Energy Systems
A Very Short Introduction
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Energy Systems
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Narrated by:
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Chris Sorensen
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By:
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Nick Jenkins
About this listen
Modern societies require energy systems to provide energy for cooking, heating, transport, and materials processing, as well as for electricity generation.
Energy systems include the primary fuel, its conversion, and transport to the point of use. In many cases this primary fuel is still a fossil fuel, a one-use resource derived from a finite supply within our planet, causing considerable damage to the environment. After 300 years of increasing reliance on fossil fuels, particularly coal, it is becoming ever clearer that the present energy systems need to change.
In this Very Short Introduction, Nick Jenkins explores our historic investment in the exploitation of fossil energy resources and their current importance, and discusses the implications of our increasing rate of energy use.
He considers the widespread acceptance by scientists and policy makers that our energy systems must reduce emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases, and looks forward to the radical changes in fuel technology that will be necessary to continue to provide energy supplies in a sustainable manner, and extend access across the developing world.
©2019 Nick Jenkins (P)2020 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
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I thought I was getting a book on the future.
- By Grant on 08-02-14
By: Robert Bryce
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The Case for Mars
- The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must
- By: Robert Zubrin, Richard Wagner, Arthur C. Clarke - Foreword
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 14 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 355
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 314
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 311
Since the beginning of human history Mars has been an alluring dream - the stuff of legends, gods, and mystery. The planet most like ours, it has still been thought impossible to reach, let alone explore and inhabit. Now with the advent of a revolutionary new plan, all this has changed. Leading space exploration authority Robert Zubrin has crafted a daring new blueprint, Mars Direct, presented here with engaging anecdotes. The Case for Mars is not a vision for the far future or one that will cost us impossible billions.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Compelling
- By Michael D. Busch on 04-16-18
By: Robert Zubrin, and others
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The Great Oil Conspiracy
- How the U.S. Government Hid the Nazi Discovery of Abiotic Oil from the American People
- By: Jerome R. Corsi
- Narrated by: Fleet Cooper
- Length: 3 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 255
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 225
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Story4 out of 5 stars 224
At the end of World War II, U.S. intelligence agents confiscated thousands of Nazi documents on what was known as the “Fischer-Tropsch Process” - a series of equations developed by German chemists unlocking the secrets of how oil is formed. When the Nazis took power, Germany had resolved to develop enough synthetic oil to wage war successfully, even without abundant national oil reserves.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Complete and total waste of time
- By Dustin on 07-25-14
By: Jerome R. Corsi
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Fossil Future
- Why Global Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas—Not Less
- By: Alex Epstein
- Narrated by: Alex Epstein
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 914
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 816
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Story5 out of 5 stars 811
For over a decade, philosopher and energy expert Alex Epstein has predicted that any negative impacts of fossil fuel use on our climate will be outweighed by the unique benefits of fossil fuels to human flourishing--including their unrivaled ability to provide low-cost, reliable energy to billions of people around the world, especially the world’s poorest people. And contrary to what we hear from media “experts” about today’s “renewable revolution” and “climate emergency,” reality has proven Epstein right.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Strongly Recommend
- By Kevin on 06-14-22
By: Alex Epstein
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The Vanishing Face of Gaia
- A Final Warning
- By: James Lovelock
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 6 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 65
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 57
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 57
In The Vanishing Face of Gaia, British scientist James Lovelock predicts global warming will lead to a Hot Epoch. Lovelock is best known for formulating the controversial Gaia theory in the 1970s, with Ruth Margulis of the University of Massachusetts, which states that organisms interact with and regulate Earth's surface and atmosphere. We ignore this interaction at our peril.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A New Perspective - A Must Listen - Very Moving
- By Thomas on 01-29-12
By: James Lovelock
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Artificial Intelligence
- Modern Magic or Dangerous Future?
- By: Yorick Wilks
- Narrated by: Hannibal Hills
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 5
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 4
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Story4 out of 5 stars 4
AI expert Yorick Wilks takes a journey through the history of artificial intelligence up to the present day, examining its origins, controversies, and achievements, as well as looking into just how it works. He also considers the future, assessing whether these technologies could menace our way of life and how we are all likely to benefit from AI applications in the years to come.
