The best books on energy policy

Our human obsession with power has roots in nature and evolution. The same goes for our efforts to limit power--whether through climate negotiations, nuclear arms treaties, or government programs to reduce economic inequality. But lately, we have gotten ourselves into a fix: fossil fuels have increased our power over nature (and one another) so much and so fast that we are putting future generations in peril. Meanwhile, economic inequality is growing throughout the world, destabilizing governments and making it harder to manage our vexing social problems. If we're going to survive this turbulent century we need to understand power much better--and this book aims to help readers do just that. 

If you don’t see the bicycle as part of the urban solution, you’re part of the problem. Nobody wants to be a problem, do they? This book is the repository for all my work experience, thinking, and philosophising about how we best can reestablish the bicycle as transport in our cities. From historical inspiration to best practice designs, with effective communication techniques and the value of direct observation thrown into the basket along the way.

Honestly, I couldn’t care less if you ride a bike or not. I’m not a cyclist at all. I just use a bike to get around. Let’s just understand why having high levels of citizen cyclists in cities is crucial in fighting our many urban ailments from the past car-centric century. And now we have the book to make it happen.

In an act of mourning over the death of my mother, Esther Bendik, this book was written as a year-long, personal, and philosophical reflection. Anyone who loves philosophy can get into it. Beginning in overwhelming anxiety, it ends with some understanding, directions for action, and excitement for political change. I like Christine J. Winter’s description:

“How does one become responsible to and with the smallest fleck of life and simultaneously all being that is planet earth? Bendik-Keymer's novel set of reflections moves us – the author in community with his readers – from moments of intimate contemplation and heartfelt anxiety to a place of stimulating possibility for reconfiguring nested sets of relationships that span from the hearth to the planetary, from colonial wrongdoing to intergenerational accountability.”

An accessible guide to our climate crisis. Carbon Choices will help you to understand climate change and nature loss and provides common-sense solutions before COP26, the global climate conference to be held in Glasgow. Section 1 introduces carbon dioxide, climate change, and the destruction of nature. A summary of the impacts of climate change and how we have created an environmental crisis. Section 2 introduces ten building blocks that are needed to lay the foundations to enable us to make better choices for the planet. Section 3 applies these building blocks to our everyday lives - our diets, homes, travel, shopping, and leisure. By doing so we can rewild nature, improve our society, be healthier, happier and lead more fulfilled lives. The future can be better. 

"I greatly look forward to reading it", Sir David Attenborough. 

What will it be like to live in cities powered by solar energy? Over the past century, fossil fuels have deeply influenced urban design and living, from lighted nightscapes and suburban sprawl to polluted environments in fenceline communities. How, in turn, will solar energy mark the future of cities? A collection of science fiction, art, and expert commentary on the future of urban solar design, Cities of Light tells the stories of diverse communities in four iconic US cities and their struggles to use solar energy to solve climate change and end injustice.

Through these stories, inspired by Italo Calvino’s Invisible Cities, Cities of Light deepens our understanding of the technologies that power urban life and their essential role in shaping the cities of tomorrow.

This book is free and you can get it here.

Off Grid Solar is a reference guide for builders of solar and battery projects. Written with a DIY mindset, this book establishes a familiarity with off grid equipment, such as solar panels, charge controllers, inverters, and battery systems. This book will help the reader make better decisions using a step-by-step process to build the right energy system for their needs. Design and build your own solar and battery system without the need to hire a solar installation company. 

American Horror Show describes the authoritarian personality and right-wing populism of Donald Trump and how he incarnates certain features of American Demagoguery that present a clear danger to US democracy. I demonstrate how Trump uses media spectacle, Twitter and social media, and his daily rallies with his base to organize a right-wing populist movement that sees Trump as its Leader. Finally, I investigate the number of pro-Russian members of Trump’s early administration, and his bond with Putin, raising questions of why a Republican President would be in thrall to a Kremlin KGB agent and thug, and asking whether Trump is Putin’s “Useful Idiot,” or his “Poodle,” whose policies and behavior Putin unduly influenced. I argue that Trump’s Authoritarian Presidency threatens the interests of U.S. democracy and our alliances with democratic allies.

This book examines the slide into a new Cold War in the Caribbean. The primary argument is that the Caribbean’s geopolitics have shifted from a period of relative great power disinterest in the aftermath of the Cold War to a gradual movement into a new Cold War in which a global rivalry between China and the U.S. is acted out regionally. This has led to a gradual polarization of countries in the Caribbean as they are increasingly pressured to choose between Beijing and Washington. In the 2020s the Caribbean is a region in play geopolitically, something which Caribbean countries are keenly aware of and willing to use the situation to manage competing great power interests.