A novel textbook that answers the growing need for understanding how energy supply and consumption are linked with human welfare as well as economic growth and development. Since the beginning of time, human society has evolved through the use of various forms of energy including the burning of wood once our ancestors learned how to light a fire and then to the modern age when fossil fuels, nuclear and renewable sources of energy have become part of the world’s energy picture. What makes the subject of energy even more important are the environmental impacts of energy production and use, and now that the science of climate change has shown us the link between increase of carbon dioxide in the earth’s atmosphere and climate change, energy decisions need to respond to the global imperative of dealing with the challenge of climate change. The text also covers the historical evolution of energy production and use and the market as well as non-market forces which have brought about change over time. Special emphasis has been provided on changes in energy supply and expectations for the future, including solutions to the problem of energy poverty and lack of access to modern forms of energy for a large section of the human population. Following this is a detailed presentation of what human society and economic growth are doing to the earth’s environment in respect of land and soil, forests and biodiversity, all the bodies of water across the globe and the air that we breathe. The book also presents regulatory and other institutional structures by which the global commons and environmental quality are addressed effectively. Both quantitative and qualitative aspects of environmental damage and degradation are covered in depth.
The third part of the textbook deals with the science of climate change and how human society has been responsible for changing the earth’s climate, and what can be projected unless we deal with this challenge effectively. Some of the growing impacts of climate change are discussed in detail followed by solutions and the reduction of risks to human society and all living species through a set of adaptation and mitigation measures.
Foreword Erik Solheim
Table of contents
List of Tables
List of figures
I. Introduction
1. Historical Perspective
2. Separating the Wood from the Trees
3. Population, Development and Inequality
4. Economic Growth vs. Human Welfare
II. Evolution of Energy Use by Human Society What Lies Ahead
5. Analyzing Energy
6. Elements of energy supply and demand
7. The Age of Fossil Energy
Understanding the Demand for Energy
8. Energy and Sustainable Mobility
9. Energy Conversion
10. Problems and Prospects of Hydropower
11. The Future of Global Energy
III. Environment and Sustainability
12. The Ecological Dimensions of Development
13. Ethics and the Environment
14. Environmental Damage and Externalities
15. Forests for Ecological Benefits
16. Ecological Services and Biodiversity
17. Soil More Vulnerable Than Oil
18. Protectors of the Planet
19. Enlightened leadership
20. Information, Knowledge and Regulation
21. Living on Spaceship Earth
Edwin Dolans View
IV. Climate Change
22. The Drivers of Climate Change
23. Human beings and their energy consumption patterns
A Consumerist Society, Advertising and Lifestyles
24. Emissions of greenhouse gases and their sources
Drivers of GHG emissions, equity issues and differential responsibility
25. Observed Changes in the Climate System
26. Understanding the Climate System and Its Recent Changes
27. Future Global and Regional Climate Change
28. Climate System Projections and Critical Physical Changes
29. Future risks and impacts caused by climate change
30. Mitigation Pathways
V. Conclusions
31. The Road Ahead
32. Why Fundamental Changes is Essential
33. Values, Ethics and Youth Initiatives
References
Annotated Bibliography
R K Pachauri, Executive Vice Chairman, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), Habitat Place, Lodhi Road, New Delhi & Former Chairman, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), 2002-2015.
