The Future of Energy: A Special Report
It’s going to take a lot more than changing lightbulbs to get us on the path to sustainability. We investigate the options (solar? nuclear? cow poop?), what’s hype, what’s really happening, and who’s standing in the way of change.
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DEPARTMENTS
Editors’ Note
Masthead
Contributors
Backtalk
OUTFRONT
The Iraqi exile who could foil Bush’s plans for permanent bases; fluoride bites back; a refugee couple’s happy ending; HIV’s morning-after pill; wizards for Ron Paul; KBR answers to no one; energy iconoclast James Woolsey; squatters take over foreclosed homes.
EXHIBIT
8 Lbs, 21 Inches, 3,800 Diapers, and 1,525 Tons of Carbon
Little feet sure do pitter-patter, all right. All over the planet.
WITNESS
Constant Sorrow
It wasn’t Toto Constant’s human rights violations in Haiti that finally landed him in prison. It was mortgage fraud in Long Island.
PRACTICAL VALUES
Inn Excess
Why are hotels’ environmental values on permanent vacation?
MEDIA JONES
Debra J. Dickerson on how the Moral Majority fudged its numbers; filmmaker Errol Morris sees through Abu Ghraib; the return of Susan Meiselas’ Kurdistan; plus more book(Opting In, Leisureville: Advertures in America’s Reitrement Utopias, Hospital: Man, Woman, Birth, Death, Infinity, Plus Red Tape, Bad Behavior, Money, God and Diversity on Steroids), film, and music(Mr. Love & Justice, Pershing, Warchild, Stronger) reviews
FEATURES
CRUDE AWAKENING
The Seven Myths Of Energy Independence
Kicking our foreign-oil habit may sound like a good idea, but it’s nothing more than a pipe dream.
POWER BROKERS
Put a Tyrant in Your Tank
The new kings of crude are even bigger (and badder) than Big Oil.
The Greenback Effect
Markets can help us fight global warming—if we teach them how.
THE TRANSFORMERS
Sol Man
The founder of Match.com wants to hook Americans up with solar.
Breaking The Gridlock
The Smart Grid could fix one of the biggest obstacles to energy efficiency—us.
It Keeps Going and Going…
Batteries were born before Christ. So why haven’t we gotten them right yet?
Rural Renewal
These small towns were dying. Then alternative power reenergized them.
THE N-WORD
The Nuclear Option
Is it time to reconsider atomic energy?
FRONTIER OIL
Tar Wars
Scenes from Canada’s Wild West, where oil fever extracts a heavy toll.
THE RESISTERS
Scrubbing King Coal
Power companies say they’re cleaning up their act when really they’re just cleaning up their image.
Fossil Fools
Who stands between us and a clean-energy future? These guys.
Cover Illustration by Joe Zeff Design, Inc.
