''Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism'' (), by

Ozzie Zehner Ozzie Zehner is an author and visiting scholar. He was the author of '' Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets of Clean Energy and the Future of Environmentalism'', and co-producer of the 2019 environmental documentary ''Planet of the Humans''. He gr ...

, was published in 2012 by the

University of Nebraska Press The University of Nebraska Press, also known as UNP, was founded in 1941 and is an academic publisher of scholarly and general-interest books. The press is under the auspices of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, the main campus of the Univer ...

. It discusses various approaches to "

clean energy Clean may refer to: * Cleaning, the process of removing unwanted substances, such as dirt, infectious agents, and other impurities, from an object or environment * Cleanliness, the state of being clean and free from dirt Arts and media Music Al ...

", and why they do not provide the desired benefits. The author writes: "We don’t have an energy crisis. We have a consumption crisis." ''Green Illusions'' argues that perceived solutions to

climate change In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to E ...

, such as solar cells, wind turbines, and electric cars, are better understood as illusions that people and groups use to convince themselves that they can be sustainable without reducing material consumption and overall human numbers over time, especially in wealthy countries.
by conscioused.org The book generated significant controversy upon its publication leading to sections being censored in the United States and resulting in death threats to the author. However, the book was chosen by Goodreads users as a top-ten non-fiction book. It also won the Northern California Book Award and

Nautilus Book Award The nautilus (, ) is a pelagic marine mollusc of the cephalopod family Nautilidae. The nautilus is the sole extant family of the superfamily Nautilaceae and of its smaller but near equal suborder, Nautilina. It comprises six living species in t ...

. In 2019, the author co-produced a film on the subject entitled, ''

Planet of the Humans ''Planet of the Humans'' is a 2019 American environmental documentary film written, directed, and produced by Jeff Gibbs. The film was executively produced by Michael Moore. Moore released it on YouTube for free viewing on April 21, 2020, the ev ...

''. ''Green Illusions'' is broken into two distinct parts. Part I is a current history and investigation into why people believe renewable energy technologies will benefit humanity and the planet, and why that belief system is highly suspect and even detrimental despite the fact that fossil fuels yield negative consequences as well. Part II proposes several dozen first steps as alternatives to alternative energy, which the author sees as holding greater potential for addressing environmental challenges. In successive chapters, it discusses

solar cell A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon.

wind power Wind power or wind energy is mostly the use of wind turbines to electricity generation, generate electricity. Wind power is a popular, sustainable energy, sustainable, renewable energy source that has a much smaller Environmental impact of wi ...

biofuel Biofuel is a fuel that is produced over a short time span from biomass, rather than by the very slow natural processes involved in the formation of fossil fuels, such as oil. According to the United States Energy Information Administration (E ...

nuclear power Nuclear power is the use of nuclear reactions to produce electricity. Nuclear power can be obtained from nuclear fission, nuclear decay and nuclear fusion reactions. Presently, the vast majority of electricity from nuclear power is produced b ...

hydrogen power Hydrogen fuel refers to hydrogen which is burned as fuel with oxygen. It is zero-carbon, provided that it is created in a process that does not involve carbon. It can be used in fuel cells or internal combustion engines (see HICEV). Regarding h ...

coal power A coal-fired power station or coal power plant is a thermal power station which burns coal to generate electricity. Worldwide, there are about 8,500 coal-fired power stations totaling over 2,000 gigawatts capacity. They generate about a th ...

hydropower Hydropower (from el, ὕδωρ, "water"), also known as water power, is the use of falling or fast-running water to Electricity generation, produce electricity or to power machines. This is achieved by energy transformation, converting the Pot ...

alternative energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a Orders of magnitude (time), human timescale. It includes sources such as Solar power, sunlight, wind power, wind, the movement of Hydropo ...

, green investment,

population control Population control is the practice of artificially maintaining the size of any population. It simply refers to the act of limiting the size of an animal population so that it remains manageable, as opposed to the act of protecting a species from ...

consumption Consumption may refer to: *Resource consumption *Tuberculosis, an infectious disease, historically * Consumption (ecology), receipt of energy by consuming other organisms * Consumption (economics), the purchasing of newly produced goods for curren ...

architecture Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing building ...

carbon tax A carbon tax is a tax levied on the carbon emissions required to produce goods and services. Carbon taxes are intended to make visible the "hidden" social costs of carbon emissions, which are otherwise felt only in indirect ways like more sev ...

es,

environmental education Environmental education (EE) refers to organized efforts to teach how natural environments function, and particularly, how human beings can manage behavior and ecosystems to live sustainably. It is a multi-disciplinary field integrating discip ...

. All copies of the book sold in the United States were self-censored due to

food libel laws Food libel laws, also known as food disparagement laws and informally as veggie libel laws, are laws passed in thirteen U.S. states that make it easier for food producers to sue their critics for libel. These thirteen states are the following: ...

that enable the food industry to sue journalists and authors who criticize their products.

Criticism

Writing in the ''

Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

'',

Tom Zeller Jr. Thomas Zeller Jr. (born April 30, 1969) is an American journalist who has covered poverty, technology, energy policy and the environment, among other topics, for a variety of publications, including 12 years on staff as a writer and editor at ''T ...

calls the author a provocateur. He cites Chris Meehan, who called his view of

photovoltaic Photovoltaics (PV) is the conversion of light into electricity using semiconducting materials that exhibit the photovoltaic effect, a phenomenon studied in physics, photochemistry, and electrochemistry. The photovoltaic effect is commercially us ...

s "alarmist" and "misleading", and he cites Nick Chambers, who called his view of

electric vehicle An electric vehicle (EV) is a vehicle that uses one or more electric motors for propulsion. It can be powered by a collector system, with electricity from extravehicular sources, or it can be powered autonomously by a battery (sometimes cha ...

s "ridiculous". However, Zeller writes that Zehner cites a "2010 lifecycle analysis" by the

National Academy of Sciences The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a United States nonprofit, non-governmental organization. NAS is part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, along with the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Nati ...

as a basis for evaluating the "aggregate environmental damage" from an electric car. Writing for ''

The Tyee The Tyee is an independent online daily news source primarily based in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was founded in November 2003 as an alternative to "corporate media". Articles in The Tyee focus on politics, culture, and life. The Tyee was f ...

'', Justin Ritchie points to a fundamental question: "in a world of limited decisions, is it really smart to subsidize marginally effective mitigation strategies of our

car culture Since the start of the twentieth century, the role of cars has become highly important, though controversial. They are used throughout the world and have become the most popular mode of transport in many of the more developed countries. In deve ...

suburbia A suburb (more broadly suburban area) is an area within a metropolitan area, which may include commercial and mixed-use, that is primarily a residential area. A suburb can exist either as part of a larger city/urban area or as a separate ...

and

overpopulation Overpopulation or overabundance is a phenomenon in which a species' population becomes larger than the carrying capacity of its environment. This may be caused by increased birth rates, lowered mortality rates, reduced predation or large scale m ...

without addressing the root causes?"Review
by Justin Ritchie in ''

'', September 27, 2012

References

{{reflist

External links

Website for the book
2012 non-fiction books Books about energy issues Non-fiction books about consumerism Renewable energy University of Nebraska Press books

Criticism

See also

References

External links