Zoom; The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future
New York: Twelve, 2007. First Edition [Stated], First Printing [Stated]. Hardcover. ciii, [2], 336, [6] pages. Bibliography. Index. Minor scuff inside back cover. Inscribed on the half-title page by Vaitheeswaran. Inscription reads To Shirley--Thank you for all of your wise advice over the years--and here's for a brighter future for all! Best, Vijay. The contents include: Introduction: The Great Awakening--Oil is the problem; cars are the solution; Part I--Highway Robbery; Chapter One: The Terrible Twins; Chapter two--Down and Out in Detroit; Chapter Three: Big Oil in Big Trouble; Part II--Can Dinosaurs Dance?; Chapter Four: The Parable of the Prius; Chapter Five: The Axis of Oil; Chapter Six--The Slumbering Giant Awakes; Part III: Manifold Destiny; Chapter Seven: Crouching Tiger, Leaping Dragon; Chapter Eight: The Juice and the Jalopy; Chapter Nine: A Call to Arms. Also contains Bibliography and Index. Writer and editor Iain Carson lives and works in London, England, where he is an industry editor for the Economist. He writes primarily about the airline, general transportation, and manufacturing industries. Prior to joining the staff at the Economist, Carson worked as both a reporter and as a news anchor for BBC Television, and for Channel Four. His first book, Zoom: The Global Race to Fuel the Car of the Future, which he wrote with Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran, was a finalist for the Financial Times/Goldman Sachs Business Book of the Year Award. Vijay V. Vaitheeswaran is a correspondent for The Economist. He graduated from MIT with a degree in mechanical engineering and was named a Harry S. Truman Presidential Scholar by the U.S. Congress. From 1998 to 2006 he was the Environment and Energy Correspondent for The Economist and from 2007 to 2011 he covered innovation and health issues. Vijay is a life member at the Council on Foreign Relations. He is an advisor on sustainability and innovation to the World Economic Forum, and a regular speaker at the Clinton Global Initiative. He teaches at NYU's Stern Business School. He serves as chairman of the Economist's provocative series of conferences on innovation known as the Ideas Economy. His 2012 Harper Collins book on the future of global innovation, "Need, Speed and Greed: How the New Rules of Innovation Can Transform Businesses, Propel Nations to Greatness, and Tame the World's Most Wicked Problems". was called "the perfect primer for the postindustrial age." Zoom addresses the relationship between the automobile industry and the production and refinement of oil. Although it appears to be a straightforward subject based upon supply and demand, the reality is that concerns about the limit of the world's oil supplies combined with very real issues revolving around global warming, emissions, and the health of the planet have made the subject a volatile and important one. Carson and Vaitheeswaran address the topic from a number of angles. They discuss automobile manufacturers and their progress toward building a more fuel-efficient car, if not one that does not rely upon fuel at all. Then the authors look at the demand for cars, particularly in countries such as China and India, where the size of the population and the state of the economy has prevented most individuals from purchasing a car, so that roughly nine people out of every thousand currently owns a car. That number is bound to escalate, however, due to both the improving economies of both countries and the rapid growth in that area of the world's population. The inevitable result of the largest populations of the world increasing the number of cars per capita is that the dangerous greenhouse gases that are polluting the atmosphere will increase as well. From there, Carson and Vaitheeswaran move on to discuss the state of the atmosphere and how well it is holding up under the constant onslaught of man-made toxins. They discuss where this is leading us as citizens of the planet, as well as what is being done to slow or reserve the damage of global warming and extreme emissions output. Deb Kincaid, writing for BookLoons, stated that the book "succeeds well as a condensed explanation of the symbiotic history of Big Oil and Detroit, the role of marketplace dynamics as it relates to the fuel and auto industries, and the influence innovative leaders can have in coping with global warming. Condition: Very good / Very good.
Keywords: Automobile, Transportation, Alternative Fuels, Biofuel, Clean Energy, Detroit, Car Makers, Global Warming, Electric Cars, Hybrid Cars, Hydrogen Fuels, Oil Industry, Toyota, General Motors, Elon Musk, Greenhouse Gas, Innovation
ISBN: 9780446580045
[Book #83682]
Price: $125.00