Earth--The Sequel

Fred Krup, president of the Environmental Defense Fund, and writer Marian Horn have a solution to defeat global warming and ultimately save the Earth as we know it. It's all presented here in a fascinating account of contemporary entrepreneurs who are taking matters into their own hands. Subjects include Native American fishermen who have managed to harness wind power and an ice hotel operator who keeps his building running all summer long through unconventional means. Narrator Dick Hill delivers a powerful blow against environmental decline with a spirited yet slightly underplayed performance that acts to inform first and to entertain second. The result gives listeners valuable insights into the current global threat and a means to save our planet. L.B. (c) AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine

February 18, 2008
Environmental Defense Fund president Krupp and journalist Horn proffer a business-centric prescription for alleviating climate change, coupling the market force of capitalism with technological innovation and entrepreneurial inventiveness. The authors argue in favor of strict federal carbon caps, which would induce innovators to explore new ways to control carbon dioxide emissions. The book notes the global and historical successes of cap and trade mechanisms, such as the Clean Air Act of 1990. Designed specifically to control sulfur dioxide (which causes acid rain), the Clean Air Act cut emissions 30% more than the law required by providing coal plant operators with a financial incentive to modernize. New technologies that would benefit from such a “logical, elegant, market-based approach” include one as basic as an Arizona natural gas power plant that vents its smokestack waste into a vast greenhouse, where it nourishes algae used for manufacturing biodiesel, and one as a radical as harnessing the kinetic energy of molecules as a power source. This optimistic book brims with similar ideas, balancing jargon-heavy science with engaging profiles of individuals who are blending business and science in an attempt to save the planet.