Earth911 Podcast: Mark Schaus on Creating A Livable, Sustainable World

Author Marc Schaus talks with Earth911's Mitch Ratcliffe about his new book, Our Livable World: Creating the Clean Earth of Tomorrow, a hopeful book about addressing climate change through improved energy efficiency and new, clean electricity generation technologies. Schaus explains that many new technologies are appearing that can help pivot the economy to renewable energy, and this is a source of hope. In addition to historically cheap solar power, waste-free nuclear fusion and tidal energy arrays that generate electricity from the flow of ocean tides and waves will make fossil fuels obsolete. But he also points out that fatalistic human thinking and cognitive biases born of filter bubbles can be a barrier to progress. And waiting to make investments in renewables will lead to more military confrontations over oil reserves and preventing mass migrations could lead to disaster even as new options are on the horizon.