Power Hungry
The Myths of 'Green' Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future
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Narrated by:
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Ax Norman
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By:
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Robert Bryce
About this listen
The promise of green jobs and a clean energy future has roused the masses. But as Robert Bryce makes clear in this provocative book, that vision needs a major re-vision. We cannot - and will not - quit using carbon-based fuels at any time in the near future for a simple reason: they provide the horsepower that we crave. The hard reality is that oil, coal, and natural gas are here to stay. Fueling our society requires more than sentiment and rhetoric; we need to make good decisions and smart investments based on facts.
In Power Hungry, Bryce provides a supertanker-load of facts while shepherding listeners through basic physics and math. And with the help of a panoply of vivid graphics and tables, he crushes a phalanx of energy myths, showing why renewables are not green, carbon capture and sequestration won't work, and even - surprise! - that the U.S. is leading the world in energy efficiency. He also charts the amazing growth of the fuels of the future: natural gas and nuclear. Power Hungry delivers a clear-eyed view of what America has in the tank, and what's needed to transform the gargantuan global energy sector.
©2010 Robert Bryce (P)2009 Audible, Inc.Listeners also enjoyed...
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Strongly Recommend
- By Kevin on 06-14-22
By: Alex Epstein
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The Third Industrial Revolution
- How Lateral Power Is Transforming Energy, the Economy, and the World
- By: Jeremy Rifkin
- Narrated by: Kevin Foley
- Length: 12 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
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Author Jeremy Rifkin presents an insider's account of the next great economic era: the Third Industrial Revolution, when a new ethic of sustainability will revolutionize the world we live in.
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Lamenting "The Third Industrial Revolution"
- By Joshua Kim on 05-01-12
By: Jeremy Rifkin
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It's Better Than It Looks
- By: Gregg Easterbrook
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 14 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Most people who pay attention to the news would tell you that 2017 is one of the worst years in recent memory. We're facing a series of deeply troubling, even existential problems: fascism, terrorism, environmental collapse, racial and economic inequality, and more. Yet this narrative misses something important: by almost every meaningful measure, the modern world is better than it ever has been. In the United States, disease, crime, discrimination, and most forms of pollution are in long-term decline, while longevity and education keep rising.
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Too political
- By Anonymous User on 07-12-18
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Apocalypse Never
- Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All
- By: Michael Shellenberger
- Narrated by: Stephen Graybill
- Length: 12 hrs and 18 mins
- Unabridged
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Michael Shellenberger has been fighting for a greener planet for decades. He helped save the world’s last unprotected redwoods. He co-created the predecessor to today’s Green New Deal. And he led a successful effort by climate scientists and activists to keep nuclear plants operating, preventing a spike of emissions. But in 2019, as some claimed "billions of people are going to die", contributing to rising anxiety, including among adolescents, Shellenberger decided that he needed to speak out to separate science from fiction.
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Environmentalist with integrity!
- By Wayne on 07-01-20
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Climate Change
- What Everyone Needs to Know
- By: Joseph Romm
- Narrated by: Paul Heitsch
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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From Joseph Romm, Chief Science Advisor for National Geographic's Years of Living Dangerously series and one of Rolling Stone's "100 people who are changing America," Climate Change offers user-friendly, scientifically rigorous answers to the most difficult (and commonly politicized) questions surrounding what climatologist Lonnie Thompson has deemed "a clear and present danger to civilization."
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Religious not scientific claims and preachings
- By Jeanne Renzo on 09-19-19
By: Joseph Romm
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Coal
- A Human History
- By: Barbara Freese
- Narrated by: Shelly Frasier
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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The fascinating, often surprising story of how a simple black rock altered the course of history. Yet the mundane mineral that built our global economy, and even today powers our electrical plants, has also caused death, disease, and environmental destruction. In this remarkable book, Barbara Freese takes us on a rich historical journey that begins three hundred million years ago and spans the globe.
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Uses Coal to push her Political Agenda
- By Kismet on 08-22-06
By: Barbara Freese
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Abundance
- The Future Is Better Than You Think
- By: Steven Kotler, Peter H. Diamandis
- Narrated by: Keith Sellon-Wright
- Length: 10 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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Space entrepreneur turned innovation pioneer Peter H. Diamandis and award-winning science writer Steven Kotler document how progress in artificial intelligence, robotics, digital manufacturing synthetic biology, and other exponentially growing technologies will enable us to make greater gains in the next two decades than we have in the previous 200 years.
