Chris Dunn on Planet Earth
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Energy and Society

UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Webpage in development for Energy and Society--a course I taught at the Colorado School of Mines in Spring 2022 at the University of California San Diego in Spring 2026.

Energy and Society
 is a multidisciplinary consideration of energy from the perspective of the humanities and social sciences, grappling with issues such as sustainability, justice, the history of energy development and transitions, ongoing and future energy transitions, the role and meaning of energy in human life, environmental implications of various forms of energy, and perceptions of energy.
Picture
…near the headquarters of Venezuela's state-run oil company PDVSA, in Caracas, Venezuela, Jan. 13, 2026. File photo by Gaby Oraa/Reuters. PBS.
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EXTERNAL RESOURCES

Films 
Documentaries
      Fossil Fuels
  • The Power of Big Oil
  • Broke: The Santa Barbara Oil Pipeline Spill of 2015
  • Merchants of Doubt (also a book)
  • Sweet Crude
  • Gasland
  • Breaking Free: The Shale Rock Revolution
  • Harlan County USA
  • Burning the Future: Coal in America
  • Anticosti: The Hunt for Extreme Oil
  • Petropolis
  • FrackNation
  • Deep Down
  • Beyond Standing Rock
  • Above All Else
  • Finite: The Climate of Change
  • To the Ends of the Earth: The Rise of Extreme Energy
  • Westray
  • Lessons of Darkness
     Wind
  • Windfall
  • Tashi’s Turbine
  • Cape Spin! - An American Power Struggle
     Solar
  • Burning in the Sun
  • Solar Mamas
  • Jonathan Scott’s Power Trip
     Nuclear
  • Into Eternity
  • Containment
  • Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes (nicely complemented by Chernobyl series on HBO)
  • Inside Japan's Nuclear meltdown
  • Atomic Hope
  • The Atomic States of America
  • Nuclear Nation
  • Uranium
      Hydroelectric
  • Manufactured Landscapes (portion focused on Three Gorges Dam)
  • Up the Yangtze
  • The Laxá Farmers (Hvellur)
  • Damnation
  • Dams: The Lethal Water Bombs
  • Power of the River: Expedition to the Heart of Water in Bhutan
  • Flood in the Desert
  • Undammed
  • Dreamland
  • Seeking the Current
     Mining
  • Butte, America
  • Mikuba (Cobalt)
  • The Hole Story
  • The Caldera
     Climate Change
  • The Age of Stupid
  • Everything’s Cool
  • An Inconvenient Truth
     Other
  • Into the Deep: America, Whaling & the World
  • Switch
  • Power Paths
  • Power Trip
  • Life Off Grid
  • Denial
  • Bright Green Lies (also a book)
  • We the Power
  • Tomorrow’s Power
  • Peace Out: Energy Costs
  • Human Energy
 
Non-Documentary Films (Fiction or Docudrama)
      Nuclear
  • Fukushima 50
  • Chernobyl: The Final Warning
  • The China Syndrome
  • Chernobyl
     Fossil Fuels
  • The Bravest
  • There Will Be Blood
  • Deepwater Horizon
  • Dead Ahead: The Exxon Valdez Disaster
  • Killers of the Flower Moon
  • Syriana
  • The Night They Saved Christmas
  • Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior)
  • The Devil Has a Name
  • Giant
  • The Mattei Affair
  • Promised Land
     Other
  • The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
  • Erin Brockovich
  • The Current War
  • Dam 999
  • The Day After Tomorrow
Films About Energy: Renewable, Conventional & Unconventional
Eye-opening documentaries on energy: Top 5 movies to watch

Poetry and Art

Podcasts
  • Climate Curious
  • Climate Diplomacy
  • Climate Optimists
  • Cultures of Energy
  • Drilled.Media
  • Energy Aesthetics: Representing Lived Experiences of Oil
  • Energy Gang
  • Everyday Energy
  • Global Energy Cultures Forum
  • Hey Change
  • NYT Climate Forward
  • Politico Energy
  • Resources Radio
  • The Energy Transition Show
  • Volts
 
