The Kyoto Protocol, the world's first tentative step towards avoiding the threat of climate change, has failed. We urgently need a new course of action.In Kyoto2 the author presents us with a strikingly original new solution. Using a system of finite production rights for greenhouse gases, which would be traded by organisations on a global auction, Kyoto2 seeks to succeed where the original agreement failed. Regulated by an independent body, the funds could be poured back into heal...

New revelations demonstrate how politics and powerful special-interest agendas have warped the most important scientific debate of the 21st century. Melting glaciers suffering polar bears rising oceansthese are just a few of the climate change crisis myths debunked by noted aerospace expert Larry Bell in this explosive new book. With meticulous research Bell deflates these and other climate misconceptions with perceptive analysis humor and the most recent scientific data. Written for the l...

The author of the #1 bestseller, The Weather Makers, pens "a brilliant examination of where we are with climate change and where we might be able to go" (The National Observer, Vancouver).Almost two decades ago, Tim Flannery's #1 international bestseller, The Weather Makers, was one of the first books to break the topic of climate change out into the general conversation. Today, Earth's climate system is fast approaching a crisis. Politic...

The Burning Question reveals climate change to be the most fascinating scientific, political and social puzzle in history. It shows that carbon emissions are still accelerating upwards, following an exponential curve that goes back centuries. One reason is that saving energy is like squeezing a balloon: reductions in one place lead to increases elsewhere. Another reason is that clean energy sources don't in themselves slow the rate of fossil fuel extraction.Tackling global...

“Lucid, quietly urgent, and relentlessly logical . . . this is Bigthink with a capital B.” —The New York Times Book Review“Common Wealth explains the most basic economic reckoning that the world faces.” —Al Gore, winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize and former vice president of the United StatesIn Common Wealth, Jeffrey D. Sachs-one of the world's most respected economists and the author of The New York Times

"We are now so abusing the Earth that it may rise and move back to the hot state it was in fifty-five million years ago, and if it does, most of us, and our descendants, will die."-James Lovelock, leading climate expert and author of The Revenge of Gaia"I don't see why people are so worried about global warming destroying the planet - peak oil will take care of that."-Matthew Simmons, energy investment banker and author of Tw...

Climate change is profoundly altering our world in ways that pose major risks to human societies and natural systems. We have entered the Climate Casino and are rolling the global-warming dice, warns economist William Nordhaus. But there is still time to turn around and walk back out of the casino, and in this essential book the author explains how. Bringing together all the important issues surrounding the climate debate, Nordhaus describes the science, economics, ...

If environmental protection is costly, how much should we spend on pollution control? Is it worth reducing pollution to zero, or should we accept some level of pollution because of the economic benefits associated with it? How can we assess the benefits that people get from a less-polluted atmosphere? In broad terms, environmental economics looks at how economic activity and policy affect the environment in which we live. Some production generates pollution, such as power station emissions...

There is a growing consensus that the planet is heading toward environmental catastrophe: climate change, ocean acidification, ozone depletion, global freshwater use, loss of biodiversity, and chemical pollution all threaten our future unless we act. What is less clear is how humanity should respond. The contemporary environmental movement is the site of many competing plans and prescriptions, and composed of a diverse set of actors, from militant activists to corporate chief executives.

Climate change. Finite fossil fuels. Fresh water depletion. Rising commodity prices. Ocean acidification. Overpopulation. Deforestation. Feeding the world’s billions. We’re beset by an array of natural resource and environmental challenges. They pose a tremendous risk to human prosperity, to world peace, and to the planet itself. Yet, if we act, these problems are addressable. Throughout history we’ve overcome similar problems, but only when we’ve focused our energies on innovation. For th...

Global warming, energy shortages, overpopulation — it's no wonder that as a society, we're in an apocalyptic mood. Out of an endless stream of gloomy prognoses for humanity's future, we have emerged with little inspiration and few concrete ideas for change. Our Way Out is the first time that our most urgent global challenges have been treated as aspects of a single, larger crisis — and the first to acknowledge that while crises reinforce each other, solutions enable each o...

An objective, comprehensive, and accessible examination of today's most crucial problem: preserving the environment in the face of society's insatiable demand for energy.In Energy at the Crossroads, Vaclav Smil considers the twenty-first century's crucial question: how to reconcile the modern world's unceasing demand for energy with the absolute necessity to preserve the integrity of the biosphere. With this book he offers a comprehensive, accessible guide...