James M. Griffin
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- October 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780300149852
- eISBN:
- 9780300149869
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Yale University Press
- DOI:
- 10.12987/yale/9780300149852.001.0001
- Subject:
- Economics and Finance, Development, Growth, and Environmental
Everyone wants energy that is clean, cheap, and secure, goals which often conflict: traditional fossil fuels tend to be cheaper than alternative fuels, but they are hardly clean or (in the case of ...
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Everyone wants energy that is clean, cheap, and secure, goals which often conflict: traditional fossil fuels tend to be cheaper than alternative fuels, but they are hardly clean or (in the case of oil) secure. This book provides an explanation of the issues as well as sensible proposals for a truly sustainable energy policy. The author, an economist, points out that current energy policies are fatally flawed and that government policies should focus on “getting the prices right” so that the prices of fossil fuels reflect their true costs to society—including greenhouse gas and security costs. By using carbon and security taxes, alternative energy forms will be able to compete on a more even playing field against fossil fuels, which will unleash advances in alternative energy and conservation technologies, enabling the marketplace and consumers to find the right balance among energy sources that are cheap, clean, and secure.Less
Everyone wants energy that is clean, cheap, and secure, goals which often conflict: traditional fossil fuels tend to be cheaper than alternative fuels, but they are hardly clean or (in the case of oil) secure. This book provides an explanation of the issues as well as sensible proposals for a truly sustainable energy policy. The author, an economist, points out that current energy policies are fatally flawed and that government policies should focus on “getting the prices right” so that the prices of fossil fuels reflect their true costs to society—including greenhouse gas and security costs. By using carbon and security taxes, alternative energy forms will be able to compete on a more even playing field against fossil fuels, which will unleash advances in alternative energy and conservation technologies, enabling the marketplace and consumers to find the right balance among energy sources that are cheap, clean, and secure.
Karen Pinkus
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804760324
- eISBN:
- 9780804772877
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804760324.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
How can we account, in a rigorous way, for alchemy's ubiquity? We think of alchemy as the transformation of a base material (usually lead) into gold, but “alchemy” is a word in wide circulation in ...
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How can we account, in a rigorous way, for alchemy's ubiquity? We think of alchemy as the transformation of a base material (usually lead) into gold, but “alchemy” is a word in wide circulation in everyday life, often called upon to fulfill a metaphoric duty as the magical transformation of materials. Almost every culture and time has had some form of alchemy. This book looks at alchemy, not at any one particular instance along the historical timeline, not as a practice or theory, not as a mode of redemption, but as a theoretical problem, linked to real gold and real production in the world. What emerges as the least common denominator or “intensive property” of alchemy is ambivalence, the impossible and paradoxical coexistence of two incompatible elements. The book moves from antiquity, through the golden age of alchemy in the Dutch seventeenth century, to conceptual art, to alternative fuels, stopping to think with writers such as Dante, Goethe, Hoffmann, the Grimm Brothers, George Eliot, and Marx. Eclectic and wide-ranging, it considers alchemy in relation to literary and visual theory in a comprehensive way.Less
How can we account, in a rigorous way, for alchemy's ubiquity? We think of alchemy as the transformation of a base material (usually lead) into gold, but “alchemy” is a word in wide circulation in everyday life, often called upon to fulfill a metaphoric duty as the magical transformation of materials. Almost every culture and time has had some form of alchemy. This book looks at alchemy, not at any one particular instance along the historical timeline, not as a practice or theory, not as a mode of redemption, but as a theoretical problem, linked to real gold and real production in the world. What emerges as the least common denominator or “intensive property” of alchemy is ambivalence, the impossible and paradoxical coexistence of two incompatible elements. The book moves from antiquity, through the golden age of alchemy in the Dutch seventeenth century, to conceptual art, to alternative fuels, stopping to think with writers such as Dante, Goethe, Hoffmann, the Grimm Brothers, George Eliot, and Marx. Eclectic and wide-ranging, it considers alchemy in relation to literary and visual theory in a comprehensive way.
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- June 2013
- ISBN:
- 9780804760324
- eISBN:
- 9780804772877
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Stanford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.11126/stanford/9780804760324.003.0011
- Subject:
- Literature, Criticism/Theory
This chapter begins with a discussion of alchemy and modernism. It then considers artists' engagement with alchemy, and the use of alchemy as a metaphor for digital money and the production of ...
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This chapter begins with a discussion of alchemy and modernism. It then considers artists' engagement with alchemy, and the use of alchemy as a metaphor for digital money and the production of alternative fuels or energy sources.Less
This chapter begins with a discussion of alchemy and modernism. It then considers artists' engagement with alchemy, and the use of alchemy as a metaphor for digital money and the production of alternative fuels or energy sources.