Power
Limits and Prospects for Human Survival
Richard Heinberg
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Power
Limits and Prospects for Human Survival
Richard Heinberg
About This Book
Impeccably researched and masterfully written, this book explains how and why humanity is driving itself off the cliff. â Dahr Jamail, author, The End of Ice
Weaving together findings from a wide range of disciplines, Power traces how four key elements developed to give humans extraordinary power: tool making ability, language, social complexity, and the ability to harness energy sources ? most significantly, fossil fuels. It asks whether we have, at this point, overpowered natural and social systems, and if we have, what we can do about it.
Has Homo sapiens â one species among millions â become powerful enough to threaten a mass extinction and disrupt the Earth's climate? Why have we developed so many ways of oppressing one another? Can we change our relationship with power to avert ecological catastrophe, reduce social inequality, and stave off collapse?
These questions â and their answers â will determine our fate.
ACCESSIBILITY NOTES
This publication meets the EPUB Accessibility requirements and it also meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG-AA). It is screen-reader friendly and is accessible to persons with disabilities. This book contains various accessibility features such as alternative texts for images, table of contents, landmarks, reading order, page list, Structural Navigation, and semantic structure. Blank pages have been removed from this EPUB.
Frequently asked questions
Information
POWER IN NATURE
The way in which mitochondria generate energy is one of the most bizarre mechanisms in biology. Its discovery has been compared with those of Darwin and Einstein. Mitochondria pump protons across a membrane to generate an electric charge with the power, over a few nanometers, of a bolt of lightning. This proton power is harnessed by the elementary particles of life â mushroomshaped proteins in the membrane â to generate energy in the form of ATP. This radical mechanism is as fundamental to life as DNA itself, and gives an insight into the origin of life on Earth.â NICK LANE, Power, Sex, Suicide
The maximum power principle can be stated: During selforganization, system designs develop and prevail that maximize power intake, energy transformation, and those uses that reinforce production and efficiency.â HOWARD T. ODUM, Maximum Power
Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.â OSCAR WILDE
Powers in Math