{"title":"Books by Jeremy Rifkin","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780745630427","title":"The Hydrogen Economy","description":"In The Hydrogen Economy, best-selling author Jeremy Rifkin takes us on an eye-opening journey into the next great commercial era in history. He envisions the dawn of a new economy powered by hydrogen that will fundamentally change the nature of our market, political and social institutions, just as coal and steam power did at the beginning of the industrial age.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Rifkin observes that we are fast approaching a critical watershed for the fossil-fuel era, with potentially dire consequences for industrial civilization. Experts had been saying that we had another forty or so years of cheap available crude oil left. Now, however, some of the world's leading petroleum geologists are suggesting that global oil production could peak and begin a steep decline much sooner, as early as the end of this decade, sending oil prices through the roof. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e While the fossil fuel era is entering its sunset years, a new energy regime is being born that has the potential to remake civilization. Hydrogen is the most basic and ubiquitous element in the universe. It is the stuff of the stars and of our sun and, when properly harnessed, it is the \"forever fuel.\" It never runs out and produces no harmful CO2 emissions. Commercial fuel-cells powered by hydrogen are just now being introduced into the market for home, office and industrial use. The major automakers have spent more than two billion dollars developing hydrogen cars, buses, and trucks, and the first mass-produced vehicles are expected to be on the road in just a few years. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e In the new era, says Rifkin, every human being could become the producer as well as the consumer of his or her own energy - so called \"distributed generation.\" When millions of end-users connect their fuel-cells into local, regional, and national hydrogen energy webs (HEWs), using the same design principles and smart technologies that made possible the World Wide Web, they can begin to share energy - peer-to-peer - creating a new decentralized form of energy use. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Hydrogen has the potential to end the world's reliance on imported oil and help diffuse the dangerous geopolitical game being played out between Muslim militants and Western nations. It will dramatically cut down on carbon dioxide emissions and mitigate the effects of global warming. And because hydrogen is so plentiful and exists everywhere on earth, every human being could be \"empowered,\" making it the first truly democratic energy regime in history.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56296700281205,"sku":"9780745630427","price":29.95,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780745630427_ad84dbf1-3b6a-4baa-8134-e93d7cf5c60b.jpg?v=1786014544"},{"product_id":"9780745641461","title":"The Empathic Civilization – The Race to Global Consciousness in a World in Crisis","description":"In this sweeping new interpretation of the history of civilization, bestselling author Jeremy Rifkin looks at the evolution of empathy and the profound ways that it has shaped our development-and is likely to determine our fate as a species.  Today we face unparalleled challenges in an energy-intensive and interconnected world that will demand an unprecedented level of mutual understanding among diverse peoples and nations. Do we have the capacity and collective will to come together in a way that will enable us to cope with the great challenges of our time? In this remarkable book Jeremy Rifkin tells the dramatic story of the extension of human empathy from the rise of the first great theological civilizations, to the ideological age that dominated the 18th and 19th centuries, the psychological era that characterized much of the 20th century and the emerging dramaturgical period of the 21st century. The result is a new social tapestry-The Empathic Civilization-woven from a wide range of fields.    Rifkin argues that at the very core of the human story is the paradoxical relationship between empathy and entropy. At various times in history new energy regimes have converged with new communication revolutions, creating ever more complex societies that heightened empathic sensitivity and expanded human consciousness. But these increasingly complicated milieus require extensive energy use and speed us toward resource depletion.    The irony is that our growing empathic awareness has been made possible by an ever-greater consumption of the Earth's resources, resulting in a dramatic deterioration of the health of the planet. If we are to avert a catastrophic destruction of the Earth's ecosystems, the collapse of the global economy and the possible extinction of the human race, we will need to change human consciousness itself-and in less than a generation.    Rifkin challenges us to address what may be the most important question facing humanity today: Can we achieve global empathy in time to avoid the collapse of civilization and save the planet? One of the most popular social thinkers of our time, Jeremy Rifkin is the bestselling author of The European Dream, The Hydrogen Economy¸ The End of Work, The Biotech Century, and The Age of Access. He is the president of the Foundation on Economic Trends in Washington, D.C.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56297149890933,"sku":"9780745641461","price":28.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780745641461_b0ce6bde-ad8d-438d-9a42-171ed436cd21.jpg?v=1786014576"},{"product_id":"9781250253200","title":"The Green New Deal","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAn urgent plan to confront climate change, transform the American economy, and create a green post-fossil fuel culture.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA new vision for America’s future is quickly gaining momentum. Facing a global emergency, a younger generation is spearheading a national conversation around a Green New Deal and setting the agenda for a bold political movement with the potential to revolutionize society. Millennials, the largest voting bloc in the country, are now leading on the issue of climate change.