The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the World-Wide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth
by Jeremy Rifkin
On This Page
Description
In The Hydrogen Economy, best-selling author Jeremy Rifkintakes us on an eye-opening journey into the next great commercialera in history. He envisions the dawn of a new economy powered byhydrogen that will fundamentally change the nature of our market,political and social institutions, just as coal and steam power didat the beginning of the industrial age. Rifkin observes that we are fast approaching a criticalwatershed for the fossil-fuel era, with potentially direconsequences for show more industrial civilization. Experts had been sayingthat we had another forty or so years of cheap available crude oilleft. Now, however, some of the world?s leading petroleumgeologists are suggesting that global oil production could peak andbegin a steep decline much sooner, as early as the end of thisdecade, sending oil prices through the roof. While the fossil fuel era is entering its sunset years, a newenergy regime is being born that has the potential to remakecivilization. Hydrogen is the most basic and ubiquitous element inthe universe. It is the stuff of the stars and of our sun and, whenproperly harnessed, it is the ?forever fuel.? It neverruns out and produces no harmful CO2 emissions. Commercialfuel-cells powered by hydrogen are just now being introduced intothe market for home, office and industrial use. The majorautomakers have spent more than two billion dollars developinghydrogen cars, buses, and trucks, and the first mass-producedvehicles are expected to be on the road in just a few years. In the new era, says Rifkin, every human being could become theproducer as well as the consumer of his or her own energy ?so called ?distributed generation.? When millions ofend-users connect their fuel-cells into local, regional, andnational hydrogen energy webs (HEWs), using the same designprinciples and smart technologies that made possible the World WideWeb, they can begin to share energy ? peer-to-peer ?creating a new decentralized form of energy use. Hydrogen has the potential to end the world?s reliance onimported oil and help diffuse the dangerous geopolitical game beingplayed out between Muslim militants and Western nations. It willdramatically cut down on carbon dioxide emissions and mitigate theeffects of global warming. And because hydrogen is so plentiful andexists everywhere on earth, every human being could be?empowered,? making it the first truly democraticenergy regime in history. show lessTags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
Excellent book that I used to write a paper on hydrogen fuel cell technology. The most startling thing is that if all the cars in the US were HFC, and the HFC were self-sustaining (which is one of two options, the other being you have to go to a pump to get more hydrogen fuel), then we could all plug are cars in when we're not driving them and get rid of almost all power plants. However, self-sustaining doesn't make you buy anything so the oil and auto companies probably won't go that route even though it would be better in the long run.
Great book
Come sempre l'economista Rifkin riesce a rendere interessante un argomento all'apparenzanoioso. Fornisce una visione del futuro drammatica ma purtroppo realistica.
Nov 13, 2009Italian
indrukwekkend boek, schetst een ontwikkeling waar ik wel stil van wordt, de aarde heeft miljoenen jaren nodig gehad om de bodemschatten aan te maken en wij maken ze in amper 250 jaar op!! Hier mogen we wel eens over gaan nadenken en vooral wat aan doen.
Mar 10, 2009Dutch
Ratings
Members
- Recently Added By
Lists
La Bibliothèque Mediapart de l’économie
62 works; 1 member
Author Information
50+ Works 4,473 Members
Jeremy Rifkin is president of the Foundation on Economic Trends and the author of 19 bestselling books that have been translated into, more than 35 languages. Rifkin serves as an adviser to the European Union and to heads of state around the world. He is chairman of the Third Industrial Revolution Global CEO Business Roundtable, which includes show more many of the world's leading Fortune 500 companies. Rifkin is also a senior lecturer at the Wharton Schools Executive Education Program at the University or Pennsylvania. show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the World-Wide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 332
- Popularity
- 95,106
- Reviews
- 4
- Rating
- (3.39)
- Languages
- 7 — Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 15
- ASINs
- 5
