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Earth Day Begs the Question about the Future of Energy

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


Yes, today is the 43rd annual Earth Day recognition worldwide. A number of live and online events are taking place; see a list below for some unusual items. But in 2013, to me, the day raises a central question about how to power the human race without killing the planet in the process.

Two recent publications from Scientific American tackle this question head-on. First is a new eBook called Earth, Wind and Fire: The Future of Energy. It takes a fascinating and no-nonsense tour through the potential and problems of all sorts of renewable energy options, from the familiar solar and wind to some radical research projects, among them machines that turn sunlight into gasoline and shape-memory alloys that turn waste heat inside car engines into electricity. Information about all our eBooks is at the same site, including editions on climate change and water management.

Second is an interview with Mark Jacobson, a researcher at Stanford University who has produced incredibly detailed plans for how the world could get all of its energy solely from wind, water and the sun. He has also scaled the formula down for New York State as a first real-life test case for how to implement such a plan.


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For other Earth Day fun, you can add your face to a wonderful and interactive online photo-mosaic that is growing by the hour, run by the Earth Day Network. The New York Times has posted a beautiful slide show of stunning black-and-white images of nature’s beauty that remains untouched by human hands. If you prefer movies or music, check out a music video put together by actor Ed Begley, Jr., and singer Jason Mraz about clean energy. And if architecture is your thing, you can look inside what is being called the greenest office building in the world, the Bullitt Center in Seattle, which opened … today, of course.

Image: Public domain, by Matriot on Wikimedia Commons

Mark Fischetti has been a senior editor at Scientific American for 17 years and has covered sustainability issues, including climate, weather, environment, energy, food, water, biodiversity, population, and more. He assigns and edits feature articles, commentaries and news by journalists and scientists and also writes in those formats. He edits History, the magazine's department looking at science advances throughout time. He was founding managing editor of two spinoff magazines: Scientific American Mind and Scientific American Earth 3.0. His 2001 freelance article for the magazine, "Drowning New Orleans," predicted the widespread disaster that a storm like Hurricane Katrina would impose on the city. His video What Happens to Your Body after You Die?, has more than 12 million views on YouTube. Fischetti has written freelance articles for the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian, Technology Review, Fast Company, and many others. He co-authored the book Weaving the Web with Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, which tells the real story of how the Web was created. He also co-authored The New Killer Diseases with microbiologist Elinor Levy. Fischetti is a former managing editor of IEEE Spectrum Magazine and of Family Business Magazine. He has a physics degree and has twice served as the Attaway Fellow in Civic Culture at Centenary College of Louisiana, which awarded him an honorary doctorate. In 2021 he received the American Geophysical Union's Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism, which celebrates a career of outstanding reporting on the Earth and space sciences. He has appeared on NBC's Meet the Press, CNN, the History Channel, NPR News and many news radio stations. Follow Fischetti on X (formerly Twitter) @markfischetti

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