Energy return on investment : a unifying principle for biology, economics, and sustainabiltiy / Charles A.S. Hall.
2017
HD9502.A2
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Details
Title
Energy return on investment : a unifying principle for biology, economics, and sustainabiltiy / Charles A.S. Hall.
Author
Hall, Charles A. S., author.
ISBN
9783319478210 (electronic book)
3319478214 (electronic book)
9783319478203
3319478214 (electronic book)
9783319478203
Published
Cham : Springer, 2017.
Language
English
Description
1 online resource.
Item Number
10.1007/978-3-319-47821-0 doi
Call Number
HD9502.A2
Dewey Decimal Classification
333.79
Summary
This authoritative but highly accessible book presents the reader with a powerful framework for understanding the critical role of the energy return on investment (EROI) in the survival and well-being of individuals, ecosystems, businesses, economies and nations. Growth and development are fundamental and ubiquitous processes at all scales, from individuals to food crops to national economies. While we are all familiar with the concepts of economic growth and living standards as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), we often take for granted the energy use that underpins GDP and our expectations for year-on-year growth. In this book, you will learn how these measures of “progress” are completely dependent on the balance that can be achieved between energy costs (inputs) and gains. Nothing is made or moved without an energy surplus, and it is the EROI of available energy sources more than any other single factor that determines the shape of civilization. Nearly all politics and economics assume that policy and market forces are the levers upon which future outcomes will hinge. However, this book presents many examples of historical and current events that can be explained much more clearly from an energetic perspective. In addition, a future scenario is developed that gives a central place to EROI in assessing the potential of governmental and private initiatives to substitute so-called renewable energy sources for diminishing stocks of fossil fuels. When cheap fossil fuels are no longer available in the abundance needed to mask economic problems and power business as usual, it will be EROI more than the plethora of “green” technologies that creates the boundary conditions for a sustainable future.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Access Note
Access limited to authorized users.
Digital File Characteristics
text file PDF
Source of Description
Online resource; title from PDF title page (viewed December 13, 2016)
Series
Lecture notes in energy ; 36.
Available in Other Form
Print version: 9783319478203
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Table of Contents
Energy as the master resource
The ecological theatre and the evolutionary play
Energy Return on Investment as master driver
Calculating Energy costs and gains in plant and animal populations
Calculating Energy costs and gains in human societies
Maximum Power
The future in a lower EROI world.
The ecological theatre and the evolutionary play
Energy Return on Investment as master driver
Calculating Energy costs and gains in plant and animal populations
Calculating Energy costs and gains in human societies
Maximum Power
The future in a lower EROI world.