I dedicated my adult life to protecting our environment. I thought renewable energy was the best way of doing that, and I spent 20 years promoting it. My instincts were right: energy has an outsized impact on the environment. If we’re concerned with protecting the environment, we need to think carefully about the ways we generate and use energy. But I wasn’t thinking deeply enough or critically enough about different sources of energy. I was just following a crowd. I took other people’s ideas for granted without examining whether those ideas were actually true. Worse yet, I was willfully blind to any information that might challenge them. 

In retrospect, I understand why I acted as I did. Those ideas are very romantic. They tie mundane human actions like flipping a light switch, starting a car, or disposing of trash, to the fate of the larger world. They invite you to see yourself as a hero in a cosmic struggle, and create a sense that you’re fixing the world in a meaningful way. When I was young and impressionable, those ideas gave me a sense of purpose and identity. They made me feel like I was on a mission that really mattered in a deep moral sense. They made me feel like I was one of the good guys. 

But feeling like you’re a good guy doesn’t mean you are. Little by little I encountered evidence that I was wrong. I just couldn’t admit it. My sense of identity was too bound up with feeling like I was doing the right thing. It was unthinkable that I might be part of the problem; unthinkable that the policies I promoted might have the opposite of their intended effects; unthinkable that they might be hurting the environment instead of healing it; and unthinkable that they might be causing human suffering—especially for the poorest and most vulnerable among us. 

Today I see many leaders in the developed world making the same mistakes I made. Politicians, corporate leaders, and investors are promoting policies that hurt both people and the planet. I wanted to distill what I’ve learned in hope that we might do better. 

If I had to express the core idea of this book in a single slogan it would be More energy and better energy. If we’re going to combat human suffering around the globe, we need more energy, and if we’re going to protect the environment in the process, we need better energy. Let’s work together to make wise decisions about the kinds of energy technologies and policies to support—ones that promote the well-being of both people and the planet.