Read this Now: GOOD

Will gave you a rundown of the National Military Strategy late yesterday afternoon, so for this morning I’ll be brief: if you’re in a book store or airport scouting for good reads, pick up the current issue of GOOD. This holds especially true if you’re one of our more water- or land-use-focused readers and newer to the energy world.

This entire issue is on energy, and is appropriately titled “The Energy Issue.” Its articles range from the very basics (what do AC and DC mean, other than hard rocking when put together) to how the weak-ish results of the past few rounds of climate change
negotiations will affect U.S. energy policy in the coming years. Another article provides the basics you need to know on new and improved transmission and energy storage technologies.

The most notable short piece highlights clean tech development "leapfrogging" in developing countries. I'd just note with it that many of the energy tech folks I met from the Middle East and North Africa when traveling last November suggested that moving R&D for things like solar would allow more rapid advancement if you conduct this work in the sun-intense deserts of that region rather than in temperate and even low-sun locations. We'd have to poll some scientists to know for sure, but it's yet another question to ponder as the U.S. government considers how to use energy as a new area of relationship-building and cooperation with international partners.