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The Tipping Point:
Opportunities in the Coming Energy Revolution
The Tipping Point
is conceived to be written for everyday readers, and explains, in simple
terms, why an energy revolution is upon us. The book is the brainchild
of Harvard-trained investment banker
William Knoke,
author of international bestseller
Bold New World: The
Essential Road Map to the Twenty-First Century now translated
into 12 languages.
The Tipping Point
takes the controversial position that the world is not on
the verge of a fossil fuel shortage. Historically, as prices have
risen, new technologies and reserves are found, even when all hope is
lost that stocks will run out. Despite the power of OPEC in
manipulating prices, the underlying costs of extracting fuels remain
remarkably cheap compared to their usefulness. Left unchecked, the
increased use of coal and petroleum seems inevitable, resulting in an
increasingly severe environmental problems.
To Knoke, the solution is
in technology. His seminal work provides a tour de force showing how
technology is consistently lowering the costs of alternate sources of
energy. Ultimately, it is these incremental technological advances that
will win the global war against fossil fuels, and allow us to remove
manmade carbon dioxide from being a cause for global warming.
Knoke opens with a
colorful history of energy, highlighting
pivotal turning points in our evolution by putting a face to key events
spanning Faraday to Edison, from Hughes to Einstein. Each person has moved us inexorably forward, but the story is still
unfolding. The main thrust of the book is the stunning
advances currently underway in photovoltaics, wind turbines, biomass, and more; each providing lockstep price advantages, only
just now about to hit the marketplace. These extraordinary technologies,
looked at through Knoke's trained investment-banker eye, are seen to be advancing faster than those in
fossil fuels. We are
about to enter… a tipping point, a major shift in how the engines of
progress are powered. He identifies the winners and losers, the
appropriate public policy, and how all of us can benefit from the
opportunities just ahead.
The Tipping Point
is conceived to follow best-seller formats. The design is rich in
colorful stories about real people and companies building beachheads for the coming revolution. The book is meant to
fill a void between the unreadable techno-jargon books (with words like
“quads” and “megajoules”) and impractical eco books (with pleas for
everyone to bicycle). The Tipping Point makes arguments for
change based on the all-predictable effect of self-interest: the
emerging energy structure will be cheaper, more diversified, more
stable, and healthier than anything yet experienced.
Knoke unveils the pathway to the
tectonic shifts just around the corner. The Tipping Point concludes with
opportunities for investors, users, politicians and entire new
industries who turn towards the light that has for so long been
hidden from view. |
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