$30.00 with 12 percent savings

List Price: $33.95

$1.99 delivery May 15 - 16. Details

Select delivery location

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

$$30.00 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Ships from

Sams-Books

Ships from

Sams-Books

Sold by

Sams-Books

Sold by

Sams-Books

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Returns

Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

This item can be returned in its original condition for a full refund or replacement within 30 days of receipt. You may receive a partial or no refund on used, damaged or materially different returns.

Read full return policy

Payment

Secure transaction

Payment

Secure transaction

We work hard to protect your security and privacy. Our payment security system encrypts your information during transmission. We don’t share your credit card details with third-party sellers, and we don’t sell your information to others. Learn more

Details

$1.99

Item in acceptable condition including possible liquid damage. As well, answers may be filled in. Lastly, may be missing components, e.g. missing DVDs, CDs, Access Code, etc. Item in acceptable condition including possible liquid damage. As well, answers may be filled in. Lastly, may be missing components, e.g. missing DVDs, CDs, Access Code, etc. See less

$3.98 delivery May 15 - 16. Details

Select delivery location

Only 1 left in stock - order soon.

$$30.00 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Access codes and supplements are not guaranteed with used items.

Enhancements you chose aren't available for this seller. Details

${cardName} not available for the seller you chose

${cardName} unavailable for quantities greater than ${maxQuantity}.

Ships from and sold by glenthebookseller.

Other sellers on Amazon

New & Used (20) from $1.99 + $3.98 shipping

Follow the author

Ian Roberts

+ Follow

More books from this author

The Energy Glut: Climate Change and the Politics of Fatness Paperback – October 15, 2010

by Ian Roberts (Author), Phil Edwards (Contributor)

4.6 20 ratings

See all formats and editions

{"desktop_buybox_group_1":[{"displayPrice":"$30.00","priceAmount":30.00,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"30","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"00","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"qMMyfwNmAb5qE2zrGNlOZAqGc%2F1l%2B0Ht%2B07OjVAAJriBzALAkOzUmqVUkAk30PQl9QzWRE2OxE98iCbDWoh9IbcL%2BnqgLs8PNBq5snfg0D4kB2wRcNZyFrq1FhqDHLVL6ZG0XaGmkqasN9jBQSSTM%2FKJOTGErHYNnPrg99eVxQp2Et1i%2BbzLHcPU%2FhX28cut","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":0}, {"displayPrice":"$1.99","priceAmount":1.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"1","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"qMMyfwNmAb5qE2zrGNlOZAqGc%2F1l%2B0HtuBk%2BsJIRcYlMTKgj4EPqhlbheIZH7PtyaS%2Bs6yTH46XUsLM4jtUPTK1Z7UzhmvF2XGC8hZHB8VA%2BoGUn5m01U8lKMhkryhq9w43CvAPDS9tsxmLmc11wQF%2BYluCDriVrD3hEWF8shD%2FMoRuCyoz0VYUO4VFf%2F%2FFk","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"USED","aapiBuyingOptionIndex":1}]}

Purchase options and add-ons

World-wide, over a billion adults are overweight and 300 million are officially obese. The Energy Glut expertly tells the story of energy in society, and places 'fatness' next to climate change, as manifestations of the same fundamental planetary malaise. This exciting new book argues that the pulse of fossil fuel energy released from the ground after the discovery of oil not only started the process of catastrophic climate change, but also propelled the average human weight distribution upwards. The author presents a terrifying vision of humans besieged by a food industry that uses sophisticated marketing techniques to sell us mountains of energy-dense food whilst at the same time we are functionally paralyzed with fewer opportunities to move our bodies than ever before and that the accumulation of body fat is a political, not a personal, problem. This insightful new work offers and appraises for the reader a set of personal and political de-carbonising strategies, but to tread more lightly on our world we first need to make sense of the systemic processes, and The Energy Glut takes expert first steps in this direction.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This book is quite something. An eminent Professor of Public Health turns his hand to forensics and pathology, clinically dissecting the fabric of what we so complacently call ‘modern civilisation’. . . The insights derived from this autopsy – about the role of governments, big business and the ‘petro-nutritional complex’ – are devastating, making ‘the energy glut’ a ‘must-read’ for anyone involved in public health, nutrition, the environment, transport and energy policy. You may not agree with all of the conclusions, but you will be hard put to ignore the analysis.”--Jonathan Porritt, Founder Director, Forum for the Future

About the Author

Ian Roberts is Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Zed Books (October 15, 2010)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 208 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1848135181
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1848135185
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 6.9 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.09 x 0.56 x 7.85 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #6,473,857 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,844 in Fossil Fuels
- #3,475 in Sociological Study of Medicine
- #4,489 in Government Social Policy

Customer Reviews:
4.6 20 ratings

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Videos

Help others learn more about this product by uploading a video!

