Product Description
The road to global security," writes Jeremy Rifkin, "lies in lessening our dependence on Middle East oil and making sure that all people on Earth have access to the energy they need to sustain life. Weaning the world off oil and turning it toward hydrogen is a promissory note for a safer world." Rifkin's international bestseller The Hydrogen Economy presents the clearest, most comprehensive case for moving ourselves away from the destructive and waning years of the oil era toward a new kind of energy regime. Hydrogen-one of the most abundant substances in the universe-holds the key, Rifkin argues, to a cleaner, safer, and more sustainable world.

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.0 based on 19 reviews)

Light at the end of the tunnel

Rifkin, in easily understandable language, provides a history of the US's reliance on OIL for energy. After building the historical foundation of economic considerations regarding OIL, he takes the reader to the potentiality of hydrogen use for energy.
This reader, after The Hydrogen Economy's terrific presentation, feels secure that American industry and global free enterprise will smoothly transition away from the strangle hold of OIL.
August 28, 2008

Great Read

This is a fantastic book. Well researched and Rifkin goes into more then just energy but also into geo politics, history, and the environment. I read this book when it first came out and Rifkin is proving to be a prophet as everything he said is coming true even before it was fashionable. From war to hyperinflation, to global warming this book really lays it out and is very thought provoking.
August 10, 2008

A must read-why we must move to a hydrogen economy

This book details exactly why we must move away from our dependence on fossil fuels, from the geopolitical struggles to the environmental issues, and sets forth the absolute benefits for hydrogen based energy-it is 100% renewable, and the technology to harness it would equalize all members of the human race.

Does it give technical details as to how hydrogen energy could be harnessed? No. Those are details best left to the research scientists and the engineers. But it gives the general public all the reasons why we should be demanding our scientists and engineers develop this technology and then make it available to the general public.

Read this book because you want to equalize society. Read this book because you want to equalize the human race.
June 18, 2007

A rather rushed leap to hydrogen determinism

Jeremy Rifkin is known for being a radical visionary and much was expected of him when he embraced hydrogen as our energy panacea. However, this book recycles a lot of old ideas and basically presents more historical material on peak oil than it does on hydrogen. Rifkin also succumbs to fearmongering tactics in the post-9/11 world by having a full chpater on "The Islamist Wild Card." He could have just as well considered the "Venezuelan" wild card. This book fails to deliver any plausible scenarios on how a hydrogen economy is viable when fuel cells require tremendous material usage. As Rifkin admits himself, fuel cells are not a new invention and predate the internal combustion engine. However, they have not been economically viable because hydrogen production is still the big problem. If we use methane to produce hydrogen we are stuck with the nonrenewability issue and if we use electrolysis, the only sensible way would be to use renewables such as wind, solar, geothermal and small-hydro to carry out the electrolysis. How such a transition will be made is missed in the analysis. The most promising feature of fuel cells is that they can be used to feed back into the grid if the infrastructure exists. Only one chapter is devoted to brushing through these intractable issues. Amory Lovins is far more astute in his writings on this matter.
March 25, 2007

Unfortunantly this is a view I share

World oil is declining and this book explains all the facts related to the coming end of the oil age. If you don't believe its true you will after reading this book and the book "the Coming economic collapse". Not sure hydrogen is viable the way this author states but if we can develop "just in time" hydrogen generation we may have a chance. I wish someone could explain how Stanley Mayer was generating hydrogen by fracturing water as he described but unfortunately he was killed.
August 01, 2006

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