Energies: An Illustrated Guide to the Biosphere and Civilization

This is an incredibly easy book to read and understand, amply illustrated by clear graphics. This is not a simple book. It is an encyclopedia of energy, from sunlight, to the biology produced by sunlight, to the energy we gain from using our environment as fuel. Reading through each section (they are clear and cogent) is an exercise in connecting simple inputs with complex outputs. The section on transportation takes you from walking to running to riding the bicycle, all the way to trains, planes, and rocket boosters, all of which developed differently and use energy very differently. The book is packed with wonderful essays that are well written, ideas that jump off the page, and graphic illustrations that make sense. It's one of those books you can actually flop open at random and get engrossed in all over again. If there's a criticism to this book, it is that it is only a sampler. It could easily have been twice as long.

This is a fascinating book. It provides a comprehensive and integrated survey of the energies shaping our world. It is filled with diagrams, graphs, maps, drawings and photographs to support the text.This book can't be described. It has to be experienced: energy production of the sun, global patterns of latent heat flux, a horse's suspensory and check ligaments that allow it to use hardly any additional energy for standing, preindustrial societies, cars and computers and much more.Use this book for reference and for browsing. Spend an afternoon with a calculator and the figures listed in the tables in this book. You will begin to appreciate the complex relationships involving the energies that shape our world.