Book Alert / Earth: The Sequel

Earth: The Sequel: The Race to Revinvent Energy and Stop Global Warming by Fred Krupp and Miriam Horn, Norton '08, $24.95, 279 pages, ISBN #0393066908. Index, resources, no source notes or illustrations.

Do I have a surprise for you! From the book's title, you expected a team of Cassandras to lay another guilt trip on you about not doing enough to combat global warming. Instead, the authors reveal how Americans' entrepreneurial spirit has already led them to do well by doing good in creating clean energy ventures.

A few examples: Finavera Renewables of Vancouver, B.C., "aims to produce electricity by harvesting the kinetic energy of ocean waves" and has already received the first federal operating permit for a wave energy plant. Chena Power of Chena, Alaska generates low-temperature geothermal power and taps the hot water bubbling from spent oil wells. And so on, with vignettes from companies pioneering in greenfuel technology, clean coal, solar thermal, and solar photovoltaic energy, among other fuel sources.

Fred Krupp is the president of the Environmental Defense Fund, and Miriam Horn, an EDF staffer, is also a writer and author. In a brief interview, Krupp spoke of the writing of this book:

Q. Why Earth: The Sequel?

A. We called the book Earth: The Sequel because we all know what is now: strengthening hurricanes, rising sea levels, droughts. The question is what is next: a total makeover of the $6 trillion world energy economy. New fortunes will be made, and the change will make the difference between dangerous global warming and a healthy future for our families.

Q. Is there a role for government?

A. Government needs to set a declining cap on global warming pollution. That single action will send businesses knocking on the door of these inventors to get them to scale up and commercialize their ideas at the speed that we and the Earth need.

Editor's note: Lest one conclude the authors are wild-eyed optimists, I note in my morning newspaper that the lower house of Connecticut's General Assembly, which until recently had turned a deaf ear to pleas to stop global warming, yesterday passed a bill to "drastically cut greenhouse gas emissions" by 131-16. Swift Senate passage and prompt enactment are expected. No doubt your own state has a measure in the hopper as well.