Today I am going to do something that I have never actually done in any book review before. I am telling you, most emphatically, that if you care about our planet and our energy future at all, to BUY THIS BOOK NOW!. Click here to order it from Powells or click on the book cover image to order it from the library, but you MUST read this book!
Freedom From Oil is the first book I have noticed at the library with at 2008 publication date and it caught my attention the moment it was received at the library. David Sandalow, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute and former under-secretary of state had written a highly accessible and detailed prescription for "how the next President of the United States can end (the country’s) addiction to oil". Sandalow’s proposals emphasize transforming our transportation system and focus on replacing the internal combustion engine using both "conventional hybrids" (think Toyota Prius), "plug in hybrid electric vehicles" (coming soon) and bio-fuels (think GM’s new "flex-fuel vehicles").
Sandalow writes with both passion and authority about both the scientific and the political issues surrounding our addiction to oil and makes a very strong case that we can become independent of the oil-producing nations that mean us harm AND begin to restore and protect our environment using technologies that are available and in production today. He argues further that technologies still in development, particularly cellulosic ethanlol and biobutanol hold great promise for furthering these aims while revitalizing our economy, and particularly the economies of our rural communities.
The book is written as a series of memos and reports to and from the "next President" and as a fan of The West Wing I had thought this would be a really neat framework for a book. My one quibble with the work, I am sorry to say, is that I found this framework quite distracting after awhile and thought the book might have been stronger had the author taken a more straightforward approach. This minor quibble notwithstanding, Sandalow has produced detailed and thoughtful blueprint for addressing what is arguably the most pressing problem we as a species face. And I can only repeat my opening admonishment: You must BUY THIS BOOK! NOW!!!
Tags: Book Reviews, Books, David Sandalow, energy crisis, Freedom From Oil, oil
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January 16th, 2008 at 4:26 pm
I’ll have to buy that one. I don;t think its one I will want to part with so bookswim.com and the library are not options.
January 16th, 2008 at 11:29 pm
Stop the madness!! Oil is making a very few, very rich, and the rest of us either miserable, or dead… And don’t even get me started on the environmental impact.
January 17th, 2008 at 11:28 am
I JUST checked this out from the library to read… thanks for the recommendation!
It’s most likely one that I will end up purchasing after I’ve read the library’s copy.
Namaste,
A. Caleb Hartley
http://www.environmentastic.com
January 18th, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Hi Alan. I had not heard of this one yet and will have to add it to my list. If you saw my post today, you saw the description of my reading habits. Not the best of methods, but I just don’t have the patience to take them one at a time. I find if I acquire a book, I will start it as soon as it arrives even if I am already reading 2 or 3 others. I guess I am a bit of a dysfunctional reader, but I have always been that way. There are probably only a dozen books I have ever read cover to cover without sharing reading time with other books. A couple that come to mind are:
“All Fishermen Are Liars - True Tales from the Dry Dock Bar”, and
“No Bone Unturned: The Adventures of the Smithsonian’s Top Forensic Scientist and the Legal Battle for a 10,000-Year-Old Skeleton”. (When I started this one, I put at least two other 1/2 finished ones down until “No Bone…” was done).
Both are available at Powell’s and I highly recommend them.
-Will