The book excerpts selected for this issue of Energy Today reflect the unique complexities of humanity’s most daunting challenge: the pursuit of abundant, affordable and safe energy. There is a common thread that connects all of the books: in Superpower, one man’s quixotic dream to build a massive renewable energy grid is part of the larger story told in Power Trip, which describes the evolutionary march of modern energy sources; and, one woman’s struggles with a family farm in The Fate of Food can be seen as a microcosm of The Dreamt Land, a story of drought and plenty in California’s agricultural empire. And, in Signs On the Earth, we see the impact that energy has on individuals, faith and whole civilizations.   

Together these five books powerfully illustrate the impact of energy. All that is fundamental to human life—food, water, faith, modernity— is changing on a scale and at a pace never before seen. No doubt these five books will raise a lot of questions, many of which won’t have answers. But perhaps there is some comfort, and even inspiration, in recognizing that in the age-old quest to solve our energy challenges, we are not taking this journey alone.

Superpower
​By Russell Gold

Infrastructure builder Michael Skelly began working on wind energy in 2000, when many considered the industry a joke. Eight years later, Skelly helped create the second largest wind power company in the United States—which was sold for $2 billion.

See Also: L.A. Confidential

The Fate of Food
By Amanda Little

In the fascinating story of the sustainable food revolution, an environmental journalist and professor asks the question: Is the future of food looking bleak—or better than ever as the world grows hotter, but smarter.

See Also: Best In Snow

Power Trip
By Michael W. Webber

​As we face down growing demand for and accumulating environmental impacts from energy, we are at a crossroads and the stakes are high. But history shows us energy's great value is that it allows societies to reinvent themselves.

See also: The War of the Currents

The Dreamt Land
By Mark Arax

A vivid, searching journey into California’s capture of water and soil; the epic story of a people’s defiance of nature and the wonders, and ruin, it has wrought.

See also: Water and Food Security

Double Jeopardy
By Daniel B. Poneman

The author makes the case that we can advance the goal of decarbonizing even while using nuclear power to combat climate change and reduce the risks of nuclear terror.

See also: The Myth of Energy Security

Signs on the Earth
By Fazlun Khalid

A major study of environmentalism and Islam in practice and theory, with an historical overview that sets out future challenges, including reformulating the fiqh or Islamic legal tradition to take the ecological dimension seriously.

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