Fueling the Planet provides a basic history of the means of providing fuel for human activities as well as the geological origins of the fuel. The tone is basic and easy to understand. He comes down and the pro-status quo, pro-environment side. His view is that by mandating better efficiency standards and moving most energy consumption to wind-generated electricity, we can solve the environmental issues. (Hmm - what about making changes that improve the quality of life and reduce energy consumption?).
Of interest, is the mention that the US is about evenly divided in energy use, with industry, transportation and home using about one third of the energy. China is presented as another end of the spectrum, with huge amounts of industry (and a greater reliance on coal.) He does present some of the pros and cons of many different types of energy and does a good job on bashing carbon sequestering and corn-ethanol (both from energy viewppoints.)
The course does not provide a great deal of new information, but it provides some interesting factoids. The author tries to be balanced, even though he does have some wacko ideas of his own.
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