13. Solutions

All the previous chapters have been leading up to a consideration of what is possible in the future as we transition away from fossil fuels and, in the shorter term, away from petroleum. We’ve now looked at all the available information about potential energy sources and the advantages and disadvantages of each of them. The tendency has been to champion one source as the complete solution, but the answer is unlikely to be as simple as that. To find our way through the complexities, we look at three scenarios that bracket the possibilities and can help us sort through all of them.

The simple answer to our energy dilemma

The simple answer to our energy problem is for Americans to learn to live happily using just 6% of our current ...

Get Powering the Future: A Scientist’s Guide to Energy Independence now with the O’Reilly learning platform.

O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.