Is the Future: "Solartopia"?
Harvey Wasserman has a new book coming out called Solartopia which proposes that
[t]he seeds of an ultra-efficient green-powered post-pollution economy have been planted and proven, ecologically and economically. Our presence on this Earth cannot be sustained without it. A Solartopian transformation must happen to end the wars for oil and global-warmed storms, the nuke melt-downs and petro-dictatorships, while initiating an age of full employment, material prosperity and natural harmony.
The ancient Greeks were thoroughly schooled in the science of passive solar building design. Wind power has been profitable for centuries, including at least one machine that operated on Manhattan Island in the 1600s. Bio-fuels will soon be a trillion-dollar industry. And we have barely scraped the surface of increased energy efficiency.
Along with distributed generation and revived mass transit, these are the key components of the necessary and inevitable transformation to Solartopia. Some will translate into electricity, others into hydrogen, still more into straight heating, cooling and people moving.
For more, check out an excerpt here.