Organizations
2000 Watt Society
350.org
Americans For a Clean Energy Grid
Beyond Nuclear
Breakthrough Institute
Canadian Coalition for Nuclear Responsibility
Carbon Visuals
Centre for Energy Ethics
Clean Creatives
Climate Accountability Institute
Climate Action Tracker
Climate Cabinet
Climate Central - place specific climate story / impacts
Climate Group
Climate Justice Alliance
Climate Reality Project
Climate Social Science Network
Climate.us
EJAtlas - Global Atlas of Environmental Justice
Energy Humanities
Energy Institute
Energy Transitions Commission
Fieldnotes
Global Carbon Project
Global Tipping Points
Initiative for Energy Justice
International Energy Agency (IEA)
International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA)
Oil Change International
Oilwatch
Post Carbon Institute
Project Innerspace
Protect Our Winters (POW)
Renew 2030
Renew 2030 Partners
Rocky Mountain Institute
Sunrise Project
The Climate Museum
US Energy Foundation

Books
  • A History of Energy Flows: From Human Labor to Renewable Power
  • A history of energy: Northern Europe from the Stone Age to the present day
  • A History of Solar Power Art and Design
  • Art & Energy: How Culture Changes
  • Bright Green Lies (also a film)
  • Carbon Democracy
  • Charged: A History of Batteries and Lessons for a Clean Energy Future
  • Climate Change: The Science of Global Warming and our Energy Future
  • Climate Obstruction: How Denial, Delay, and Inaction are Heating the Planet
  • Confronting Climate Gridlock: How Diplomacy, Technology, and Policy Can Unlock a Clean Energy Future
  • Cracked: The Future of Dams in a Hot, Chaotic World
  • Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta
  • Dams (Studies in the History of Civil Engineering)
  • Energy and Civilization: A History
  • Energy in American History. A Political, Social, and Environmental Encyclopedia
  • Energy in Literature: Essays on Energy and Its Social and Environmental Implications in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literary Texts
  • Energy, the Great Driver: Seven Revolutions and the Challenges of Climate Change
  • Energy: A Beginner’s Guide
  • Energy: What Everyone Needs to Know
  • Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism
  • Fossil Capital: The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming
  • Global Energy Politics
  • Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization
  • How the World Really Works
  • Lifeblood: Oil, Freedom, and the Forces of Capital
  • Living Minerals: nature, trade, and power in the race for lithium
  • Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century
  • Madrigal, Alexis. Powering the Dream: The History and Promise of Green Technology (Hachette Books, 2011).
  • Material World: The Six Raw Materials That Shape Modern Civilization
  • Merchants of Doubt (also a film)
  • Oil Fictions: World Literature and Our Contemporary Petrosphere
  • Oil on Water by Helon Habila
  • On Petrocultures: Globalization, Culture, and Energy
  • Perlin, John. Let It Shine: The 6,000-Year Story of Solar Energy (New World Library, 2022).
  • Petrochemical America
  • Power Lines: Phoenix and the Making of the Modern Southwest
  • Renewables: The Politics of a Global Energy Transition
  • Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States
  • Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams
  • Solar Politics by Oxana Timofeeva
  • The Birth of Energy
  • The Climate Optimist Handbook
  • The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology, and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth
  • The Gospel of Climate Skepticism: Why Evangelical Christians Oppose Action on Climate Change
  • The Hype About Hydrogen: Fact and Fiction in the Race to Save the Climate
  • The Jevon’s Paradox and the Myth of Resource Efficiency Improvements
  • The Shadow of the Mine: Coal and the End of Industrial Britain
  • What Is Energy? An Answer Based on the Evolution of a Concept
  • White, Richard. The Organic Machine: The Remaking of the Columbia River. New York: Hill and Wang, 1995.
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  • Home
  • Professional
    • CV
    • Energy and Society
    • Arctic
    • Wilderness
    • Philosophy
  • Wild Places and Travels
    • Crossing Iceland (2024)
    • Greenland-Nuussuaq (2021) >
      • Contemporary Art in Greenland
    • Vanishing Ice
    • Nepal Research Expedition (2019)
    • Crossing Alaska >
      • North Slope Alaska (2018)
      • From Glaciers to the Sea: Following the Entirety of Alaska's Susitna River (2012-13)
      • Wood, John, and Koyukuk Rivers (2019, 2016, 2010)
      • Arctic National Wildlife Refuge: Jago River (2015)
    • Colorado River Through the Grand Canyon (2022)
    • Life at Sea
    • Arctic Village Life
    • 500 Miles Across the Canadian Rockies (2008)
    • Tropical Dreams
    • Japan
  • Writings
    • Prose >
      • A Week in Bandelier
    • Poetry
    • Academic
  • Photography and Art
    • Raven's Light
    • Cairns Photo Essay
  • Contact
  • Thoughts (Blog)