The Global Energy Assessment (GEA) brings together over 300 international researchers to provide an independent, scientifically based, integrated and policy-relevant analysis of current and emerging energy issues and options. It has been peer-reviewed anonymously by an additional 200 international experts. The GEA assesses the major global challenges for sustainable development and their linkages to energy; the technologies and resources available for providing energy services; future energy systems that address the major challenges; and the policies and other measures that are needed to realize transformational change toward sustainable energy futures. The GEA goes beyond existing studies on energy issues by presenting a comprehensive and integrated analysis of energy chalenges, opportunities and strategies, for developing, industrialized and emerging economies. This volume is a invaluable resource for energy specialists and technologists in all sectors (academia, industry and government) as well as policymakers, development economists and practitioners in international organizations and national governments.

Global Energy Assessment: Toward a Sustainable Future

How Online Product Reviews Affect Retail Sales: A Meta-analysis

Urban ecosystem services are crucial for human well-being and the livability of cities. A central challenge for sustaining ecosystem services lies in addressing scale mismatches between ecological ...

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Scale-Crossing Brokers and Network Governance of Urban Ecosystem Services : The Case of Stockholm

The purpose of this review is examination of the present scenario of electricity production and investigation of whether an electricity powered world is possible, indicating which primary energy forms should be preferably utilized. Currently, most of the primary energy used by mankind, including that employed to generate electricity, comes from fossil fuels, which need to be phased out because they bring about severe damage to climate, environment, and human health and, additionally, their stock will be largely depleted during the present century. All the energy technologies poised to replace those based on fossil fuels, namely nuclear and renewables (wind, hydro, concentrated solar power, photovoltaics, biomass, geothermal, tidal, wave) essentially produce electricity, and this suggests that we will progressively shift to an electricity-based economy over the course of the 21st century. The economic, technical, ethical and social issues entangled with nuclear technologies and the unexpectedly fast expansion of renewable energies (particularly wind and solar) point to an increasingly important role of the latter in electricity generation. The present one way utility-to-customer energy system, designed over one century ago, will need substantial reshaping to enable the build up of a smart grid capable of dealing with variable renewable supply and fluctuating end-user demand by exchange of information between customer and utility. To accomplish this result, effort in research and development of storage devices and facilities on the small (e.g., batteries, capacitors) and large (e.g., pumped hydro, compressed air storage, electrolytic hydrogen) scale is needed. In the medium and long term, the expansion of electricity production will also likely lead to progressive replacement of internal combustion engines with electric motors in the automotive sector, accompanied by a shift from individual to mass transportation systems. We have still a long way out of the fossil fuel era, but this challenge can be won only if carbon-free electricity largely replaces the direct combustion of irreplaceable and climate-altering fossil fuel resources.

Towards an electricity-powered world

This book review describes Mayer-Schonberger's and Cukier's guide to big data as being one of the most accessible of the recent publications on the subject. It focuses on the culture changes that big data will bring, rather than technological or business areas, examining how 'datafication' will affect personal matters, such as relationships, experiences and moods. The authors claim that rather than getting data certainties in businesses, big data will actually lead to greater messiness and creativity.

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Big Data: A Revolution That Will Transform How We Live, Work, and Think

A review of the book "To Save Everything Click Here: The Folly of Technological Solutionism," by Evgeny Morozov is presented.

To save everything click here: The folly of technological solutionism.

To Save Everything Click Here

The article discusses a report by researcher and chair of the atmospheric science program at Indiana University, Sara Pryor, and colleagues who examined wind speed data from locations across the U.S. The focus of the research was to determine if global warming impacted wind speed. Topics include how reduced wind speed can impact turbines used to generate wind power, the economic impact of wind speed change in the wind energy industry, and what regions are experiencing the most variable winds.

The way the wind blows.

The article discusses harnessing nuclear fusion, which is the power source of the stars, for as a safe, clean, and unlimited source of energy. According to the author, skeptics question whether a functional reactor will be possible given the serious engineering challenges of constructing a nuclear fusion plant. An overview of the use of lasers in fusion and two major fusion facilities, the U.S. National Ignition Facility (NIF) and ITTR in France, is presented. INSETS: FUSION FROM MAGNETS;THE SHORT HISTORY OF FUSION;THE T TRICK;FUSION FROM LASERS

Fusion's false dawn.

A graph is presented which shows the amount of resources left on planet Earth, plotted against time, from 1976 through 2560 including water, minerals, and biodiversity of plants and animals.

Michael Moyer

Papers

To save everything click here: The folly of technological solutionism.

To Save Everything Click Here

The way the wind blows.

Fusion's false dawn.

How much is left