Greg Pahl - Books for Sustainable Living
Books
The Citizen-Powered Energy Handbook: Community Solutions to a Global Crisis
Chelsea Green Publishing (February 2007)
Foreword by Richard Heinberg
Editorial Review
In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, Al Gore's summer blockbuster An Inconvenient Truth, and crude oil prices soaring to all time highs, more people than ever know the truth about our oil addiction. Global Warming is here. M. King Hubbert's oil peak is approaching (or already here). The secret's out: fossil fuel reserves are dwindling and popular interest has created the need for accessible, realistic solutions.
The Citizen-Powered Energy Handbook, a clear-eyed view of the critical situation we face, offers ways out. Greg Pahl examines energy technologies currently available and hones in on renewable energy strategies that can be adopted by individuals and communities. Such cooperative initiatives have been common in Europe for years and are beginning to gain a foothold in the US. Each chapter focuses on a different renewable energy category—solar, wind, water, biomass, liquid biofuels, and geothermal—then reviews their advantages and disadvantages and describes numerous examples of successful, proven local initiatives.
The Citizen-Powered Energy Handbook is an eloquent appeal for community and regional action to initiate an array of solutions to energy needs until now controlled by large, distant utilities and consortiums. It is time to take back control of the energy and environmental challenges ahead; this book will help people do just that. It is a handbook for anyone ready to take the first steps towards a more sustainable future.
"The Citizen-Powered Energy Handbook provides an inspiring vision and a wonderfully specific blueprint for saving both the planet and our other greatest natural resource—our shredded sense of community." —Ross Gelbspan, author of Boiling Point and The Heat Is On
Biodiesel: Growing a New Energy Economy
Chelsea Green Publishing (January 2005)
Foreword by Bill McKibben
Editorial Review
Has world oil ouptut peaked? Recent price spikes and dwindling reserves have spurred fears that we are fast approaching the critical tipping point that will trigger severe global economic depression, political instability, and human suffering.
Today 95 percent of global oil is consumed for transportation, and other alternatives are distant possibilities at best. We need a solution now, one that will pave the way to a saner, more sustainable energy future without massive reinvestments in infrastructure and technology transfer. We need biodiesel.
A crop-derived liquid fuel, biodiesel can be made from a wide range of renewable, locally grown plant sources—even from recycled cooking oils or animal fats. The technology is simple and available today, and the benefits of biodiesel are enormous, as both a cleaner-burning vehicle fuel and a source for residential or commercial heating.
biodiesel is:
—more biodegradable than sugar and less toxic than table salt.
—produced from domestic feedstocks, reducing the need for foreign oil while boosting the local economy and supporting the agricultural community.
biodiesel can:
—reduce net CO2 emissions by 78 percent compared with petroleum diesel fuel, cutting greenhouse gases that lead to global warming.
—be mixed with petroleum diesel at any level to produce a cleaner-burning biodiesel blend.
—be blended with No. 2 oil for home heating, usually without any retrofits required.
Greg Pahl's essential new book explores the history and technology of biodiesel, its current use around the world, and its exciting potential in the United States and beyond. While biodiesel is not the answer to all our energy problems, it is an important step in the long overdue process of weaning ourselves from fossil fuels.
"Finally, the book we've been looking for. Greg Pahl's new biodiesel book offers a comprehensive review of all things veggie oil powered. From the history of the diesel engine to the development of the biodiesel industry, past current and future. This is the ultimate primer." —The Propel Project Blog, January 5, 2005
Natural Home Heating: The Complete Guide to Renewable Energy Options
Chelsea Green Publishing (2003)
! Winner of 2004 Independent Publisher Book Award !
Editorial Review
Amazon.com
The first comprehensive guide to heating your home with renewable energy sources. Greg Pahl takes you on a clear, organized tour of all available home heating options, laying out their advantages and disadvantages. Learn how to design or retrofit a house that can be heated comfortably with minimal environmental and financial impact.
Consider:
—95% of American homes are heated with fossil fuels or electricity (which is generated mainly by fossil fuels).
—Oil and gas prices are up by more than 20% as supplies dwindle and sources become less reliable.
—Home heating costs could double or even triple in the event of a fuel crisis.
—The fossil fuel economy is unsustainable.
—There are viable, clean, healthy, and affordable home heating alternatives!
Learn how to burn environmentally friendly bio-diesel fuels, not just in your car, but in your furnace. Find out how a ground-source heat pump works and why it can achieve 400% heating efficiency. Discover what it takes to make burning wood truly sustainable. Natural Home Heating explains all these details and more, making it unique in the marketplace.
"Here is the comprehensive guide to heating your home without heating up the planet. For warm feet and a clear conscience, this is the book you need." —Bill McKibben, author of The End of Nature, and Enough! Staying Human in an Engineered World
The Complete Idiot's Guide to Saving the Environment
Alpha Books (2001)
Editorial Review
This is a comprehensive look at the ways you can make every day Earth Day. You will learn how the environment got into the mess it's in and how we can improve it by reducing, reusing, and recycling at home, at work, and everywhere else. The book also explores sustainability and related issues such as renewable energy, transportation, living patterns, population, green plans, and how you can get involved.
"The first thing we noticed was that the subjects addressed go well beyond the usual. The issue of "the environment" isn't a simple one and to that end the volume, unlike most, admirably addresses its less obvious aspects like the influence of TV, overconsumption, overpopulation, sprawl, social justice, corporate subsidies, factory farming and others factors whose links to our current ecological dilemmas tend to be overlooked. In short, this title has all that you'd expect from a general environmental guidebook and a whole lot more. It may be a Complete Idiot's Guide, but it's remarkably complete, and so deserves to be read by more than just idiots."—Seventh Generation, Burlington, Vermont
Note: A limited number of copies of this book, signed by the author, are available for $16.00 each. Free shipping (in U.S.). Makes a great gift. Click here to contact the author for details.
The Unofficial Guide to Beating Debt
IDG Books (2000)
Editorial Review
In his first book, Greg Pahl looks at sustainable living from a financial perspective. There are millions of Americans who, for one reason or another, are facing serious financial difficulties. If you are one of them, this book offers many useful strategies for everything from undoing years of debt to putting your credit reputation back together. But in addition to the usual financial advice, this book goes one step further, by suggesting a number of ways of using your debt experiences to improve other aspects of your life as well.
"This book is loaded with practical, money-saving tips and strategies for dealing with everything from banks to the IRS. It's a solid reference work, but special sections dealing with "credit problem psychology"—accepting responsibility for your debts, understanding what motivates bad spending, dealing with anxiety—as well as "Escape from Affluenza," "Downshifting," "Voluntary Simplicity," and "The New American Dream" take this book out of the formulaic self-help genre and lift it into a category all its own."—Ellen Michaud, Book Review Editor, Friends Journal
You can probably find these books at your local bookstore. If you're in a hurry, you can order them directly from the publisher or from Amazon.com by clicking on the book cover images, on the "purchase" links above, or on the button to the right.