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Energy Shocks was written to dispel many of the misunderstandings and misrepresentations related to energy and carbon dioxide, while explaining how energy and carbon dioxide actually work.

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Energy Shocks is composed of three sections.

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In the first section, Energy Shocks provides a comprehensive understanding of energy, covering the history of the human use of energy in addition to assessing each of the forms of modern energy. The first section of Energy Shocks critically assesses the Energy Transition, intended to replace fossil fuels with alternatives that do not emit carbon dioxide. Energy Shocks develops the power of energy to make our world a better place, acknowledging that at a conceptual level green energy can make a positive contribution to our energy mix; however, Energy Shocks elaborates why the scope of the potential contribution from green energy is significantly more limited than often assumed.

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​In the second section, Energy Shocks makes the point that the most important discoveries ever made relating to carbon dioxide were not made by John Tyndall in 1859 when he determined that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas: The most important discoveries ever made relating to carbon dioxide were made between 2016 and 2019. For reference, satellites, such as NASA’s Terra satellite, which was launched in 1999, have only recently been in orbit long enough to provide us with the shocking realities of how our Earth is actually changing over the decades due to increased concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Specifically, in 2016, a team of thirty-two scientists from globally recognized institutions discovered that increasing the concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the most significant driver of increased plant growth on our Earth.[1] In 2018, a team of seven scientists, including several from NASA itself, published a report, based on satellite data, indicating that “contrary to the prevailing view” forests are growing (net of losses) at a staggering rate of 2.0% per decade.[2] In 2019, a team of fifteen scientists from globally recognized institutions determined, based on observations from NASA’s Terra satellite, that the green leaf covered area of the Earth is increasing at a staggering rate of 2.3% per decade.[3] The second section concludes that based on a growing body of evidence, mainly based on directly observed satellite data, there are new perspectives to contemplate the changes that are occurring on our Earth due to the carbon dioxide emitted from the use of fossil fuels.

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In the third section, nineteen independent subjects are developed through short essays to give broader context to understand energy and carbon dioxide. The most critical subject developed relates to farming, which is the foundation of human civilization and prosperity. Agriculture has been largely ignored in discussions relating to the Energy Transition – an oversight that is increasing global hunger, poverty and habitat loss for wildlife.

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Energy Shocks provides sufficient depth of analysis for experts while attempting to be imminently readable by non-experts.

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The book is entitled Energy Shocks because the emerging realities of the Energy Transition and carbon dioxide are providing new, and critical, perspectives to consider both subjects. To the extent that Energy Shocks critically assesses many widely held assumptions, the hundreds of citations to referenced sources are integral to Energy Shocks.

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The underlying purpose of Energy Shocks is to demystify both energy and carbon dioxide and to provide a straightforward understanding of how they work and to provide context to appreciate how they relate to other issues affecting our world.

 

[1] Carbon Dioxide Fertilization Greening Earth, Study Finds – NASA – https://www.nasa.gov – Accessed: March 2021; and

Greening of the Earth and its Drivers – Zaichun Zhu and 31 additional authors – Nature Climate Change – 25 April 2016

[2] Global land change from 1982 to 2016 – Xiao-Peng Song, Matthew C. Hansen, Stephen V. Stehman, Peter V. Potapov, Alexandra Tyukavina, Eric F. Vermote & John R. Townshend – Nature – 8 August 2018

[3] China and India Lead the Way in Greening – Abby Tabor – NASA Earth Observatory – https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov – Accessed: March 2021; and  

China and India lead in greening of the world through land-use management – Chi Chen, Taejin Park, Xuhui Wang, Shilong Piao, Baodong Xu, Rajiv K. Chaturvedi, Richard Fuchs, Victor Brovkin, Philippe Ciais, Rasmus Fensholt, Hans Tømmervik, Govindasamy Bala, Zaichun Zhu, Ramakrishna R. Nemani & Ranga B. Myneni – Nature Sustainability – 11 February 2019

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