07/29/2019
America’s transition to clean energy is unstoppable—well, almost—according to this boosterish treatise that, contrary to the name, isn’t about the stimulus policy promoted by left-leaning Democrats. Sustainability consultant Rifkin (The Third Industrial Revolution ) contends that plummeting prices for wind power, solar power, and batteries; a shift to electric vehicles; and “smart” electrical grids will render fossil-fueled energy too expensive to compete, leading to its “inevitable” failure in the marketplace. He embeds this forecast within a primer on “the Third Industrial Revolution” that he predicts will bring households and businesses trading home-brewed solar and wind power online, a vision of energy populism that he touts in ringing but nebulous verbiage. (“The distributed and laterally scaled infrastructure of the Third Industrial Revolution is... fluid and open, allowing literally billions of players around the world to assemble and reassemble, and disaggregate and reaggregate, their own component parts of it... in continuously evolving blockchained platforms.”) In the fine print, Rifkin grants that this collapse isn’t quite inevitable: he allows that market forces will need help from trillions in government subsidies for renewables to displace carbon and says little about the difficulty of knitting wind and solar into a reliable energy supply. Readers will find more jargon and hype than serious analysis. (Sept.)
"[Jeremy Rifkin] is a principal architect of the European Union’s long-term economic vision, Smart Europe, and a key advisor to China's Third Industrial Revolution vision...The European Commission is calling for a climate-neutral Europe by 2050. His new book, The Green New Deal , is essentially an attempt to rouse the United States from its slumber within a collapsing 20th century fossil fuel era." —Forbes The New York Times Book Review The Green New Deal ], economic theorist Jeremy Rifkin, whose work has inspired climate legislation in China and in various countries in the European Union (E.U.), is well positioned to advocate for this new political vision. In The Green New Deal , Rifkin confronts skepticism about the feasibility of making a transition of the scale required by countering that we are already making these changes in many global regions. It is time, he argues, for the United States to join the E.U. and China as leaders toward a zero-carbon economy." —Science Booklist Kirkus Reviews David Suzuki The Green New Deal is a clear roadmap for the post-carbon transformation of the US economy and an inspiring vision of what could be the most promising economic opportunity of our lifetimes. It’s a must-read for investors, entrepreneurs and policy makers alike.” —Sir Richard Branson The Green New Deal is singular in its holistic perspective on the necessary energy revolution—from addressing the clean resource mix to identifying financing alternatives to emphasizing the importance of reinventing the oft-forgotten grid infrastructure to the overarching demand for social equity. It’s all here—a must read.” —Anne Pramaggiore, CEO of Exelon Utilities —Sharan Burrow, Secretary General of the International Trade Union Confederation The Green New Deal shows why his work remains more important than ever. In charting the natural decline of fossil fuel industrialization, Rifkin offers a compelling prescription for how the green economy has the potential to unlock the sustainable growth of the future.” —Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever and Vice Chair of the United Nations Global Compact, the world’s largest corporate sustainability initiative The Green New Deal is a must-read…for grassroots movements and policy-makers in Europe and the United States alike!” —Sigmar Gabriel, former Vice Chancellor and the Minister of Economic Affairs of Germany The Green New Deal presents the most comprehensive and compelling narrative to transition the U.S. energy, telecommunications, and transportation sectors into a smart Third Industrial Revolution. While our national leaders have been unable to find common ground, Rifkin provides a bipartisan means to accelerate our nation's path toward decarbonization.” —Robert Wilhite, Managing Director, Navigant Consulting, the largest energy and sustainability consulting team in the industry Maroš Šefcovic, Vice President of the European Commission and Co-Chair of the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate & Energy —James Orbinski MD, former International President of Doctors Without Borders The Green New Deal is impressive in its ability to connect the dots of environmental, political, social and geographical issues that define our sustainable future. Rifkin has laid out a vast Green New Deal plan that is radical and defensible for an historic twenty-year retrofit of the nation’s millions of buildings to reduce global warming emissions, taking us into a green century.” —Gordon Gill, Principal, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture (ranked the number one architecture firm in the United States of America by Architect magazine) The Green New Deal , Jeremy Rifkin presents a survival imperative for the millions without work and for a planet that needs healing. In this timely book, he defines the urgent steps that will need to be taken to transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy and reclaim public infrastructure.” —Dr. Vandana Shiva, feminist, ecologist, and recipient of the Right Livelihood Award
Rifkin lays out the economic and technological features present and forthcoming that will direct companies and governments across the globe to shift away from fossil fuels and into renewable energies. Narrator David Cochran Heath's deep, resonant voice commands listeners' attention but doesn't maintain it. His delivery is clear, consistent, and emphatic but not enthusiastic. Rifkin's prophetic writing clearly aims to excite listeners about the possibilities that lie ahead, but Heath leaves passion at the door. In doing so, he makes the listening experience less engaging. It’s unfortunate because Rifkin’s solutions are meant to empower listeners in their roles as individuals but also as representatives of the very organizations, businesses, and government entities that can save the world from the devastating effects of climate change. L.E. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
FEBRUARY 2020 - AudioFile
Rifkin lays out the economic and technological features present and forthcoming that will direct companies and governments across the globe to shift away from fossil fuels and into renewable energies. Narrator David Cochran Heath's deep, resonant voice commands listeners' attention but doesn't maintain it. His delivery is clear, consistent, and emphatic but not enthusiastic. Rifkin's prophetic writing clearly aims to excite listeners about the possibilities that lie ahead, but Heath leaves passion at the door. In doing so, he makes the listening experience less engaging. It’s unfortunate because Rifkin’s solutions are meant to empower listeners in their roles as individuals but also as representatives of the very organizations, businesses, and government entities that can save the world from the devastating effects of climate change. L.E. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine
FEBRUARY 2020 - AudioFile
2019-06-25
According to Rifkin (The Zero Marginal Cost Society: The Internet of Things, the Collaborative Commons, and the Eclipse of Capitalism , 2014, etc.), the president of the Foundation on Economic Trends, we are within a degree or two of temperature rise before we see the cataclysm of "runaway feedback loops and a cascade of climate-change events that would decimate the Earth's ecosystems." The possibility of such devastation, he argues, is not lost on heartland voters who, though perhaps otherwise conservative, are increasingly alarmed by severe weather events and other clear signs of a changing climate regime, manifest in expensive destruction of life and property. Against this, Rifkin notes trends among younger citizens to participate in a so-called sharing economy, with shared housing, office space, vehicles, tools, and the like, "allowing the human race to use far less of the resources of the Earth while passing on what they no longer use to others and, by doing so, dramatically reducing carbon emissions." It will take more than that, of course: Infrastructure must be overhauled, which would add jobs to the economy, and old ways of doing things must be cast aside. There's not much time to do so. Rifkin projects that without change, "fossil-fuel civilization" has less than 10 years of life; he adds that this change "is inevitable, despite any efforts by the fossil fuel industries to forestall it." The author then enumerates a 21-point program around Democratic proposals spearheaded by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey, closing with the fond hope that a "biosphere consciousness" is emerging. A little hectoring alternating with wishful thinking goes a long way, but Rifkin's point that something needs to be done—immediately—is well taken. Better a Chicken Little than a Pollyanna any day of the week.
An urgent endorsement of efforts to remake a doomed fossil-fuel economy before it's too late.
