Dramatic forest fires in California, flooding in Mozambique, unusual heat waves in Europe, hurricanes of strength never seen before—the world’s climate is getting out of control. The list of human casualties and damage in billions of euros and dollars is getting longer day by day. Weather experts and climatologists make it clear that global carbon dioxide emissions are accelerating, and as a consequence, the world’s climate is becoming unpredictable. This book, an updated edition of The Triumph of the Sun: The Energy of the New Century, is not another disaster report. It brings good news. It presents the details of a solar revolution that started with the dawn of the new century. The new solar energy conquered the markets and sidelined the conventional sources. Supplemented with the latest facts and figures, the book features new and updated sections on topics such as climate change, greenhouse gas emissions, carbon allowances and CO2 taxes, auto-consumption, and renewable energy for heat and transport. Energy being at the heart of economic development and everybody’s well-being, the new dominance of the renewables, which are the key to combating global change, revolutionized our society as a whole for the better. The author of the book witnessed the progress of this solar revolution and was one of the pioneers in the development of modern solar technologies.

Photovoltaics (PV), the solar power, which was nothing a few years ago, is the world leader in clean and sustainable energy today. It has become low-cost and affordable for everybody: Millions of people have already invested in it. This book reports on the euphoria resulting from solar PV that started about half a century ago in the United States, followed by Japan. By the turn of the century was triggered the first PV market explosion in Germany, followed by the great financial and industrial turmoil ending up with China’s leadership. Today, the solar euphoria has embraced the whole world, with hundreds of billions of dollars being invested in millions of PV plants on buildings or on the ground. The book is a guide to investing while helping to save the environment. It tells everything about solar power.

This book explores the intrinsically multiscale issue of renewable energy transition from a local, national and transnational perspective, and provides insights into current developments in the Upper Rhine Region that can serve as an international model. Organised around the exploration of stakeholder issues, the volume first describes a framework for public action and modelling and then articulates a triple complementary focus from the viewpoint of law, economics and sociology. This multidisciplinary approach is anchored in the social sciences, but also explores the ways in which technological issues are increasingly debated in the implementation of the ecological transition. With a focus on the Upper Rhine Region of France, Germany and Switzerland, the contributions throughout analyse how concrete regional projects emerge, and whether they are carried out by local authorities, private energy groups, network associations or committed citizens. From this, it appears that real-world energy transition modes can be best understood as permanent transactional processes involving institutional regulations, economic levers and barriers and social interactions. This book will be of interest to advanced students and scholars focusing on renewable energy transition, stakeholder issues, environment and sustainability studies, as well as those who are interested in the methodological aspects of the social sciences, especially within the fields of sociology, law, economy, geography, political science, urbanism and planning.

In this fast-paced, reflective novel, (the second in a trilogy following Strangers and Sojourners) Michael O'Brien presents the dramatic tale of a family that finds itself in the path of a totalitarian government. Set in the near future, the story describes the rise of a police state in North America in which every level of society is infected with propaganda, confusion and disinformation. Few people are equipped to recognize what is happening because the culture of the Western world has been deformed by a widespread undermining of moral absolutes. Against this background, the Delaney family of Swiftcreek, British Columbia, is struck a severe blow when the father of the family, the editor of a small newspaper which dares to speak the truth, is arrested by the dreaded Office of Internal Security. His older children flee into the forest of the northern interior, accompanied by their great-grandfather and an elderly priest, Father Andrei. Their little brother Arrow also becomes a fugitive as the government seeks to remove any witnesses, and eradicate all evidence of its ultimate goals. As O'Brien draws together the several strands of the story into a frightening yet moving climax, he explores the heart of growing darkness in North America, examining events which have already occurred. The reader will take away from this disturbing book a number of urgent questions: Are we living in the decisive moment of history? How dire is our situation? Do we live in pessimistic dread, or a Christian realism founded on hope? This is a tale about the victory of the weak over the powerful, courage over terror, good over evil, and, above all, the triumph of love.

All-American quarterback Charlie Conerly's college career was interrupted by World War II. He started at University of Mississippi in 1942, fought in the Battle of Guam in 1944, then led Ole Miss to their first conference championship in 1947. He went on to play for the New York Giants from 1948 to 1961, ultimately leading them to an NFL title. A College Football Hall of Famer, Conerly was a professional All-Star and the lynchpin of the Giants offense at time when the team was loaded with Hall of Famers who unduly overshadowed him during his heyday. New York won repeat divisional crowns under the soft-spoken Conerly and participated in the suspenseful, first-ever sudden death NFL title game in 1958. This first-ever full-length biography chronicles his life and career in detail.

Comprehensive and engaging, this colourful study covers the whole sweep of ritual history from the earliest written records to the present day. From May Day revels and Midsummer fires, to Harvest Home and Hallowe'en, to the twelve days of Christmas, Ronald Hutton takes us on a fascinating journey through the ritual year in Britain. He challenges many common assumptions about the customs of the past, and debunks many myths surrounding festivals of the present, to illuminate the history of the calendar year we live by today.