Upload your video

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

Ian Roberts

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5

20 global ratings

1 star

0%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Sort reviews by

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Susan Massad

Energy Glut

Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2011

Verified Purchase

I loved the book and the chronology of the political and social forces that have shaped the obesity epidemic. The worldwide obesity epidemic correlates with increased use of fossil fuels. Human beings are getting fatter, while the planet is getting hotter. There is a nice comparison of health statistics in different countries - the US, the UK, China, Cuba, and parts of Europe. Genetic factors have some influence over obesity, but it can't be ignored that the entire population is getting fatter and our whole system needs to change before we'll see any reversal of this trend.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

Denzil

A book that deserves wide readership

Reviewed in the United States on September 7, 2017

This is an excellent book that deserves to be read, achieve best-sellers’ lists and made compulsory reading at schools and colleges.

The authors don’t mince their words: “the human race is getting fatter and the planet is getting hotter, and fossil fuels are the cause of both.” With an easy style and credible statistics, they then explain their thinking and lay the blame firmly at the over-use of motorized vehicles: “motorization has meant that petroleum has replaced food as the main energy source for human movement.”

That global fatness and global aspects of the same energy problem is no new scenario – I can vaguely remember something along these lines being reported in The Sun newspaper a few years ago! – but here the authors give the problem a weight of supporting data and incontrovertible evidence.

They first introduce the global obesity epidemic before focusing on the main villains of the story – motorization and food. But the authors do not lay the blame on personal failings, instead stating that obesity is the normal human response to a sick environment – the natural consequence of living in a world flooded with cheap energy. They point the finger at the oil & gas companies, the marketing gurus and the politicians. They then examine in detail why fossil fuel energy is so cheap and looks at the consequences.

So much for the problems – what about some solutions? The authors are not short on them either, although the practicalities of some of them may need some serious, if not downright revolutionary, thinking. But the end result will undoubtedly be positive for the planet and its inhabitants: “Treading more lightly on our planet will make us healthier and happier and richer in every sense of the word.”

I congratulate Mr Roberts and Mr Edwards for researching and writing such an excellent and relevant book. I still can’t make my mind up though if they are idealists, describing solutions that unfortunately will never be implemented, or prophets, looking forward to the inevitable day when the oil runs out and these measures will simply have to be implemented.

Reviewed in the United States on July 10, 2014

Verified Purchase

everythinf all right, thank you very much

Helpful

Xin He

Some brilliant chapters, others too inflamatory

Reviewed in the United States on September 11, 2011

It's a good book for confirming your beliefs, or just learning a bit more about Western nations' oil dependency and the mechanisms behind pandemic weight gain (not just obesity, everybody, skinny, average, and fat is on average gaining weight).

The language used in the book sometimes gets too propaganda-like. It's a hard line to cross because while you don't want to get labeled alarmist, what are you supposed to do if the topic is a cause for alarm?

Helpful

Prasanna Karmarkar

Down with the petro-nutritional complex!

Reviewed in the United States on April 1, 2013

This book is essential reading for anyone who cares about their own health and the health of the planet. The book will help you understand that the two are not distinct projects - indeed, they are indistinguishable from each other. It provides guidelines to individuals as well as governments on where to start on the long road back.

It packs a big wallop for a small book. You should read it sitting down.

Chapter by chapter, Ian Roberts and Phil Edwards dissect the economic forces and vested-interests that have made the modern world the way it is - BMIs trending upwards, too much automation, not enough physical activity, automobiles forcing their way into every available nook and edging out the older kinder ways of transportation - walking, runnning and cycling.

The authors' thesis in a nutshell - The behaviour that makes us fat ALSO warms the globe. A chapter titled "Fat people and fat populations" will make you sit up and take notice. Unless of course, you are too fat to do so!

Their charge is that we are manipulated into accepting the responsibility for our own health. The "If you are NOT able to put in the 10 hours a week of gym and stay fit, clearly it is your fault that you're getting fat and unhealthy" school of thought. Along with most of your, I was a part of that school. Dropping out never felt so good!

