Reddit reviews The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World

> some people may have looked for someone who had a bit more experience writing or negotiating treaties specifically

Fellow liberal here. To help ease some of these concerns I'd point out that most of what an oil CEO does is negotiate with foreign governments for complicated agreements.

Also the oil industry is actually far ahead of other industries in terms of environmental protection in spite of what you might assume. Two books on the subject I highly recommend are The Quest (which is on Bill Gate's reading list and probably one of the single best books I've ever read) and Collapse.

> Hemp and Cannabis is a great way to go because there's not totality of a monopoly yet.

This has absolute nothing to do with what we're talking about. Monopolies are important when discussing microeconomics, i.e., companies competing against one another. But a monopoly of one product within a country would actually help its GDP out, and per this discussion, wouldn't be a bad thing.

First, Ukraine already produces hemp. There isn't enough demand globally to warrant an increase in production, in addition to the limited infrastructure that's being occupied by other, more important cash crops. More importantly, the current demand of global hemp is being met by the production of it, so a subsidized increase or even inflation in the number of hemp businesses would be meaningless to overall GDP, even driving prices down and hurting global hemp whatsoever. From an FAS report issued last week:

> Approximately 30 countries in Europe, Asia, and North and South America currently permit farmers to grow hemp. Some of these countries never outlawed production, while some countries banned production for certain periods in the past. China is among the largest producing and exporting countries of hemp textiles and related products, as well as a major supplier of these products to the United States. The European Union (EU) has an active hemp market, with production in most member nations. Production is centered in France, the United Kingdom, Romania, and Hungary.

The demand is offset by the production bases that already exist. This wouldn't help Ukraine sufficiently.

Moreover, cash crops might be a sufficient way to grow the economy if you're living in the turn of the 18th century, but it doesn't put much towards GDP in modern times, especially in developed economies - which Ukraine is. When I say infancy, I'm referring to its place in the rest of Europe - it's developing the important parts of the economy: finance and banking, heavy industry, education-based services. That's where the country needs to do its work, not with something worthless like hemp. If you're seriously suggesting to me that hemp is going to help break Ukraine from its bounds of Russia, I think you might need to go back and take Macroeconomics 101 again.

> Oil is technically an obsolete resource that is currently forced upon the World as the standard because the big business surrounding it will not allow the more efficient technologies to come forth. The only way to destroy that monopoly is extreme minimization on consumption.

First, I don't see the link between hemp and oil, whatsoever. Is that really relevant to our discussion?

Secondly, the narrative that "big business" is precluding development of more efficient energy sources is manifestly untrue, as they're actually involved in developing energy 2.0.. Big oil will be the companies who actually help push us towards green independence, because they recognize that it's coming and will use some of their capital to invest in projects that allow them to continue to make profits when the oil stops. (Also, you don't understand what a monopoly is. Standard Oil had a monopoly. Exxon, BP, Mobil - there are many competitors that make it, by definition, not a monopoly).

For right now, oil is not obsolete. In fact oil was a necessary component in what drove the growth of China's middle class sparked GDP growth to 8%+ over the past few years. It will also play a critical role in India, Russia and Brazil this decade, and Africa in the next two - two regions that are going to have to offset the global economic malaise of Western Europe and North America, and the world needs them to do it by building up a middle class. Right now, the only energy source viable to do that with is oil - not because it's "forced upon us" as you say, but simply because it's the most efficient, least expensive.

I support green energy, but I don't think you understand that it's also inefficient right now for a few reasons: one, its technologically underdeveloped, it's too expensive, and more over, the global macroeconomic effects of employing some methods of green energy have been actually hurting the global economy, especially the poor. The most obvious example is Brazil's drive to push for ethanol fuel in 2007. Since corn is the base material for ethanol, millions of hectares had to be dedicated to growing corn for ethanol, displacing what would normally be used for corn as food, pushing the ag prices up and causing the price of food overall to go up. Since then, economists in Brazil have suggested bringing it down because it's quite inefficient, and doesn't have an effect pronounced to the extent that it's going to be beneficial.

Finally, the only people who have the luxury of using green energy are advanced economies because they have the capital to invest in green R&D and also have the extra money to spend on using it. In these countries, it's being replaced; this is a process that takes decades, not years. And the mechanisms that will replace it are already in place. If your theory about big business wanting to stamp out green energy development were true, none of these interests, including the Obama administration, would have been investing in these alternate sources in the first place.

If you're looking for some reading about energy, Daniel Yergin's The Quest is the outstanding authority.

The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World looks like a great read! Possibly a follow-up to his book The Prize.

Consuming Power: A Social History of American Energies looks good as well! David Nye has written quite a few books... He seems like an interesting guy.

I think this read is a must:

"The Quest: Energy, Security, and the Remaking of the Modern World" by Daniel Yergin

https://www.amazon.com/Quest-Energy-Security-Remaking-Modern/dp/0143121944

I don't know of any that compare, but, the Napoleon's Buttons is SUPPOSED to be good.

http://www.amazon.com/Napoleons-Buttons-Molecules-Changed-History/dp/1585423319/

Other books, engineering related, that I liked are:

Norm Lieberman's Process Troubleshooting books, the guy cracks me up!

Working Guide to Process Equipment (3rd edition probably cheaper): http://www.amazon.com/Working-Guide-Process-Equipment-Fourth/dp/0071828060/

Process Equipment Malfunctions (not as good as the other one, some overlap, but still worthwhile, and covers more breadth for individual issues): http://www.amazon.com/Process-Equipment-Malfunctions-Techniques-Identify/dp/0071770208/

The Prize (mentioned above): http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1439110123/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/188-3799228-4803548

The Quest (Follow on to The Prize): http://www.amazon.com/Quest-Energy-Security-Remaking-Modern/dp/0143121944/

Oil 101: http://www.amazon.com/Oil-101-Morgan-Downey/dp/0982039204/

The Mythical Man Month (Not engineering directly as it pertains to software, but, projects and project management are huge in engineering, though this book is timeless): http://www.amazon.com/Mythical-Man-Month-Software-Engineering-Anniversary/dp/0201835959/

Piping Systems Manual (You can NEVER know enough about pipe!): http://www.amazon.com/Piping-Systems-Manual-Brian-Silowash/dp/0071592768/

Pumps and Pumping Operations (OMG it is $4, hardcover, go buy now! This book is great... did you know OSU didn't teach their Chem E's about pumps? I was flabbergasted, gave this to our intern and he became not a scrub by learning about pumps!): http://www.amazon.com/Pumping-Operations-Prentice-Pollution-Equipment/dp/0137393199/

Any good engineer needs to understand MONEY too:

The Ascent of Money: http://www.amazon.com/Ascent-Money-Financial-History-World/dp/0143116177/

It's Nial Fergesuon, who has had his own series of dramas and dumb stuff. The Ascent of Money has a SLIGHT libertarian tinge... but it wasn't bad enough that I didn't enjoy it. I consider it a history book, and he attempts to write it like one.

Have fun!