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Perhaps multiply his time estimates by 10
- By Rick on 11-06-21
By: Steven Kotler, and others
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Getting Green Done
- Hard Truths From the Frontlines of Sustainability Revolution
- By: Auden Schendler
- Narrated by: Walter Dixon
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
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Soccer moms drive Priuses. Sport utility vehicles are going hybrid. Families are using hemp shopping bags. More and more companies are developing "green" buildings. What's more, the business consultants say going green is easy and profitable. In reality, though, many green-leaning businesses, families, and governments are still fiddling with the small stuff while the planet burns. Why?
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Green's Dirty Little Secrets
- By Martin on 07-10-09
By: Auden Schendler
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Jump-Starting America
- How Breakthrough Science Can Revive Economic Growth and the American Dream
- By: Jonathan Gruber, Simon Johnson
- Narrated by: Robert Fass
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
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The untold story of how America once created the most successful economy the world has ever seen and how we can do it again.
By: Jonathan Gruber, and others
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Climate Shock
- The Economic Consequences of a Hotter Planet
- By: Gernot Wagner, Martin L. Weitzman
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 4 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Wagner and Martin Weitzman explore in lively, clear terms the likely repercussions of a hotter planet, drawing on and expanding from work previously unavailable to general audiences. They show that the longer we wait to act, the more likely an extreme event will happen. A city might go underwater.
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Nuance, balance, risk management.
- By John Christens on 11-23-23
By: Gernot Wagner, and others
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Let There Be Water
- Israel's Solution for a Water-Starved World
- By: Seth M. Siegel
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 8 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
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Let There Be Water illustrates how Israel can serve as a model for the United States and countries everywhere by showing how to blunt the worst of the coming water calamities. Even with 60 percent of its country made of desert, Israel has not only solved its water problem; it also has an abundance of water. Israel even supplies water to its neighbors - the Palestinians and the Kingdom of Jordan - every day.
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More water politics story than water technology
- By normal person on 04-12-21
By: Seth M. Siegel
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The Upcycle
- Beyond Sustainability - Designing for Abundance
- By: William McDonough, Michael Braungart
- Narrated by: Alan Sklar
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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The Upcycle is the eagerly awaited follow-up to Cradle to Cradle, the most consequential ecological manifesto of our time. Now, drawing on the lessons gained from 10 years of putting the cradle-to-cradle concept into practice with businesses, governments, and ordinary people, William McDonough and Michael Braungart envision the next step in the solution to our ecological crisis: We don't just reuse resources with greater effectiveness, we actually improve them as we use them.
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A "must read" for the environmental movement.
- By Love owls on 07-09-13
By: William McDonough, and others
What listeners say about Power Hungry
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- jerome m.
- 01-17-22
A Lot of Great Information...But...
...If you follow this subject at some level (6-7 on a 10 scale) not a lot of new here. If you want to educate yourself and need a one stop read I suggest you consider this book.
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- Michael
- 08-13-13
Important but Imperfect
This author tries very hard to express the stark realities of the energy issues facing the US and the world. He tries to cut through the hype regarding most green technologies and present the current realities. This involves a lot of numbers and predictions that are not the most fun to listen to.
The author’s main point is, given the expected world energy needs, the only viable primary source of energy is NtoN (Natural Gas transitioning to Nuclear). He gives detailed analysis of each alternative and demonstrates, while each may have a place, none of the alternatives, individually or in combination, can come close to meeting the enormous expected energy demands as the third world rushes to first world energy use.
The author tries to be careful with numbers but minorly cuts corners in favor of fossil fuels and does not do so for alternatives (except Nuclear). For Nuclear, the author does not fairly address the real safety concerns from spent fuel to melt downs.
The author does not, but should have, addressed fairly how unexpected and transformative new technologies like fusion, new energy storage technologies, new energy transmission technologies, or radical energy production or saving technologies might have on his assumptions. If history is any guide the unexpected will likely make a huge different in our energy outlook.
Occasionally the author is a snarky about people he disagrees with (which the narrator expresses quite well). I really dislike such snarkiness in a persuasive piece; more so when I agree with the author.
