Energy chronicles: Keys to understanding the importance of energy

Who knows how much energy 1 joule represents? How much oil does it take to make a mobile phone? How much coal is used in the world? Despite all the debate about this crucial subject, most of us are in fact “energy blind”. We often talk about energy without fully appreciating what it means today, or how central it is to all human evolution. This book provides the keys to understanding energy in a fun, short chronicle format.

Greg De Temmerman is an energy physicist with a PhD in experimental physics from the University of Basel in Switzerland. He worked in different countries (United States, United Kingdom, Netherlands) before joining the ITER project in 2014 as Scientific Coordinator. Author of more than 230 articles in scientific journals, he is passionate about energy issues. Since 2020, he leads the think tank Zenon Research which reflects on the possibility of an economy compatible with planetary limits, focusing on energy and mineral resources. He is also a research associate at MINES Paris - PSL, and a regular columnist for Usbek et Rica, and Illuminem.