every one of us called "Earthling" will be affected.
I do have a few bones to pick.
Mr. Roberts, like many mainstream authors and news people, still refer to nuclear Energy as "Clean Energy" On page 175 specifically he uses the phrase "nuclear is clean, after all" and he puts this phrase into parentheses as if to remind the reader of something so obvious that it might be overlooked. I would just like to point out that nuclear energy is not clean energy. One can only accept the clean nuclear energy theory if one ignores the entire process of mining uranium ore and then the processing of it into an enriched state so it can be used as fuel in a reactor. The smoke may not be belching out of the exhaust stack at the reactor itself but it did belch out of the exhaust pipes of the mining equipment used to gather the raw material and the coal fired power plants that made the electricity necessary for the milling and enrichment process. If you can wrap your thoughts around this process you will see that nuclear energy is very carbon intense. If, dear reader, you don't want to take my word for it and I encourage you to not take my word, I would refer you to the works of Dr. Helen Caldicott.
Second, I don't think that Mr. Hugo Chavez, "Elected" President of Venezuela, is anti-American or unstable as the author writes on more than one occasion. I think that Mr. Chavez developed his distaste for US President George Bush after the latter President used the CIA to try and wipe out the former President. I know that the two of them have radically different political philosophies however I feel that any country in need of funding which has an abundance of anything valuable like oil and natural gas would be happy to sell it in a free, open world market. Which is what Venezuela has been doing right along. I can't blame Mr. Chavez for his dislike and mistrust of the current US executive branch and its' illegal activities towards his country because frankly, Bush and his illegal dealings in this country have me nervous too.
Other than that there are a few minor things. Mr. Roberts says nothing about Bio-Diesel and its use by many European bus fleets. The benefit being that Bio-diesel is available now, it works with current technology and it has the benefit of reducing the sooty diesel exhaust emissions drastically for relatively little expense. There are several mentions on the general subject of renewable fuels but nothing too detailed. There is much focus on gas as a bridge fuel.
Over all I have to say I enjoyed this book. The opening chapters on energy history were excellent. I hadn't had the subject put to me in such an engaging way.
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