Who Owns the Wind?: Climate Crisis and the Hope of Renewable Energy

Why the wind, and the energy it produces, should not be private property

The energy transition has begun. To succeed - to replace fossil fuels with wind and solar power - that process must be fair. Otherwise, mounting popular protest against wind farms will prolong carbon pollution and deepen the climate crisis.

David Hughes examines that anti-industrial, anti-corporate resistance, drawing insights from a Spanish village surrounded by turbines. In the lives of these neighbours - freighted with centuries of exploitation - clean power and social justice fit together only awkwardly. Proposals for a green economy, the Green New Deal, or Europe's Green Deal require more effort. We must rethink aesthetics, livelihood, property, and, most essentially, the private nature of wind resources. Ultimately, the energy transition will be public and just, or it may not be at all.

Binding Type: Paperback
Publisher: Verso
Published: 10/12/2021
ISBN: 9781839761133
Pages: 256

Review Citations: Publishers Weekly 09/27/2021