By: Yorick Wilks
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The Industrial Revolution
- A Captivating Guide to a Period of Major Industrialization and the Introduction of the Spinning Jenny, the Cotton Gin, Electricity, and Other Inventions
- By: Captivating History
- Narrated by: Jason Zenobia
- Length: 3 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 35
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 22
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 22
For most of human existence, people lived in a somewhat similar fashion. Everything that has been produced, from food and raw materials to clothing and other finished products, has been done either solely by hand or with some help of animal power. This was the same across the eras and throughout the world, no matter how advanced or backward the various civilizations were. Yet, our lives today couldn’t be more different.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Excellent introduction
- By H. Paavilainen on 09-26-21
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Origins
- How Earth's History Shaped Human History
- By: Lewis Dartnell
- Narrated by: John Sackville
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 604
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 534
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 530
When we talk about human history, we often focus on great leaders, population forces, and decisive wars. But how has the earth itself determined our destiny? Our planet wobbles, driving changes in climate that forced the transition from nomadism to farming. Mountainous terrain led to the development of democracy in Greece. Atmospheric circulation patterns later on shaped the progression of global exploration, colonization, and trade. Even today, voting behavior in the southeast United States ultimately follows the underlying pattern of 75 million-year-old sediments from an ancient sea.
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5 out of 5 stars
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GREAT Book with a Narrator Who's Falling Asleep
- By aaron on 08-02-20
By: Lewis Dartnell
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The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels
- By: Alex Epstein
- Narrated by: Alex Epstein
- Length: 6 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 1,708
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 1,514
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Story5 out of 5 stars 1,513
For decades environmentalists have told us that using fossil fuels is a self-destructive addiction that will destroy our planet. Yet by every measure of human well-being, from life expectancy to clean water to climate safety, life has been getting better and better. How can this be? The explanation is that we usually hear only one side of the story. We're taught to think only of the negatives of fossil fuels, their risks and side effects, but not their positives.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A different point of view
- By Ballofyarn on 01-12-17
By: Alex Epstein
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The Quest
- Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World
- By: Daniel Yergin
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 29 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 901
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 753
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 753
A master storyteller as well as a leading energy expert, Daniel Yergin continues the riveting story begun in his Pulitzer Prize–winning book, The Prize. In The Quest, Yergin shows us how energy is an engine of global political and economic change and conflict, in a story that spans the energies on which our civilization has been built and the new energies that are competing to replace them. The Quest tells the inside stories, tackles the tough questions, and reveals surprising insights about coal, electricity, and natural gas.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Best nonfiction book of 2011
- By Joshua Kim on 05-06-12
By: Daniel Yergin
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The Vertical Farm
- Feeding the World in the 21st Century
- By: Dickson Despommier
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 6 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 116
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 71
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 72
When Columbia professor Dickson Despommier set out to solve America's food, water, and energy crises, he didn't just think big - he thought up. The vertical farm has excited scientists, architects, and politicians around the globe. These farms, grown inside skyscrapers, would provide solutions to many of the serious problems we currently face.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Excellent Brainstorming - Not reality
- By Texas Community Project on 01-25-11
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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
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 142
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 121
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 125
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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5 out of 5 stars
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A "must read" for the environmental movement.
- By Love owls on 07-09-13
By: William McDonough, and others
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Coal
- A Human History
- By: Barbara Freese
- Narrated by: Shelly Frasier
- Length: 7 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 378
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 185
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 191
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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3 out of 5 stars
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Uses Coal to push her Political Agenda
- By Kismet on 08-22-06
By: Barbara Freese
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What listeners say about Energy Systems
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer FB
- 12-29-23
Extremely irritating voice distracting from the substance
This is not the first time I stumble on an audiobook with this narrater. I haven’t been able to finish them. His habit of excessive intonation for almost every word is annoying, distracting and difficult to get used to. It is so excessive that probably done on purpose. I am not the only one complaining in the reviews.
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