Resources for Environmental Physics

Please feel free to send me any reference material you feel would be a useful addition to this list. Corrections and improvements/updates to charts and graphs would also be appreciated.

Updated: 2011-05-06

Online units conversion site.

Students who have contributed.

Overheads, tables, instructor notes, articles, web sites (by topic):

• Forinash's PowerPoints on Energy.
• Forinash's PowerPoints on Global Warming.
• Forinash's book web page (check the blog for recent information): Foundations of Environmental Physics; Understanding Energy Use and Human Impacts (Island Press, July 2010).
• K. Forinash; What is "Environmental Physics"?, Contributed talk, AAPT winter meeting, Washington, DC, Feb. 16, 2010.

• Population and effects (water, pollution, food supplies).
• Conversion processes (1st and 2nd Laws, motors, power, electomagnetic spectrum, conservation, insulation, conservation, lighting).
• Non-Renewable Energy (energy use, projections of future use, petroleum, coal, natural gas).
  • Nuclear (radiation, reactors, waste).
• Renewable Energy (solar, wind, hydro, tide, geothermal, waves).
• Energy Storage (energy content of fuels, batteries, capacitors, load leveling).
• Transportation (gas mileage, well to wheels analysis).
• Climate. A few comments about climate skeptics.
• Risk and Economics (risk tables, exposure risk, meteors, economics).

• Web links provided by students.

General Web sites of interest:

• Wikipedia entries are sometimes useful but be careful: Read the references!
• Online units conversion site.
• A list of various useful constants and conversion factors.
• United Nations Population Division.
• US Energy Information Adminstration (under the Department of Energy; downlodable spreadsheets of historical energy use by type, source, end use, etc.).
• World Energy Council (global perspectives on energy).
• International Energy Agency (global perspectives on energy).
• US Department of Energy.
• IPCC; the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (the source for climate change data).
• Real Climate dot Org (A group of scientists answering questions about climate change).
• edGCM (downloadable educational Global Climate Model).
• Argonne National Laboratory Greet well to wheels lifecycle spreadsheet.
• earth.google.com.
• Earthshots (Landsat photos allowing historical tracking of environmental change from USGS).
• The Discovery of Global Warming (Spencer Weart) The idea has been around longer than you think.
• Union of Concerned Scientists (Well thought out opinion statements about nuclear power, genetic engineering, energy, etc.).
• National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
• DOE Renewable Energy site.
• The WattzOn site where you can sign up to monitor your home electricity use.
• Cool Climate Network, a site that has CO2 emission calculators for home and buisness.
• SimCity video game involving building a city.
• Electropedia on Batteries (A comprehenisve explanation and comparison of battery types).
• Energy articles from Sigma Xi.
• Energy articles from Scientific American.
• Nature Magazine, Science Magazine.
• EPA's Integrated Risk Information System.
• Global Energy Budget exercise (by Greg Mulder).
• World Energy Simulators (Rick Tarara).

Books:

