The Science council for Global Initiatives

Tom Blees is the author of Prescription for the Planet - The Painless Remedy for Our Energy & Environmental Crises. Tom is also the president of the Science Council for Global Initiatives. Many of the goals of SCGI, and the methods to achieve them, are elucidated in the pages of Blees's book. He is a member of the selection committee for the Global Energy Prize, considered Russia's equivalent of the Nobel Prize for energy research. His work has generated considerable interest among scientists and political figures around the world. Tom has been a consultant and advisor on energy technologies on the local, state, national, and international levels.

Threshold

SCGI’s Thanksgiving week newsletter debuts my current book project, which will be released chapter by chapter as I write it over the next year. The urgency and global importance of energy policies, and energy security, have shaken the world in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In fact, though, the current challenges have been developing for a long time. The problem of inflation that’s being experienced worldwide can be attributed in large part to dramatic rises in energy costs. As Robert Hargraves quite convincingly argued recently in this excellent article, energy is the economy.

The original working title, Moot Point, has been changed. The new title is Threshold – How Energy Abundance Will Transform Our World. We are, literally, at the threshold of a new era that will be made possible by new advanced nuclear power systems that we can expect to see deployed before the end of this decade. At the Threshold will map out some of the most promising systems and explore the many ways in which they can solve some of the thorniest problems associated with the complexity of energy generation and utilization.

My late friend David MacKay inspired me to emulate his example with his book, Sustainable Energy Without the Hot Air, which he distributed for free. So shortly after its publication, I decided to likewise distribute my original book, Prescription for the Planet, for free. More recently, Jim Hansen released his latest book, Sophie’s Planet, chapter-by-chapter as he wrote it. I’d like to acknowledge both David and Jim for their magnanimous example, and for recognizing that if you want to write a book to make a difference in the world, giving it away will tend to get it more widely read, which is the major goal of writing books on policy and technology.

I hope that this work in progress will contribute to a deeper understanding of our challenges, and exciting potential solutions, to the serious issues facing humanity today.

Click here to read the Introduction and download Chapter 1

Tom's New Book

Threshold