Not another climate change polemic but an enthusiastic argument for hydrogen’s role in reversing it.
In his first book, Alverà, CEO of an energy infrastructure company with natural gas pipelines across Europe and the Middle East, writes a lively account of hydrogen’s chemistry and technical possibilities. The lightest gas, hydrogen occupies the first place on the periodic table. Burned with oxygen, it produces clean heat; its only waste product is water. What could be better? There are a few problems, but many are solved, and Alverà delivers clear explanations of those that aren’t along with an astute analysis of the possibilities. A businessman, he states a blunt fact: Clean energy will not take over until it’s as cheap as dirty energy. That’s less ominous than it sounds. Wind and solar are already cheaper in many areas and expanding rapidly. However, “green electricity, so useful in our homes and in our cars, doesn’t cut it in the manufacturing industry.” It can’t replace chemicals in dirty manufacturing processes, and using electrical heating to reach high temperatures remains too expensive. While wind and solar electricity are always intermittent, hydrogen works all the time. Transmitting power by wire is expensive and wasteful. Pipelines are much cheaper, and existing pipes are already carrying hydrogen, which generates its electricity in fuel cells that are far more compact than batteries. Emission-free cars may be the wave of the future, but their batteries, currently weighing more than 1,000 pounds, can’t scale up to propel long-haul trucks, oceangoing ships, and planes. Regarding cost, Alverà points out that wind and solar became competitive largely because mass production and competition drove the price down. Ten years ago, hydrogen cost $24 per kilogram; today, it’s between $4 and $5.5 per kilogram. The author predicts it will reach $2 within five years, “the tipping point at which it becomes competitive with fossil fuels.”
A surprisingly optimistic case for hydrogen as a source of clean energy.Pub Date: Nov. 16, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-5416-2041-4
Page Count: 304
Publisher: Basic
Review Posted Online: Sept. 15, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Oct. 1, 2021
Categories: SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | NATURE | BUSINESS | ECONOMICS | ECONOMICS | GENERAL BUSINESS | CURRENT EVENTS & SOCIAL ISSUES | PUBLIC POLICY | WORLD
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A lucid (in the sky with diamonds) look at the hows, whys, and occasional demerits of altering one’s mind.
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Building on his lysergically drenched book How to Change Your Mind (2018), Pollan looks at three plant-based drugs and the mental effects they can produce.
The disastrous war on drugs began under Nixon to control two classes of perceived enemies: anti-war protestors and Black citizens. That cynical effort, writes the author, drives home the point that “societies condone the mind-changing drugs that help uphold society’s rule and ban the ones that are seen to undermine it.” One such drug is opium, for which Pollan daringly offers a recipe for home gardeners to make a tea laced with the stuff, producing “a radical and by no means unpleasant sense of passivity.” You can’t overthrow a government when so chilled out, and the real crisis is the manufacture of synthetic opioids, which the author roundly condemns. Pollan delivers a compelling backstory: This section dates to 1997, but he had to leave portions out of the original publication to keep the Drug Enforcement Administration from his door. Caffeine is legal, but it has stronger effects than opium, as the author learned when he tried to quit: “I came to see how integral caffeine is to the daily work of knitting ourselves back together after the fraying of consciousness during sleep.” Still, back in the day, the introduction of caffeine to the marketplace tempered the massive amounts of alcohol people were drinking even though a cup of coffee at noon will keep banging on your brain at midnight. As for the cactus species that “is busy transforming sunlight into mescaline right in my front yard”? Anyone can grow it, it seems, but not everyone will enjoy effects that, in one Pollan experiment, “felt like a kind of madness.” To his credit, the author also wrestles with issues of cultural appropriation, since in some places it’s now easier for a suburbanite to grow San Pedro cacti than for a Native American to use it ceremonially.
A lucid (in the sky with diamonds) look at the hows, whys, and occasional demerits of altering one’s mind.Pub Date: July 6, 2021
ISBN: 978-0-593-29690-5
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Penguin Press
Review Posted Online: April 14, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 2021
Categories: BODY, MIND & SPIRIT | SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | PSYCHOLOGY | NATURE | BODY, MIND & SPIRIT | HEALTH & FITNESS
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SEEN & HEARD
The bad news: On any given outdoor expedition, you are your own worst enemy. The good news: If you are prepared, which this book helps you achieve, you might just live through it.
As MeatEater host and experienced outdoorsman Rinella notes, there are countless dangers attendant in going into mountains, woods, or deserts; he quotes journalist Wes Siler: “People have always managed to find stupid ways to die.” Avoiding stupid mistakes is the overarching point of Rinella’s latest book, full of provocative and helpful advice. One stupid way to die is not to have the proper equipment. There’s a complication built into the question, given that when humping gear into the outdoors, weight is always an issue. The author’s answer? “Build your gear list by prioritizing safety.” That entails having some means of communication, water, food, and shelter foremost and then adding on “extra shit.” As to that, he notes gravely, “a National Park Service geologist recently estimated that as much as 215,000 pounds of feces has been tossed haphazardly into crevasses along the climbing route on Denali National Park’s Kahiltna Glacier, where climbers melt snow for drinking water.” Ingesting fecal matter is a quick route to sickness, and Rinella adds, there are plenty of outdoorspeople who have no idea of how to keep their bodily wastes from ruining the scenery or poisoning the water supply. Throughout, the author provides precise information about wilderness first aid, ranging from irrigating wounds to applying arterial pressure to keeping someone experiencing a heart attack (a common event outdoors, given that so many people overexert without previous conditioning) alive. Some takeaways: Keep your crotch dry, don’t pitch a tent under a dead tree limb, walk side-hill across mountains, and “do not enter a marsh or swamp in flip-flops, and think twice before entering in strap-on sandals such as Tevas or Chacos.”
A welcome reference, entertaining and information-packed, for any outdoors-inclined reader.Pub Date: Dec. 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-0-593-12969-2
Page Count: 464
Publisher: Random House
Review Posted Online: Oct. 7, 2020
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2020
Categories: SPORTS & RECREATION | NATURE | SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY | BODY, MIND & SPIRIT
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