Robert H. Socolow's Books

Turning Point

End of the Growth Paradigm

By: Robert Ayres

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Turning Point

End of the Growth Paradigm

By: Robert Ayres

This text discusses the current basis of economic growth, concluding that it is is failing to deliver, and is actually harming our prospects for future security. Further arguments propose a possible long-term strategy for economic revival - eco-restructuring. This strategy involves a shifting away from production of goods to production of services, closing material cycles and eliminating reliance on non-renewable resources.

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273

Publisher

Routledge

Published Date

ISBN 10

1134179782

ISBN 13

9781134179787

Be Very Afraid

The Cultural Response to Terror, Pandemics, Environmental Devastation, Nuclear Annihilation, and Other Threats

By: Robert Wuthnow

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Be Very Afraid

The Cultural Response to Terror, Pandemics, Environmental Devastation, Nuclear Annihilation, and Other Threats

By: Robert Wuthnow

Examines the human response to existential threats--once a matter for theology, but now looming before us in multiple forms. Nuclear weapons, pandemics, global warming: each threatens to destroy the planet, or at least to annihilate our species. Freud, Wuthnow notes, famously taught that the standard psychological response to an overwhelming danger is denial. In fact, Wuthnow argues, the opposite is true: we seek ways of positively meeting the threat, of doing something--anything--even if it's wasteful and time-consuming. It would be one thing if our responses were merely pointless, Wuthnow observes, but they can actually be harmful.--From publisher description.

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Page Count

305

Publisher

OUP USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0199730873

ISBN 13

9780199730872

Crossing the Energy Divide

Moving from Fossil Fuel Dependence to a Clean-Energy Future

By: Robert U. Ayres,Edward H. Ayres

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Crossing the Energy Divide

Moving from Fossil Fuel Dependence to a Clean-Energy Future

By: Robert U. Ayres,Edward H. Ayres

If we continue our highly inefficient, dangerous energy usage, we’re headed for both economic and environmental catastrophe. However, the hard truth is that alternative fuels can’t fully replace fossil fuels for decades. What’s more, new research indicates that energy inefficiencies are retarding economic growth even more than most experts ever realized. Crossing the Energy Divide is about solving all these problems at once. The authors, two leading experts in energy and environmental economics, show how massive improvements in energy efficiency can bridge the global economy until clean renewables can fully replace fossil fuels. Robert and Edward Ayres demonstrate how we can radically reform the way we manage our existing energy systems to double the amount of “energy service” we get from every drop of fossil fuel we use. These techniques require no scientific breakthroughs: Many companies and institutions are applying them right now, but tens of thousands more could. This book offers a strategic guide for using them to solve the energy crisis once and for all—reducing carbon emissions, achieving true energy security, and reigniting economic growth for decades to come. More energy, without more emissions Recapturing lost energy from today’s fossil fuels There is such a thing as a free lunch Mitigating climate disaster and improving prosperity at the same time The future of electricity Reforming tomorrow’s electrical system: smarter, more productive, and more reliable The implications for cities, transportation, business, and government Making the decisions that prepare you for a high-cost energy future