• Energy; Its Physical Impact on the Environment, D.W. Devins (John Wiley and Sons, 1982).
• Consider a Spherical Cow, John Harte (University Science Books, 1988).
• Power Surge, Guide to the Coming Energy Revolution, C. Flavin and N. Lenssen (W.W. Norton and Company, 1994).
• Energy, Physics and the Environment, E.L. McFarland, J.L. Hunt and J.L. Campbell (Wuerz Publishing, 1994).
• Environmental Physics, E. Boeker and R. van� Grondelle (John Wiley and Sons, 1995).
• Global Warming Selected Reprints ed. J. Firor (AAPT Press, 1995).
• Energy, Its Use and the Environment, R.A. Hinrichs (Saunders College Publishing, 1996).
• Global Environmental Change, Karl K. Turekian (Prentice Hall, 1996).
• Charging Ahead; The Business of Renewable Energy and What it Means for America, J. J. Berger (U. California Press, 1998).
• Beyond Growth, The Economics of Sustainable Development, H. E Daly (Becon Press, 1996).
• Energies, An Illustrated Guide to the Biosphere and Civilization, Vaclav Smil (MIT Press, 1999).
• Should We Risk It? Exploring Environmental, Health, and Technological Problem Solving, D. M. Kammen and D. M. Hassenzal (Princeton University Press, 1999).
• The consumer's Guide to Effective Environmental Choices, M. Brower and W. Leon (Three Rivers Press, 1999).
• Something New Under the Sun, An Environmental History of the Twentieth-Century World, J. R. McNeill (W. W. Norton Company, 2000).
• The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History, B. Fagan (Basic Books, 2000).
• Global Warming: The Science of Climate Change, F. Drake (Arnold Books, 2000).
• The Two Mile Time Machine; Ice Cores, Abrupt Climate Change and Our Future, R. B Alley (Princeton University Press, 2000).
• Renewable Energy: Its physics, engineering, environmental impacts, economics and planning, Bent Sorensen (Academic Press 2000).
• Thermal Physics, D. V. Schroeder (Addison Wesley Longman, 2000).
• Reflections in Bullough's Pond: Economy and Ecosystem in New England, Diana Muir (University Press of New England, 2000).
• Introduction to Nuclear Engineering, J. R. Lamarsh, A. J. Baratta (Prentice Hall, 2001).
• Dynamic Climatology, Basis in Mathematics and Physics, J. N. Rayner (Blackwell Publishers, 2001).
• Environmental Physics, Clare Smith (Routledge Press, 2001).
• Introduction to Environmental Physics Planet Earth, Life and Climate, N. Mason and P. Hughes (Taylor and Francis, 2001).
• Principles of Environmental Physics, J. L. Monteith and M. Unsworth (Buterworth Heinemann, 2001).
• Consider a Cylindrical Cow, John Harte (University Science Books, 2001).
• Hubbert's Peak: The Impending World Oil Shortage, K. S. Deffeyes (Princton University Press, 2001).
• Risk-Benefit Analysis, R. Wilson and E. A. C. Crouch (Harvard University Press, 2001).
• The Future of Life, E. O. Wilson (Alfred A. Knopf, 2002).
• Whose water is it?, B. McDonald, D. Jehl, eds. (2003, National Geographic, Washington, DC).
• Abrupt Climate Change: Inevitable Surprises (National Acadamy Press, 2002).
• It must be beautiful: Great Equations of Modern Science, ed. G. Farmelo (Granta Press, 2002).�
• Green Plastics, E. S. Stevens (Princeton University Press, 2002).� This book contains recipes for making your own organic plastics.
• The Energy Resources and Economics Workbook (Internal Energy, 2003).
• Fuel Cells Explained, J. Laramine and A. Dicks (Wiley, Hoboken, NJ 2003).
• Global Warming: The Complete Briefing, J. Houghton (Cambridge UP, 3rd ed 2004).
• Nuclear Energy: Principles, Practices and Prospects, D. Bodansky (Springer, New York, 2nd ed 2004).
• The New Ecological Home: The complete Guide to Green Building Options, D. D. Chiras (Chelsea Green, White Water Junction, VT, 2004).
• Making Technology Work, J. M. Deutch and R. K. Lester (Cambridge University Press, 2004).
• Renewable Energy; Power for a sustainable future, G. Boyle (Oxford University Press, 2004).
• Sustainable Energy: Choosing Among Options, J.W. Tester, E. M. Drake, M. J. Driscoll, M. W. Golay and W. A. Peters (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA 2005).
• Water footprints of nations: Water use by people as a function of their consumption pattern, A. Y. Hoekstra, A. K. Chapagain (Springer Science, 2005).
• Elementary Climate Physics, F. W. Taylor (Oxford University Press, 2005).
• Energy at the Crossroads; Global Perspectives and Uncertainties, Vaclav Smil (MIT Press, 2005).
• Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, Jared M. Diamond (2005, Penguin).
• Energy and the Environment, J. J. Kraushaar and R. A. Ristinen (John Wiley and Sons, 2006).
• Exercises in Environmental Physics, V. Faraoni (Springer, 2006).
• The Omnivore’s Dilemma, M. Pollan (2006, the Penguin Group).
• Energy: Physical, Environmental and Social Impact, 3rd ed. G. J.� Aubrecht (Pearson, 2006).
• Physics of Societal Issues, D. Hafemeister, (2007, Springer).
• What We Know About Climate Change, K. Emanuel (MIT Press, 2007).
• Principles of Environmental Physics, 3^rd ed., J. L Monteith, M, H, Unsworth (Elsevier, 2008).
• Energy for Sustainability, J. Randolph, G. M. Masters (Island Press, 2008).
• Physics of Sustainable Energy: Using Energy Efficiently and Producing it Renewably, David W. Hafemeister (Editor), B. Levi (Editor), Mark D. Levine (Editor), P. Schwartz (Editor) (AIP Conference Proceedings, 2008).
• Materials and the Environment; Eco-Informed Material Choice, M. F. Ashby (Butterworth-Heinemann, 2009).
• Sustainable Energy- Without the Hot Air, David J.C. MacKay (UIT Cambridge Ltd., 2009).
• Merchants of Doubt: How a Handful of Scientists Obscured the Truth on Issues from Tobacco Smoke to Global Warming by Naomi Oreskes and Erik M. Conway (Bloomsbury Press, 2010).
• Energy Transitions; History, Requirements, Prospects, Vaclav Smil (Praeger, 2010).
• Foundations of Environmental Physics; Understanding Energy Use and Human Impacts, Kyle Forinash (Island Press, July 2010).