No immediate danger

The first volume in a timely series about climate change and energy generation focuses on the consequences of nuclear-power production through the events and aftermath of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan in 2011. "The first of two volumes of William T. Vollmann's magisterial reckoning with the most important issue of our time. In his nonfiction, William T. Vollmann has won acclaim as a singular voice tackling everything from poverty to violence to American imperialism as it has played out on the U.S./Mexico border. Now he turns to a topic that will define generations to come--the human actions that have led to global warming. Vollmann begins No Immediate Danger, the first volume of Carbon Ideologies, by laying out the many causes of climate change, from seemingly beneficial agricultural practices to the manufacture of the steel and plastics we all depend on. The justifiable yearning of people all over the world to live in comfort and the quest for continued economic growth obscure fundamental questions: What is this thermodynamic work for? How wastefully are we performing it? Vollmann offers the quantitative tools to compare fuels, emissions, human activities, and the harm they do. Can we avoid global warming and still satisfy energy demand? One way forward might be nuclear power.