Buying Time

January 30, 2017
Civilization will come crashing down from climate change and other planetary crises unless we switch to clean energy, according to this uneven primer on sustainability by fund manager Makabe. He tours a variety of looming disasters, focusing on climate change but also touching on an array of phenomena including species loss, water shortages, and rising unemployment and economic instability caused by the impending “robot takeover.” Makabe argues that energy is the thread connecting all these dysfunctions and broaches a sketchy theory of how “complex adaptive systems”—from the Roman Empire to the modern global financial system—erode and eventually implode when their marginal energy surpluses dwindle. He’s more compelling when discussing specific energy policies. A section on renewable energy sources is hopeful about their potential to help replace fossil fuels but skeptical about their ability to do it alone, especially unreliable intermittent sources such as wind and solar power. The book’s strongest chapters contain an extensive discussion of nuclear power that dispels much of the alarmism surrounding the technology and contends that it must play a major role in a low-carbon power system. Makabe rambles at times, but he synthesizes a wealth of illuminating information into a lucid, thoughtful analysis of the future of energy systems. Illus.