Product Description

A concise, authoritative, and confrontational challenge to the accepted \”wisdoms\” about the future of energy, complete with post-Obama victory notes
“If the world could be more thoughtful about energy supply, we could all afford to be thoughtless about our personal use of energy.”

At last, this cogent, widely researched analysis of the future of energy will enable readers to distinguish fact from fiction. Rather than disputing the nature and extent of climate change, this treatise analyzes humanity\’s response to it; examining why we have so far failed to deliver an intelligent response to the problem, investigating the intellectual origins of humankind’s pessimism in the face of global warming, and exploring the global, political, and economic factors constraining the development of solutions.

It also puts forward the question of what framework societies should be adopting to create a future where there is energy for all, not just the affluent West. Hugely controversial and challenging, this guide to the issues surrounding global warming will create a new level of discussion on the energy issue.

About the Author

James Woudhuysen is a physics graduate, a columnist for IT Week and Professor of Forecasting and Innovation at De Montfort University, Leicester. In the late 1980s he was head of research at the international designers Fitch, and in the early and mid 1990s, he led consulting in IT at the Henley Centre.

He went on to manage worldwide market intelligence for Philips consumer electronics in the Netherlands, and to work as a director of the product designers Seymour Powell. He frequently broadcasts on BBC radio and TV, and lectures in America and throughout the world. Joe Kaplinsky followed his degree in physics with research in low temperature physics and now works on research on biophysics.

For six years he has worked as an analyst with Victor Green & Co., providing research for companies in Europe and the US on a diverse range of energy technologies including oil drilling; handling of nuclear waste; coal liquefaction; gas turbines; and power management in consumer electronics.