Feeding the Fire: The Lost History and Uncertain Future of Mankind's Energy Addi

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		Feeding the Fire: The Lost History and Uncertain Future of Mankind's Energy Addi
		Feeding the Fire: The Lost History and Uncertain Future of Mankind's Energy Addi

基本信息·出版社：Harmony
·页码：304 页
·出版日期：2007年05月
·ISBN：0307237443
·条形码：9780307237446
·装帧：精装
·正文语种：英语

内容简介 From the first spark created by human hands thousands of years ago, mankind has grown dependent on nature’s vast stores of energy to build, explore, and experiment. Our expanding knowledge and technologies have come from the felling of forests to the harnessing of wind and water, from the burning of coal and oil to tapping the energy of the atom. Energy does more than heat our homes and fill our gas tanks; it fuels our imaginations. Our future is inextricably linked to energy, and in this groundbreaking book, Mark Eberhart examines our historic quest for power and tackles the brutal realization that there are limits to the energy Earth can provide.

In Western society, we treat energy as a given—the background noise of modern life. But as worldwide energy demand grows, supplies are, at best, holding steady—and at worst, shrinking. The implications of our dependence are enormous. And while there is evidence that great cultures of the past—the Maya, Anasazi, Easter Islanders—collapsed when their energy resources were exhausted, Eberhart argues that we have the responsibility and the ability to develop renewable energy sources now.

Eberhart leads us on a tour through the history of energy, how it was formed and how it evolved, and reveals how we became energy-dependent creatures. With an unblinking eye, he takes a close look at the consequences of our energy appetite, and, most important, imagines a secure energy future that we can all play a part in achieving.

Enlightening, bold, and practical, Feeding the Fire weaves together history, science, and current affairs to create an important and compelling thesis about humanity’s energy needs—and draws a hard line on the imperative need to avert the catastrophe that looms if we continue on our present course.
作者简介 Mark E. Eberhart received his doctorate in materials science from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is currently a professor of chemistry and geochemistry at the Colorado School of Mines. He is the author of Why Things Break: Understanding the World by the Way It Comes Apart.
编辑推荐 From Publishers Weekly
The ancient Mayan city of Tikal died out, and London nearly met the same fate in the Middle Ages, because they exhausted their local energy sources. All humankind faces a similar situation today, says Eberhart (Why Things Break), but perhaps Americans have enough imagination to come up with alternative energy sources in time to save civilization and the planet. Unlike other commentators on the energy crisis, he steps back to consider the basic science—all the way back to the laws of thermodynamics and the principle of entropy. This discussion is enlivened by the chemistry professor's friendly tone and his gleeful recounting of early childhood experiments in creating explosives, but some readers may be understandably impatient to learn how all this background can be applied to the contemporary situation. When Eberhart, at the Colorado School of Mines, finally gets to that subject, his solution is admittedly broad. He suggests that the U.S. needs to create an "energy-industrial complex" to fully supply its needs by 2035, but offers little in the way of specific proposals beyond building more electric cars and providing economic incentives for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from factories. The science is fine, but more history and policy would have helped. (May)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Like the oft-quoted "Just say no!" antidrug slogan of the 1980s, platitudes aimed at ameliorating the current (and future) energy crisis are doomed to become little more than quaint cultural touchstones because, Eberhart explains, energy by its very nature doesn't lend itself to such simplistic nostrums. In fact, he says, essential misunderstanding of what constitutes energy, how it is created, how it can be used, and, more important, how it can be conserved is the primary obstacle to any effort to address the looming crisis. Embarking from a "you can't know where you're going if you don't know where you're coming from" premise, Eberhart offers a concise yet thorough background of the scientific principles behind every form of energy, illustrates how cultures are affected by their energy use and waste, and offers concrete advice on how governments can implement responsible energy policies. Through an approachable, conversational style, Eberhart shares his thought-provoking insights and reveals his unabashed passion for addressing this complex but critical subject. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


文摘 1

The Thinking man’s diet

At twelve, I was convinced I had stumbled upon the ultimate diet, and it was going to make me rich. I was a skinny kid who spent most of my adolescence combining Hostess Twinkies, instant pudding, heavy cream, lots of eggs, and cans of sweetened condensed milk in various high-caloric proportions in a tireless effort to bulk myself up—while the rest of my family struggled with their weight.

My stepfather swore by The Drinking Man’s Diet, the invention of Robert Cameron (aka Jeffrey Roberts), a San Francisco bon vivant and entrepreneur who marketed a “fun” diet in a fifty-page pamphlet that sold for one dollar in 1964. Predating Atkins by nine years, Cameron advocated healthy weight loss by reducing one’s consumption of carbohydrates, leaving dieters free to dine on porterhouse steaks, lobsters languishing in garlic butter, and salads smothered in Roquefort dressing. Cameron’s real genius was in recognizing that distilled spirits like vodka, gin, and whiskey contain only trace amounts of carbohydrates. Hence, there was no reason to abstain from a brandy after that Chateaubriand. In short, Cameron preached that it was possible to lose weight while eating, drinking, and making merry. So appealing was this message that in only two years’ time The Drinking Man’s Diet had been released in thirteen languages and sold 2.4 million copies. Cameron was set for life. At this writing, the still svelte ninety- something’s diet book is still in print.

If Cameron could get rich by inventing a diet, why couldn’t I? In addition to a diet simply working, it seemed a catchy name was essential to success. I would call mine The Thinking Man’s Diet.

Somewhere—I can’t remember where—I had learned that our brains consume more energy than our skeletal muscles. It was obvious: Think more and lose weight. I pictured a daily regimen where calisthe
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