Kicking the Carbon Habit: Global Warming and the Case for Renewable and Nuclear Energy , WilliamSweet , Columbia U. Press, New York, 2006. $27.95 (256 pp.). ISBN 978-0-231-13710-2

Energy for the Public: The Case for Increased Nuclear Fission Energy , BookSurge, Charleston, SC, 2006. $49.95 (310 pp.). ISBN 978-0-938711-85-8

The most fascinating thing about the realities of energy is the difficulties new technologies face when they are introduced. We have become so dependent on the ease and comfort of fossil fuels oil, and particularly gas that transitioning to hybrid vehicles or to a hydrogen economy will be the technical challenge of the century.

William Sweet s Kicking the Carbon Habit: Global Warming and the Case for Renewable and Nuclear Energy is an interesting, well written book. It is a must read for anyone who wants a good summary of our current under standing of global warming and the options before us. By contrast, Energy for the Public: The Case for Increased Nuclear Fission Energy by R. Stephen White is so wide ranging it is hard to summarize. If readers wish to peruse White s book for interesting energy facts and a reality check on the practicalities of alternative energy sources, then the text is certainly worth reading. But if readers are interested in how the technologies actually work, they won t find that information in his book.

Sweet, a senior news editor at IEEE Spectrum, covers the basics of the formation of coal and oil deposits, climatology, data collection, and analysis and interpretation. He also touches on climate changes over 700 000 years, as evidenced by ice pack field explorations. During that period, the link between Earth s average temperature and car bon dioxide concentrations is remark able. As the concentration of CO2 varied from its historic average by 100 parts per million by volume, many ice ages and warm periods have occurred as the narrow global average temperature variation was 2 °C to 8 °C. Today we are well outside the historic range of CO2 concentrations. Never has the concentration been as high, which may counteract the naturally expected cyclic cold periods on Earth because of the variability of its distance from the Sun.

Sweet presents the information through the eyes of people who have actually done the work, which makes for an interesting narrative. He is convinced that global warming is the result of the billions of tons of CO2 and other greenhouse gases that are being emitted annually worldwide. He sees little chance of reducing those emissions unless a serious effort is made in all sectors of the economy and overall energy use. The chief culprit is the burning of coal, even though the burning of oil products in the transportation sector contributes almost an equal amount of CO2 emissions. Unfortunately, the problem is complex and thus not easily modeled. Researchers still do not understand the climate change process well, which Sweet openly admits.

The author provides an excellent summary of realistic contributions from existing energy sources and of energy options proposed by advocates of renewable energy sources. He proposes that we must wean ourselves off of coal, the major source of CO2 emissions. He reviews the Kyoto Protocol and concludes that it is possible to meet the lofty goals established in 1992. But it will not be easy. He emphasizes that, in addition to renewable energy sources and various energy conservation and efficiency options, nuclear energy must also play a significant role. For instance, he believes wind is a demonstrated performer but that it will be limited in its application, largely because of enormous energy demands and wind power s overall lower energy efficiency. Regarding nuclear energy, Sweet says, The most important thing that can be said of nuclear reactors is that they work, in contrast to wouldn t it be nice if renewable alternatives.

White, a professor emeritus of physics at the University of California, Riverside, is even more enthusiastic about the abilities of nuclear energy to contribute to a reduction of greenhouse gases. The purpose of his book, he writes, is to inform the public about its choices on energy policy issues and help it make realistic decisions based on the knowledge of science. What is startling about Energy for the Public is that in 310 pages not a single graphic, photograph, or sketch can be found to explain any of the technologies White reviews. Such omissions are significant limitations. But the book does provide some interesting facts about energy, energy sources, and the politics of power. In four parts White establishes energy fundamentals; introduces a high level review of options for sustainability, reliability, safety, cost, and pollution; delves into the wisdom of deregulation using the California experience as a bad example, with sidebars about Enron and its role in the debacle; and discusses hybrid vehicles, fuel cells, and the hydrogen economy for replacing oil in the transportation sector.

White sees nuclear energy as an energy source to replace fossil fuels, pro vide electricity, produce hydrogen for transportation, and desalinate water from the sea. He returns frequently to the theme that nuclear energy is a proven, safe performer that does not emit greenhouse gases such as CO2. In his review of renewable energy sources, including wind, solar, and biomass, he provides some hard data about their physical limitations to become significant contributors to the world s energy needs. He attempts to base his findings on science, although his foray into the California deregulation debacle is a departure whose purpose is to warn us about how policy made in the absence of knowledge and understanding can lead to costly failures.

White hopes that nuclear energy will be the transitional energy source, but he does not appear to be optimistic: In his opinion the natural advocates, environ mental organizations and industry, are conflicted for different reasons: The for mer has a history of aversion to nuclear energy; the latter, a heavy reliance on burning coal and other fossil fuels.

Compared with Energy for the Public, Sweet s book is more worrisome. After reading Kicking the Carbon Habit, you may become frightened, angry, or simply depressed because the problem seems so personally overwhelming, with global warming and climate change being inevitable. The only question for the world might be what form climate change will take. Will Earth get hotter or colder, wetter or drier? Or will all those possibilities occur, depending on where you live? The bottom line conclusion is that we do not know whether cataclysmic climate change is going to happen or when.

Overall, both books offer a sobering, timely message. The global environ mental impact of a business as usual energy strategy is clearly unacceptable. The good news may be that we run out of fossil fuels before we do irreparable damage to the environment. Some argue that we are very close to that irreparable point now.

Andrew C. Kadak is a professor in the department of nuclear science and engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His research interests include reactor physics, reactor engineering, safety analysis, economics, waste disposal, and nonproliferation and energy policy.