Most of the chapters from our 2012 books ENERGY and The ENERGY Reader are now available online for free.

Contents

Part I. A Deeper Look at the Energy Picture

INTRODUCTION: Energy Literacy

Part II. The Predicament

INTRODUCTION: Energy, Nature, and the Eco-Social Crisis

Five Carbon Pools, Wes Jackson

Faustian Economics: Hell Hath No Limits, Wendell Berry

Life-Affirming Beauty, Sandra B. Lubarsky

Our Global Ponzi Economy, Lester R. Brown

Coal: The Greatest Threat to Civilization, James Hansen

The View from Oil’s Peak, Richard Heinberg

Energy Return on Investment, Charles A. S. Hall,

Alternative Energy Challenges, David Fridley

When Risk Assessment Is Risky: Predicting the Effects of Technology, David Ehrenfeld

Malevolent and Malignant Threats, R. James Woolsey

Progress vs. Apocalypse: The Stories We Tell Ourselves, John Michael Greer

Part III. The Landscape of Energy

A Tour of the Energy Terrain, David Murphy

Part IV. False Solutions

INTRODUCTION: False Solutions to the Energy Challenge

Drill Baby Drill: Why It Won’t Work for Long-Term Energy Sustainability, David Hughes

Nuclear Power and the Earth, Richard Bell

The False Promise of “Clean” Coal, Jeff Goodell

The Whole Fracking Enchilada, Sandra Steingraber

River Killers: The False Solution of Megadams, Juan Pablo Orrego

Bioenergy: A Disaster for Biodiversity, Health, and Human Rights, Rachel Smolker

Oil Shale Development: Looming Threat to Western Wildlands, George Wuerthner

Gas Hydrates: A Dangerously Large Source of Unconventional Hydrocarbons, George Wuerthner

Regulatory Illusion, Brian L. Horesji

Retooling the Planet: The False Promise of Geoengineering, ETC Group

Part V. Under Attack

INTRODUCTION: Onslaught of the Energy Machine

Will Drilling Spell the End of a Quintessential American Landscape?, Erik Molvar

Backing the Front: Fighting Oil and Gas Development in Montana’s Rocky Mountain Front, Gloria Flora

Tar Sands, Pipelines, and the Threat to First Nations, Winona LaDuke, with Martin Curry

Sweet and Sour: The Curse of Oil in the Niger Delta, Michael Watts

Outsourcing Pollution and Energy-Intensive Production, Vandana Shiva

Part VI. Depowering Destruction

INTRODUCTION: Toward an Energy Economy as if Nature Mattered

The Case for Conservation, Richard Heinberg

Reinventing Fire, Amory B. Lovins

Cap the Grid, Robert E. King

Protected Areas: Foundation of a Better Future Relationship with Energy, Harvey Locke

Three Steps to Establish a Politics of Global Warming, Bill McKibben

Distributed Renewable Generation: Why It Should Be the Centerpiece of U.S. Energy Policy, Sheila Bowers and Bill Powers

No Ecological Sustainability without Limits to Growth, Philip Cafaro

Part VII. What We’re for

A New Vision

AFTERWORD: Places Where the Wind Carries the Ashes of Ancestors, Lisi Krall