The modern notion is that one's inability to be fit (and consequently, disease-free), is one's own fault and weakness. NO, say the authors. This is a systemic problem, and the governments (the system they create) are to blame.

Creating a world in which roads play a central role, a world planned around the automobile, has had the effect of cutting down physical activity (work commute, grocery commute) and increasing consumption (buying too much food, too much energy dense food, at that). This is seen in the increasing rate of disease caused by the combination of a sedentary, over-mechanised lifestyle and high energy-density foods. Not to speak of the cost - and it is high - of the accidents and loss to life that automobile dependence creates.

Roberts and Edwards blow the cover off the food industry's propaganda, and show us how the message "eat less" got transmogrified over the years into the self-serving "eat at least 2500 calories/day".

There's a great expose of the "petro-nutritional" complex - supermarkets, large free parking lots, the car lobby, the fuel lobby all working with complicit money-grubbing governments in developing countries to build more roads, and put more cars that will burn even more fuel. Here in India, we're mute witnesses to this ghastly trend.

A responsible government's job (say the authors) is to provide for walking spaces and roads that are cycle-friendly, plan development in such a way that it is not necessary to travel vast distances (which necessitates motorized transportation) for anything - schools, supplies or work. Kids don't cycle to school anymore because the roads aren't safe, and this is simply a symptom and sets the tone for the rest of their lives.

Here's a book that actually advises against exercise! Needing to block your time, and pay money to be trapped inside an airconditioned room to "work out", is a failure of the system.

There are recommendations on how you can claim your life back. It starts with a conscious rejection of being part of the energy glut. For individuals, there is advise on how to correctly stock your house with low energy density foods, how to do your bit to reduce the vehicular mass on the roads. For the governments, there are proposals for a worldwide system of carbon credits that can help us claw our way of this mess.

It is ambitious, and the policy changes will probably necessitate the overnight death of every politician and captain of industry. However the personal revolution - your right to make your own home a "low energy retreat" from a high energy world, that can start happening right away.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Carolina

Great book for understanding the politics of obesity epidemic

Reviewed in Canada on June 24, 2015

Verified Purchase

Great book for understanding the politics of obesity epidemic. Good reflexions about what are we doing with our planet.

BeachedBum

A brilliant book on transport (as well as food, fatness and climate change)...

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 20, 2011

Verified Purchase

A brilliant analysis clearly and engagingly explaining the interlinked problems of fatness, car dependency and climate change. Almost everyone in the so called developed countries has been getting fatter and dieting is not going to solve it. We need to reorganise our planning and transport systems to encourage walking and cycling and to create a fitter, fairer society in which transport carbon emissions can be reduced.

Meanwhile this book shows how the motor and oil industry are busy, under the guise of 'road safety', trying to ensure that developing countries make all the same mistakes as us, spending precious development money on tarmac and teaching people the car is king.

My only criticism is that the central theme of this book is actually the need to reduce car dependency and increase walking and cycling, yet the cover barely mentions this. I'm very glad I picked it up though - everyone needs to read this!

Erica

A book everyone should read!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 5, 2015

Verified Purchase

A real eye-opener, written with cogency, urgency and dry wit. He supports his argument at every stage with impressive and really interesting facts. They alone make the book entertaining and highly readable. But they serve a deadly serious argument - the unsuspected link between our steadily rising levels of obesity and the heating planet, and the way big business and the media conspire to trivialise our perception of them.

The analysis is compelling: sadly, the cures he proposes, though wonderfully sane, seem just too optimistic. But he has changed my attitudes on a wide range of issues.

Davies Mawr

The true story of the "obesity crisis"

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 3, 2010

Verified Purchase

Three of the biggest global public health challenges (obesity, sustainable transport and climate change) are persuasively analysed leading to the conclusion that they share a single cause - cheap oil. In making this link the author demonstrates how obesity is not a personal problem and should not be treated as such.

Well written and very readable, it must be read by everyone working in the field of public health and should be read by everyone else.

3 people found this helpful

Mezafa

so interesting

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 26, 2013

Verified Purchase

I have a masters in nutrition and studied sports science and so this was a very apt book for me to read bringing all my studies to real life and helped me understand hiw ridiculous the world is! Excellent read for those interested in how solving climate chage can solve obesity.

See more reviews