Author │ Coal Industry Expert │ Journalist As the price of oil soars and “energy independence” becomes an ever more urgent political concern, coal is growing as a readily available and strategically significant d
omestic energy source. In
Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America’s Energy Future (Houghton Mifflin, 2006) veteran journalist Jeff Goodell takes a frank look at coal, which is being hailed as the cheap energy solution of the future.
Based on exhaustive research on the history of the U.S. energy industry and the environmental, political and economic issues underlying coal, he exposes its many hidden costs—greenhouse emissions, pollution, toll on the environment, miners and mining communities, industry collusion that stifles innovation—and discusses how we, as well as developing nations like India and China, will have to confront these pressing problems as global energy demand surges.
Long after we have run out of oil and natural gas, we will still have coal. As Jeff Goodell compellingly documents, this is a blessing that is also a curse.
Big Coal should be read by anybody who owns a microwave, or an iPod, or a table lamp, which is to say everyone.
—
Elizabeth Kolbert, author of
Field Notes From A CatastropheHis next book,
How to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the Audacious Quest to Fix the Earth’s Climate (2010) is the daring—some would say crazy—effort to adjust the Earth’s thermostat and save us all from global warming.
Right now, a group of scientists is working on ways to minimize the catastrophic impact of global warming. But they’re not designing hybrids or fuel cells or wind turbines. They’re trying to lower the temperature of the entire planet. And they’re doing it with huge contraptions that suck CO2 from the air, machines that brighten clouds and deflect sunlight away from the Earth, even artificial volcanoes that spray heat-reflecting particles into the atmosphere.
This is the radical and controversial world of geoengineering, which only five years ago was considered fringe. But as journalist Jeff Goodell points out, the economic crisis, combined with global political realities, is making these ideas look sane, even inspired.
Goodell himself started out as a skeptic, concerned about tinkering with the planet’s thermostat. We can’t even predict next week’s weather, so how are we going to change the temperature of whole regions? What if a wealthy entrepreneur sends particles into the stratosphere on his own? Who gets blamed if something goes terribly wrong? And perhaps most disturbing, what about wars waged with climate control as the primary weapon? There are certainly risks, but Goodell believes the alternatives could be worse. In the end, he persuades us that geoengineering may just be our last best hope—a Plan B for the environment. His compelling tale of scientific hubris and technical daring is sure to jumpstart the next big debate about the future of life on Earth.
Jeff Goodell is a contributing editor at
Rolling Stone and a frequent contributor to the
New York Times Magazine. He is the author of the
New York Times bestseller
Our Story: 77 Hours That Tested Our Friendship and Our Faith, based on the terrifying hours nine Quecreek miners spent trapped underground; he appeared on Oprah to talk with the miners about their experience. Goodell’s memoir,
Sunnyvale: The Rise and Fall of a Silicon Valley Family, was a
New York Times Notable Book. His most recently published book,
Big Coal, is the basis for an upcoming feature documentary,
Dirty Business. Goodell's next book,
How to Cool the Planet, will be published in 2010.
Selected WritingsHow to Cool the Planet: Geoengineering and the Audacious Quest to Fix the Earth’s Climate (Houghton Mifflin, forthcoming 2010)
Big Coal: The Dirty Secret Behind America's Energy Future (Houghton Mifflin, 2007)
Our Story: 77 Hours That Tested Our Friendship and Our Faith (Hyperion, 2002)
Sunnyvale: The Rise and Fall of a Silicon Valley Family (Vintage, 2001)
Selected Lecture TopicsGeoengineering and Climate Change
America's Energy Future and Coal
The Quecreek Mining Accident
Media