Kick the Fossil Fuel Habit
10 Clean Technologies to Save Our World
Preface
By Tom Rand
It is sometimes claimed that we cannot do without fossil fuels. That is false.
When I first began writing this book, I didn't think we could break the fossil fuel habit - not in one generation, and certainly not without a great deal of nuclear power and what is optimistically called "clean coal." In exploring renewable technologies like large-scale solar, wind and geothermal, the engineer in me changed my mind. It is possible to change our energy use to 100% renewables. This book is a celebration of that idea.
But the pragmatic venture capitalist in me tempers that celebratory mood. To kick our fossil fuel habit, we'll need to deploy resources on a scale not seen since World War II, generate a degree of international political co-operation beyond anything we've yet done, and at the same time develop a new set of economic rules that finally put a prohibitive price on carbon.
These are daunting challenges. Why do it?
