Crossing the Energy Divide

The world is facing two immense and intimately linked challenges: we must move away from fossil fuels, and revive the global economy at the same time. If we continue our highly inefficient, dangerous energy usage, we’re headed straight for both economic and environmental catastrophe. However, the hard truth is that alternative fuels can’t fully replace fossil fuels for several decades. What’s more, new research indicates that energy inefficiencies are retarding economic growth even more than most experts ever realized. Crossing the Energy Divideis about solving all these problems at once. Robert Ayres, a leading expert in energy and environmental economics, shows how massive improvements in energy efficiency can bridge the global economy until the time that clean renewables can fully take over. The authors demonstrate how we can radically reform the way we manage our existing energy systems to double the amount of “energy service” we get from every drop of fossil fuel we use. These techniques don’t require scientific breakthroughs: thousands of companies and institutions are using them right now. What’s needed is a real energy management strategy: one that sweeps away ideological blind-spots, structural barriers, bad habits, and outmoded laws. The result will be lower carbon emissions, greater energy security, more jobs, and faster economic growth and this book offers a complete roadmap to get us there.