The science is conclusive: to avoid irreversible climate collapse,
the burning of all fossil fuels will have to end in the next decade.
In this concise and highly readable intervention, Ashley Dawson sets
out what is required to make this momentous shift: simply replacing
coal-fired power plants with for-profit solar energy farms will only
maintain the toxic illusion that it is possible to sustain
relentlessly expanding energy consumption. We can no longer think of
energy as a commodity. Instead we must see it as part of the global
commons, a vital element in the great stock of air, water, plants,
and cultural forms like language and art that are the inheritance of
humanity as a whole.
People's Power
provides a persuasive critique of a market-led transition to
renewable energy. It surveys the early development of the electric
grid in the United States, telling the story of battles for public
control over power during the Great Depression. This history frames
accounts of contemporary campaigns, in both the United States and
Europe, that eschew market fundamentalism and sclerotic state power
in favor of energy that is green, democratically managed and
equitably shared.