William T. Vollmann - Carbon Ideologies, Volume 1: No Immediate Danger

Carbon Ideologies was envisaged as a single work. When the manuscript arrived, several times longer than its contractually stipulated maximum, my publisher asked me to cut it. But for some reason, I just didnt want to. After anxious negotiations, Viking finally agreed to indulge me once more, and it was decided to break the book into two. (My gratitude is expressed in the acknowledgments section.)

This first volume, No Immediate Danger, contains a primer on global warming, and reportage about the wondrous effects of nuclear power in Japan. A subsequent volume, No Good Alternative, will deal equally cheerfully with coal, natural gas and oil.

As originally laid out, Carbon Ideologies ended with a section of definitions and conversions. What is the difference between a gamma ray and an alpha particle? How many gallons of Mexican crude oil would it take to do the work of a ton of bituminous Appalachian coal? Some of this information, particularly the items on heat, energy, efficiency and power, gets referenced throughout the whole work. Where then should it go? Viking and I decided to place it all at the end of the first volume, where it could find immediate use. To reduce expenses, it will not be reprinted at the end of the second volume.

The primer and the conversions section are both references. Anyone wishing to skip those can read between .

Carbon Ideologies also contains about 129,000 words of source notes, citations and calculations. I am sorry to say that Viking could not justify the cost of printing these. Therefore, Carbon Ideologies will be the first of my books to contain a component which exists only in the electronic ether (see https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/carbonideologies). I will deposit a copy of that section in my archive at the Ohio State University.

All this renders the first volume particularly uninviting. It also makes that volume more practically useful, in exact proportion to its dreariness. Perhaps some unborn desperate generation will be helped by those pages in finally crafting a social code of thermodynamic work.

The title of Volume I was proposed by my editor, Mr. Paul Slovak. It refers to an official phrase often deployed by the Japanese authorities after the accident at Fukushima. I consider this an inspired title. The title for the second volume, No Good Alternative, was one of several that I proposed, and while the final result was not my first choice, it now rings aptly in my minds ear. Meanwhile, please let me reiterate that Carbon Ideologies is all one work.

WTV

Sacramento, April 2017

Near Dhaka, Bangladesh

A crime is something someone else commits.

John Steinbeck, 1961

Barcelona port facility

I dedicate this book to my daughter Lisa, who cannot live anywhere else but in our future.

Carbon Ideologies is a companion to Poor People and Rising Up and Rising Down, which I wrote some years ago. All three volumes use induction to generalize from subjective case studies into analytical categories of the phenomenon under investigation. Although I do take sides (against the ill-regulated abuses of energy, and not practically for anything), I strive not to judge individuals, not even myself: Coal, oil, natural gas and nuclear power, havent I consumed them all?Better an honest muddler than a carbon-powered hypocrite.

Contents: VOLUME I

For source notes to both volumes of Carbon Ideologies, please see: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/carbonideologies

List of Maps and Illustrations

MAPS

Fukushima Places Mentioned /

Hanford Reach National Monument /

ILLUSTRATIONS

Near Dhaka, Bangladesh /

Barcelona port facility /

0. When We Kept the Lights On

On display at the Kentucky Coal Mining Museum, 2015 /

Transmission towers near Ruwais, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates /

Glass facade, Sharjah /

Primer

Retired derrick at Devon Oil and Gas Exploration Park, Oklahoma City /

This Bangladeshi woman was harvesting corn and carrying it unassisted. Who would have begrudged her some electric help? /

Commemoration of mobilized war workers, Hiroshima /

Sales promotion, Dubai, United Arab Emirates /

Petroleum mural in Cushing, Oklahoma /

Pastry-making machine, Kyoto /

Woman walking past the Flamingo substation, Las Vegas /

The pleasures of electricity in Hiroshima: 1 /

The pleasures of electricity in Hiroshima: 2 /