This book looks at institutional reforms for the use of energy, water and resources toward a sustainable future in East Asia. The book argues that developments in the East Asian region are critical to global sustainability and acknowledges that there is an increasing degree of mutual reliance among countries in East Asia – primarily China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. It analyzes environmental impacts stemming from the use of energy, water and mineral resources via economic development in East Asia in the medium to long term (through 2050) through theoretical and empirical modelling. The book also evaluates the ripple effects of environmental and resource policies on each country’s economy and clarifies the direction of institutional reform in energy systems, resources and water use for a sustainable future.

Offers a critical and realistic reassessment of the threats posed to the environment in the Middle East, and what can be done about them.

A forceful reckoning with the relationship between energy and power through the history of what was once East Asia’s largest coal mine. The coal-mining town of Fushun in China’s Northeast is home to a monstrous open pit. First excavated in the early twentieth century, this pit grew like a widening maw over the ensuing decades, as various Chinese and Japanese states endeavored to unearth Fushun’s purportedly “inexhaustible” carbon resources. Today, the depleted mine that remains is a wondrous and terrifying monument to fantasies of a fossil-fueled future and the technologies mobilized in attempts to turn those developmentalist dreams into reality. In Carbon Technocracy, Victor Seow uses the remarkable story of the Fushun colliery to chart how the fossil fuel economy emerged in tandem with the rise of the modern technocratic state. Taking coal as an essential feedstock of national wealth and power, Chinese and Japanese bureaucrats, engineers, and industrialists deployed new technologies like open-pit mining and hydraulic stowage in pursuit of intensive energy extraction. But as much as these mine operators idealized the might of fossil fuel–driven machines, their extractive efforts nevertheless relied heavily on the human labor that those devices were expected to displace. Under the carbon energy regime, countless workers here and elsewhere would be subjected to invasive techniques of labor control, ever-escalating output targets, and the dangers of an increasingly exploited earth. Although Fushun is no longer the coal capital it once was, the pattern of aggressive fossil-fueled development that led to its ascent endures. As we confront a planetary crisis precipitated by our extravagant consumption of carbon, it holds urgent lessons. This is a groundbreaking exploration of how the mutual production of energy and power came to define industrial modernity and the wider world that carbon made.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER NATIONAL BESTSELLER In this urgent, singularly authoritative book, Bill Gates sets out a wide-ranging, practical--and accessible--plan for how the world can get to zero greenhouse gas emissions in time to avoid an irreversible climate catastrophe. Bill Gates has spent a decade investigating the causes and effects of climate change. With the help and guidance of experts in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, engineering, political science and finance, he has focused on exactly what must be done in order to stop the planet's slide toward certain environmental disaster. In this book, he not only gathers together all the information we need to fully grasp how important it is that we work toward net-zero emissions of greenhouse gases but also details exactly what we need to do to achieve this profoundly important goal. He gives us a clear-eyed description of the challenges we face. He describes the areas in which technology is already helping to reduce emissions; where and how the current technology can be made to function more effectively; where breakthrough technologies are needed, and who is working on these essential innovations. Finally, he lays out a concrete plan for achieving the goal of zero emissions--suggesting not only policies that governments should adopt, but what we as individuals can do to keep our government, our employers and ourselves accountable in this crucial enterprise. As Bill Gates makes clear, achieving zero emissions will not be simple or easy to do, but by following the guidelines he sets out here, it is a goal firmly within our reach.

The rapid and sustained economic growth of the past two decades has led to marked increases in energy demand in the region and developing Asia will continue to lead the energy demand growth. The increase in energy demand threatens energy security and efforts to curb carbon dioxide emissions, affecting health and social well-being. These common energy challenges will need to be addressed through concerted efforts. This book provides several multi-dimensional quantitative analysis of the relationship between energy and other subjects including but not limited to income and economic growth, environment and health, food and agricultural production. The book also provides the most constructive policy recommendations concerning the relationship between energy, economic development, social development, and environmental development.