In the tradition of Rachel Carson and Eric Schlosser, the veteran journalist Jeff Goodell examines the danger behind President George W. Bush's recent assertion that coal is America's "economic destiny."
Despite a devastating, century-long legacy that has claimed millions of lives and ravaged the environment, coal has become hot again -- and will likely get hotter. In this penetrating analysis, Goodell debunks the faulty assumptions underlying coal's revival and shatters the myth of cheap coal energy. In a compelling blend of hard-hitting investigative reporting, history, and industry assessment, Goodell illuminates the stark economic imperatives America faces and the collusion of business and politics -- what is meant by "big coal" -- that have set us on the dangerous course toward reliance on this energy source.
Few of us realize that even today we burn a lump of coal every time we flip on a switch. Coal already supplies more than half the energy needed to power our iPods, laptops, lights -- anything we use that consumes electricity. Our desire to find a homegrown alternative to Mideast oil, the rising cost of oil and natural gas, and the fossil fuel-friendly mood in Washington will soon push our coal consumption through the roof. Because we have failed to develop alternative energy sources, coal has effectively become the default fuel for the twenty-first century.
More than 1/2 of the USA's electricity comes from coal.
The USA burns more than a billion tons of coal a year. That's an average of 20 lbs per person per day.
Coal plants account for 40% of carbon dioxide emissions in the USA.
Goodell presents a wealth of fascinating facts such as these in his well researched book, which does an excellent job of presenting the case without overloading the reader with scientific jargon or too much statistical information. (Reviewed by BookBrowse Review Team).
The New York Times - William Grimes
The United States has enjoyed a free energy ride for a century and more, and the coal companies have made out like bandits all along the way. Now the day of reckoning has come. We — and, in a just world, they — are going to pay a price, either today or tomorrow. Mr. Goodell, in this well-written, timely and powerful book, makes it crystal clear what the stakes are.
Publishers Weekly
Goodell has a talent for pithy argument-and the book fairly crackles with informed conviction.
Booklist - Gilbert Taylor
Goodell particularizes his objections in detail useful to those who closely follow environmental issues.
Library Journal
Tragically relevant.
Kirkus Reviews
The coal economy is little documented and not well understood, but his book makes a welcome corrective. Eye-opening and provocative.
More than 1/2 of the USA's electricity comes from coal.
The USA burns more than a billion tons a year - an average of 20 lbs per
person per day.
Coal plants account for 40% of carbon dioxide emissions in the USA.
According to alternate energy guru Amory Lovins of
The Rocky Mountain Institute,
by the time you mine the coal, haul it to the power plant, burn it,
and then send electricity over the wires to a light bulb, only about 3% of
the energy in a ton of coal is transformed into light. Just the energy
wasted by coal plants in the USA would be enough to power the entire
Japanese economy!
In the 1920s there were more than 700,000 USA coal miners, today there
are more florists than there are miners.
Waste from mountain-top removal mining (removing the mountain to reveal
the coal) in Appalachia alone has turned about 400,000 acres of once
biologically rich temperate forest into flat, barren wasteland.
A brilliant examination of the most challenging environmental and political crisis this civilization has ever faced, Gelbspan shows not only the seriousness of climate disruption, but also how it could be deflected at huge savings to the public.
'Offers an exquisite chronicle of the rise and fall of this bituminous black mineral.... Part history and part environmental argument, Freese's elegant book teaches an important lesson about the interdependence of humans and their natural environment both for good and ill throughout history.'
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