This second edition of this book is aimed at the general public, as was the first edition. It is not intended to be a textbook, but rather an accessible overview of what we know and don’t know about energy and climate change, what options we have to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the energy sector of our economy, and what policies we should and should not adopt to make progress. I have also come to realize that climate change is not the only reason we have to change the energy sources that drive the economies of the world, and will discuss the others.

I am a latecomer to the climate and energy field. My career has been in physics. I received my PhD in 1956 and my Nobel Prize in 1976 at the relatively young age of 45. Many Nobel Laureates continue research, but some look for other mountains to climb, and I was one of those. I took on the job of directing a large Department of Energy scientific laboratory at Stanford University in 1984. During my 15 years as director we expanded opportunities in many areas; the number of users from outside Stanford that came to the laboratory rose from about 1000 to nearly 3000, and the facilities that we pioneered were reproduced in many parts of the world.

Like many scientists, I had followed the growing debate on climate change from a distance, though I did have some peripheral involvement in related areas having to do with energy options. I became seriously interested in climate and energy issues in the mid-1990s, partly because it was clear that this would be a critical issue for the future and partly because of the lure of another mountain range. Since stepping down as a laboratory director in 1999, I have devoted most of my time to various aspects of the issue.