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhile the Green New Deal has become a lightning rod in the political sphere, there is a parallel movement emerging within the business community that will shake the very foundation of the global economy in coming years. Key sectors of the economy are fast-decoupling from fossil fuels in favor of ever cheaper solar and wind energies and the new business opportunities and employment that accompany them. New studies are sounding the alarm that trillions of dollars in stranded fossil fuel assets could create a carbon bubble likely to burst by 2028, causing the collapse of the fossil fuel civilization. The marketplace is speaking, and governments will need to adapt if they are to survive and prosper.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eThe Green New Deal\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e bestselling author and renowned economic theorist Jeremy Rifkin delivers the political narrative and economic plan for the Green New Deal that we need at this critical moment in history. The concurrence of a stranded fossil fuel assets bubble and a green political vision opens up the possibility of a massive shift to a post-carbon ecological era, in time to prevent a temperature rise that will tip us over the edge into runaway climate change. With twenty-five years of experience implementing Green New Deal–style transitions for both the European Union and the People’s Republic of China, Rifkin offers his vision for how to transform the global economy and save life on Earth.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56297534751093,"sku":"9781250253200","price":27.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781250253200_efbb2e4b-4aa6-44f0-affd-b8485043eac7.jpg?v=1786018337"},{"product_id":"9781509563739","title":"Planet Aqua – Rethinking Our Home in the Universe","description":"What would happen if we were to awaken one day and suddenly realize that the world we live in appeared eerily alien, as if we’d been teleported to some other distant world? That frightening prospect is now. Our planetary hydrosphere, which animates all of life on Earth, is rebelling in the wake of a global warming climate, spurring biblical spring floods, devastating summer droughts, heatwaves, and wildfires and powerful autumn hurricanes and typhoons, wreaking havoc on ecosystems and society.   For too long we have misjudged the very nature of our existence and to what we owe our lifeline. We have come to believe that we live on a land planet when the reality is that we live on a water planet, and now the Earth’s hydrosphere is rewilding in the throes of a changing climate, taking our species and our fellow creatures into a mass extinction event as it searches for a new equilibrium.   Jeremy Rifkin calls on us to rethink our place in the universe and realize that we live on Planet Aqua. He takes us on a new journey into the future where we will need to reassess every aspect of the way we live – how we engage nature, govern society, conceptualize economic life, educate our children, and even orient ourselves in time and space. The next stage in the human journey is to rebrand our home Planet Aqua and learn how to readapt to the waters of life.   Underpinned by robust research, this major new work by one of the world’s leading public intellectuals aims to redefine the very core of our existence on Planet Aqua.    Also available as an audiobook.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56302566539637,"sku":"9781509563739","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781509563739_29ae34ef-2b86-4aba-8671-0b2fdc3d21ac.jpg?v=1786022272"},{"product_id":"rescuing-the-future","title":"Rescuing the Future","description":"AI and the Great Ontological TransformationHow did we get to this horrific moment when life itself may be snuffed out on this once animated planet? For 98 per cent of the time our species has inhabited the Earth, we adapted to the temporal processes, patterns, and flows of an environment alive with agency. Two thousand years ago our ancestors changed course and began to think of our world as made up of inert substances, things, and resources to be extracted, propertized, commodified, marketed, and consumed. We quickened the pace over the past two centuries of the Industrial Age, systematically stripping the planet of agency, and now find ourselves and our fellow creatures on the brink of extinction. Philosophers describe this historical dialectic as process ontology vs. substance ontology.   The existential question we now face is this: can we restore vibrant life on our planet or will we continue to exploit and degrade our Earthly largesse? The answer will depend, in great part, on how we choose to use Artificial Intelligence.   The powers that be in the AI world imagine a geopolitical approach to managing the planet, where a handful of tech giants govern the future and extract the last remains of what was a thriving environment, and where even humanity is bypassed by machine intelligence, giving rise to the \"singularity\" alongside an AI-framed substance ontology paradigm. By contrast, a powerful alternative AI is quietly scaling with the build-out of a highly distributed AI infrastructure attached to local ecosystems and stewarded by bioregional commons governance, enjoining the collaborative intelligence of both our species and our fellow creatures. The People's AI is pure process ontology and fosters a deep biophilic realignment with the natural world.   The choice we make between holding on to an AI substance ontology or grabbing hold of a nascent AI process ontology will determine whether our planet, once brimming with life, will flourish again or perish.   Now available as an audiobook","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57504856375669,"sku":"9781509564422","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781509564422.jpg?v=1786953774"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-jeremy-rifkin.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}