With all my nits, I would recommend this book to anyone who really wants to understand the energy issues we will face in the future. If you think a transition or solar and wind is currently reasonable, you should definitely read this book then run the numbers for yourself in Excel
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7 people found this helpful
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- Sunitha Chandramohan
- 11-19-22
What's past is prologue
I want to give this book 5 stars even though I may not agree with author's thoughts towards Renewable Sources of Energy like Wind/Solar. The book is dated now and its evident from how far recent reviews were. However the information about coal/gasoline/natural gas is old enough to keep dated info minimal to wind/solar/EV advancements. The author has communicated a phenomenal amount of stats on the legacy and still ongoing energy sources. He outlined the difficulties in making wind and solar energy sustainable. That said, I also believe the author carefully downplayed the renewable sources of energy dismissing them as not feasible. If there's one thing that lacks big time over last 12 years is the advent of electric cars especially around Tesla's success and other promising vehicles coming and potentially improved battery technologies. I request author to redo the book with an update on what's latest on wind/solar/electric and nuclear. It's probably around 20 percent update. I enjoyed listening for over 3 weeks making the best out of my 75 min commute a day for work. I am tempted to get to know view points of opposite campaign and bought the one written by Gates
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- Papa
- 12-28-22
🐾🐾
Awesome and informative, succinct and complete. I’ll learn something more and more every time I read by this author. I must read for historical perspective on energy and power.🐾🐾
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- Christine
- 08-05-10
Enlightening, but Dense
Yes, there are a LOT of numbers, however this does not take away from the enlightening facts presented. I was completely ignorant to the fact that wind generators required a backup form of energy, making them far less efficient than everyone claims.
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1 person found this helpful
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- TIM D MCCRACKEN
- 06-23-23
Robert clearly explains the absurdity of 20+ years of bad energy policy.
Using facts and figures, rather than vague claims made by solar and wind lobbyists, Robert shows that nuclear energy, with a bridge of natural gas, is the only path forward to a carbon free future.
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- Tom Mahowald
- 05-21-10
Contrarian But Facual; A Thought Provoking Read
Working in the renewable energy field, I had a lot of questions on the "math of energy", and how to separate the fact from legend. I enjoyed this book from start to finish, although I had to go to the hard-copy occasionally when the facts & figures got to dense to absorb. The conclusion that "renewable energy" is not energy dense enough to replace coal/gas/oil, and that our future is is gas & nuclear makes mathematical sense, but left me feeling uneasy, with nuclear's cost & proliferation downside.Nothing comes without costs, I guess.
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6 people found this helpful
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- Michael Howard
- 05-05-10
Some truths about Green Power Generation
An excellent book hat makes one think about who or what really controls the fate of the U.S. economy, air quality and the future of electrical power generation. We as citizens of the U. S. and the world need to wake up to the facts as presented in this book. Mr. Bryce has turned my head around and I think he (Bryce) makes A LOT of sense.
Be warned; there loads of facts and comparative figures that it takes some time to absorb but the points are well presented.
Ax Norman does an excellent job with the narration
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5 people found this helpful
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- James
- 06-19-11
A pleasant…slap in the face!!
The only thing to add to the reviews here…Bryce cuts right to the chase. I usually can tell when the author puts his or her “unbiased” spin on material…but I have to give it to Bryce…I think he made genuine efforts to remain neutral, and provide real world solutions.
I have built many a “green” building…so much brown, black, and gray went into the construction…not to mention the exuberant costs!!...the only “green” on the job…went into the pockets of the engineers!! “Green” is now just propaganda…well intentioned…but we don’t have the technology to build “green” and cost effective.
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4 people found this helpful
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- James
- 09-26-15
Koch inspired hit piece on clean energy
Would you try another book from Robert Bryce and/or Ax Norman?
Never
Has Power Hungry turned you off from other books in this genre?
I liken Bryce's selective interpretation of evidence on green energy to Dick Cheney's conclusion that Iraq had WMD.
Which scene was your favorite?
The end of the book
What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?
Disbelief that a so called 'expert" could focus on one factor, energy density, as the most important factor of power generation. It's like saying I won't eat a whole apple because I can take a multivitamin. It's nonsense.
Any additional comments?
Robert Bryce should stop writing books.
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