Reddit reviews Energy and Civilization: A History (The MIT Press)

>Just to add to this things to consider before solar.
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>1. Getting an energy audit.
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>2. Adding insulation based on energy audit results.
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>3. Do you live in a place like CA coast or desert? If so, consider adding a gray water system and or rain water collection system. * You live in the deep south so this might not be applicable to you.
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>4. Read the Energy and Civilization by Vaclav Smil. https://www.amazon.com/Energy-Civilization-History-MIT-Press/dp/0262035774
5. Install solar. It will be awesome for you to drive a car on energy you produced on your house.

Some good starting points

https://www.amazon.com/Wealth-Nature-Economics-Survival-Mattered/dp/0865716730/

https://www.amazon.com/Nature-Economic-History-Geerat-Vermeij/dp/069112793X/

https://www.amazon.com/Energy-Civilization-History-MIT-Press/dp/0262035774/

https://www.amazon.com/Overshoot-Ecological-Basis-Revolutionary-Change/dp/0252009886/

https://www.amazon.com/Environment-Power-Society-Twenty-First-Century/dp/0231128878/

https://www.amazon.com/Collapse-Complex-Societies-Studies-Archaeology/dp/052138673X/

http://bpeconomics.org/

https://biophyseco.org/

I haven't read Vaclav Smil's work yet, but I just ordered his new book Energy and Civilization: A History. Thanks for the recommendation!

Bill Gates recommends this book. I wanted to but have not (yet) read it. https://www.amazon.com/Energy-Civilization-History-MIT-Press/dp/0262035774

https://www.amazon.com/Energy-Civilization-History-MIT-Press/dp/0262035774


Good stuff.

Okay, how about production and disposal of Lead Acid batteries? None of the large scale battery technologies are environmentally friendly. Environmentally friendly batteries are just like Cold Fusion, perpetually 10 years into the future.

What countries in South America produce that Lithium and what kind of environmental impact does that cause? Where are all of these other batteries produced and where do they go when they hit their life expectancy?

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) does a terrible job of protecting the environment most of the time but they do enough to make things like batteries and PV panels to expensive to produce in the US at the scale other countries with no protection can.

My assertation isn't should we make the shift to "renewable" energy but rather how quickly and in what way should we make the transition. History is always the best determiner of the future and history tells these transitions are never quick or complete. I suggest reading Energy and Civilization, A history or Energy, A Human History.