The Hydrogen Economy: The Creation of the World-Wide Energy Web and the Redistribution of Power on Earth

by Jeremy Rifkin

Book Overview

The road to global security," writes Jeremy Rifkin, "lies in lessening our dependence on Middle East oil and making sure that all people on Earth have access to the energy they need to sustain life.... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1585421936
• ISBN13: 9781585421930
• Release Date: September 2002
• Publisher: Tarcher
• Length: 294 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 6.3" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Great Read

This is a fantastic book. Well researched and Rifkin goes into more then just energy but also into geo politics, history, and the environment. I read this book when it first came out and Rifkin is proving to be a prophet as everything he said is coming true even before it was fashionable. From war to hyperinflation, to global warming this book really lays it out and is very thought provoking.

Well Written and Horrifying

Rifkin's Hydrogen Economy, although short on scientific evidence to back up some of his claims, paints a truly terrifying portriat of the next thirty years; one that will inevitably come true if we do not embrace new energy sources. Buy this book for the first 125 pages, and check out "tomorrow's energy" for a great look at the emerging HEW. Rifkin's thesis on the Rise and Fall of civilizations and its relation to energy needs is very relevant to todays efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan and leaves one with an entirely different outlook on aspects of human civilization that seem to be commonplace and immutable. A must-read.

Criticizing what they haven't read

I just want to correct one recurrent misunderstanding of Rifkin's thesis. I note that several one-star reviews of this book included a caveat to the effect that the reviewers had not even read the book. They go on to point out that since energy is required to free hydrogen in the first place, hydrogen is not an energy source but at best a form of stored energy, and not yet a terribly efficent form at that. (One reviewer from Florida even got his/her one-star review entered mulitple times! Were each of these identical entries counted against the over-all rating of this book??) Having heard Rifkin interviewed on the energy source/storage issue, I believe that these one-star reviewers have missed the point. Rifkin is advocating for hydrogen precisely as the future's medium of energy storage. Say the energy is initally gathered through solar panels. You need a way to store the surplus. Use the surplus photo-electricity to free some hydrogen from water, store the hydrogen. The energy sources of tomorrow are solar, wind, etc. The battery of tomorrow that makes these sources viable, in as much as civilization depends on the ability to accrue a surplus, is hydrogen.

A Brilliant Confluence of a Number of Trends

This book is not just about the emergence of an alternative energy source and the drivers that require us to move away from dependence on fossil fuels as our primary energy source.The book attempts to address how civilizations have been developed, and the contribution that energy makes toward this development. Furthermore, Rifkin draws upon theories of thermodynamics and history to make his points.This book also discusses bare facts associated with the oil industry and how we will need to make significant changes in the way we live in order to face the reality that our sources of energy need to change.For the scientist willing to approach this subject matter with an open mind, the environmentalist interested in understanding how business and economics can shape green development, and the individual curious of the path the world might take, this book is a holistic overview of how energy issues will drive our progress.

Excellent introduction to this issue

Even though Rifkin doesn't start talking about hydrogen until the seventh chapter, he lays out a convincing case for why we need to shift away from fossil fuels. Even though I disagreed with some of Rifkin's philosophical conclusions on why we need to switch, the facts (that we are nearing the peak production of oil, that the remaining oil is held by Islamic states that are politically unstable and global warming is increasing) are hard to dispute. I wouldn't suggest this as the only book to read on the hydrogen economy but it should be the first one you read.