文档介绍：http://pineheart./
This page intentionally left blank
Beyond Smoke and Mirrors
Climate Change and Energy in the 21st Century
What are the practical options for addressing global climate change?
How do we provide sustainable energy and electricity for a rapidly
growing world population?
Which energy provision options are good, bad, and indifferent?
One of the most important issues facing humanity today is the prospect
of global climate change, brought about primarily by our prolific energy use and
heavy dependence on fossil fuels. Continuing on our present course using the
present mix of fuels as the world economy and population grow will lead to very
serious consequences. There are many claims and counterclaims about what to
do to avert such potentially dire consequences. This has generated a fog of truths,
half-truths, and exaggerations, and many people are understandably confused
about these issues. The aim of this book is to help dispel the fog, and allow
citizens e to their own conclusions concerning the best options to avert
dangerous climate change by switching to more sustainable energy provision.
The book begins with posed and balanced discussion of the basics
of climate change: what we know, how we know it, what the uncertainties
are, and what causes it. There is no doubt that global warming is real; the
question is how bad we will allow things to get. The main part of the book
discusses how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and limit the global
temperature rise, including what the upper limit on greenhouse gases should
be, how fast we should go to cut emissions, and all of the energy options
being advocated to reduce those emissions. The many sensible, senseless, and
self-serving proposals are assessed.
Beyond Smoke and Mirrors provides an accessible and concise overview
of climate change science and current energy demand and supply patterns.
It presents a balanced view of how our heavy reliance on fos