Writing Worth Reading
Writing Worth Reading
MacKay does very simple sums, back-of-the-envelope sums, as to how much energy could we get from bio-fuels, how much energy could we get from wind power, how much land would it take? And his conclusion is that they can make a very significant contribution but it is basically not going to solve the problem.
Your next book, Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air, by David J C MacKay, is called ‘the must-have book for anyone who is seriously interested in energy policy’. Is that the case?
Well, this is a very interesting book by a very interesting person. David Mackay is a professor of physics at Cambridge, but is also now the chief scientific advisor at the Department of Energy and Climate Change. So he is very influential. Before he had that appointment he wrote this book, which really tries to put things in context. He does very simple sums, back-of-the-envelope sums, as to how much energy could we get from bio-fuels, how much energy could we get from wind power, how much land would it take? He looks at all these scenarios that you hear talked about, and his conclusion is that they can make a significant contribution but it is basically not going to solve the problem. We are probably going to need additional things like carbon capture and nuclear energy to help fill the gap.
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John Shepherd is a Professorial Research Fellow in Earth System Science in the National Oceanography Centre, University of Southampton, UK. His current research interests include the natural variability of the climate system on long timescales. He has extensive experience of international scientific assessments and advice in the controversial areas of fisheries management, radioactive waste disposal and climate change, and has recently taken a particular interest in the interaction between science and public policy. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1999, participated in the Royal Society study on Ocean Acidification, published in 2005, and chaired the study on Geoengineering the Climate, published in 2009.