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Page Count

253

Publisher

Pearson Prentice Hall

Published Date

ISBN 10

0137039018

ISBN 13

9780137039012

The Economic Growth Engine

How Energy and Work Drive Material Prosperity

By: Robert U. Ayres,Benjamin Warr

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The Economic Growth Engine

How Energy and Work Drive Material Prosperity

By: Robert U. Ayres,Benjamin Warr

It gives me great pleasure to review this important book. I recommend it highly to any physicist with an interest or curiosity about this economy thing within which we operate. . . There is no excuse not to get this invaluable volume onto your bookshelf. Simon Roberts, Institute of Physics Energy Group This book addresses a very important topic, namely economic growth analysis from the angle of energy and material flows. The treatment is well balanced in terms of research and interpretation of the broader literature. The book not only contains a variety of empirical indicators, statistical analyses and insights, but also offers an unusually complete and pluralistic view on theorizing about economic growth and technological change. This results in a number of refreshing perspectives on known ideas and literatures. The text is so attractively written that I found it very difficult to stop reading. All in all, this is a very original and important contribution to the everlasting debate on growth versus environment. Jeroen C.J.M. van den Bergh, University of Barcelona, Spain and Free University, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Would you want your great-grandchildren in 2100AD to have a 22nd-century industrial economy? If so, read this book to grasp how strongly wealth depends on energy and its efficient use. Start treating fossil energy not as continuing income, but as one-time energy capital to spend on efficiency and long-term sustainable energy production. Otherwise, your descendants will inherit a broken 20th-century economy that only worked with cheap fossil fuels. They will not be rich and they will wonder what their ancestors were thinking. John R. Mashey, PhD, former Chief Scientist, Silicon Graphics Current economic theory attributes most income growth to technical progress. However, since technical progress can neither be defined nor measured, no one really knows what policies will encourage income growth. Ayres and Warr show that access to useful work, which can be defined and measured, explain the bulk of post-1900 income changes in Japan, Britain and the USA. They see rising real prices for fossil fuel and stagnating efficiencies of converting raw energy into useful work as a threat to continued income growth. This brilliant and original work has profound policy implications for future income growth without significant improvements in energy conversion efficiency. Thomas Casten, Chairman, Recycled Energy Development LLC Following the up-and-down energy shock of 2008, Ayres and Warr offer a unique analysis critical to our economic future. They argue that useful work produced by energy and energy services is far more important to overall GDP growth than conventional economic theory assumes. Their new theory, based on extensive empirical and theoretical analysis, has important implications for economists, businessmen and policymakers for anybody concerned with our economic future. Ayres and Warr argue persuasively that economic growth is not only endogenous but has been driven for the past two centuries largely by the declining effective cost of energy. If their new theory is correct, the inevitable future rise of the real cost of energy (beyond the $147 oil price peak in July 2008), could halt economic growth in the US and other advanced countries unless we dramatically improve energy with technology. J. Paul Horne, independent international market economist The historic link between output (GDP) growth and employment has weakened. Since there is no quantitively verifiable economic theory to explain past growth, this unique book explores the fundamental relationship between thermodynamics (physical work) and economics. The authors take a realistic approach to explaining the relationship between technological progress, thermodynamic efficiency and economic growth. Their findings are a step toward the integration of neo-classical and evolutionary perspectives on endogenous economic growth, concluding in a fundam

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Page Count

435

Publisher

Edward Elgar Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1848445954

ISBN 13

9781848445956

Energy, Complexity and Wealth Maximization

By: Robert Ayres

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Energy, Complexity and Wealth Maximization

By: Robert Ayres

This book is about the mechanisms of wealth creation, or what we like to think of as evolutionary "progress." The massive circular flow of goods and services between producers and consumers is not a perpetual motion machine; it has been dependent for the past 150 years on energy inputs from a finite storage of fossil fuels. In this book, you will learn about the three key requirements for wealth creation, and how this process acts according to physical laws, and usually after some part of the natural wealth of the planet has been exploited in an episode of "creative destruction." Knowledge and natural capital, particularly energy, will interact to power the human wealth engine in the future as it has in the past. Will it sputter or continue along the path of evolutionary progress that we have come to expect? Can the new immaterial wealth of information and ideas, which makes up the so-called knowledge economy, replace depleted natural wealth? These questions have no simple answers, but this masterful book will help you to understand the grand challenge of our time. Praise for Energy, Complexity and Wealth Maximization: “... people who run the modern world (politicians, economists and lawyers) have a very poor grasp of how it really works because they do not understand the fundamentals of energy, exergy and entropy ... those decision-makers would greatly benefit from reading this book ...” - Vaclav Smil, Distinguished Professor Emeritus, University of Manitoba “... A grandiose design; impressive, worth reading and reflecting!” - Prof. Dr. Ernst Ulrich von Weizäcker, Founder of Wuppertal Institute; Co-President of the Club of Rome, Former Member of the German Bundestag, co-chair of the UN’s Resource Panel “... The book is a must read for concerned citizens and decision makers across the globe.” - RK Pachauri, Founder and Executive Vice Chairman, The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) and ex-chair, International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)

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Page Count

606

Publisher

Springer

Published Date

ISBN 10

331930545X

ISBN 13

9783319305455

Accounting for Resources, 2

The Life Cycle of Materials

By: Robert U. Ayres,Leslie Ayres,Leslie W. Ayres

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Accounting for Resources, 2

The Life Cycle of Materials

By: Robert U. Ayres,Leslie Ayres,Leslie W. Ayres

The book also includes a longitudinal study of heavy metals use and dissipation, during the period 1880-1980 with reference to the Huson-Raritan basin. It concludes with an overview, including some recommendations for future research and for policy changes with respect to government statistical data collection and organization.

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Page Count

406

Publisher

Edward Elgar Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

1781959722

ISBN 13

9781781959725

Book's by Robert H. Socolow

Turning Point

Turning Point

Be Very Afraid

Be Very Afraid

Crossing the Energy Divide

Crossing the Energy Divide

The Economic Growth Engine

The Economic Growth Engine

Energy, Complexity and Wealth Maximization

Energy, Complexity and Wealth Maximization

Accounting for Resources, 2

Accounting for Resources, 2

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