UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Webpage in development for Energy and Society--a course I taught at the Colorado School of Mines in Spring 2022 and will teach 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.

EXTERNAL RESOURCES
Films
Films About Energy: Renewable, Conventional & Unconventional
Eye-opening documentaries on energy: Top 5 movies to watch
 
Documentaries
Windfall
Switch
Butte, America
Manufactured Landscapes (portion focused on Three Gorges Dam)
Up the Yangtze
Into Eternity
Containment
Burning in the Sun
The Power of Big Oil
Broke: The Santa Barbara Oil Pipeline Spill of 2015
Merchants of Doubt (also a book)
Chernobyl: The Lost Tapes (nicely complemented by Chernobyl series)
Sweet Crude
Inside Japan's Nuclear meltdown
Gasland
The Age of Stupid
The Laxá Farmers (Hvellur)
Jonathan Scott’s Power Trip
Deep Down
Power Paths
Power Trip
Solar Mamas
Tashi’s Turbine
Life Off Grid
Atomic Hope
Beyond Standing Rock
The Atomic States of America
Burning the Future: Coal in America
Nuclear Nation
Cape Spin! - An American Power Struggle
Denial
Breaking Free: The Shale Rock Revolution
Harlan County USA
Bright Green Lies (also a book)
Mikuba (Cobalt)
Damnation
Dams: The Lethal Water Bombs
Power of the River: Expedition to the Heart of Water in Bhutan
Flood in the Desert
We the Power
Undammed
Tomorrow’s Power
Anticosti: The Hunt for Extreme Oil
Above All Else
Everything’s Cool
Seeking the Current
Peace Out: Energy Costs
Finite: The Climate of Change
To the Ends of the Earth: The Rise of Extreme Energy
The Caldera

Non-Documentary Films (Fiction or Docudrama)
There Will Be Blood
The China Syndrome
The Devil Has a Name
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind
Killers of the Flower Moon
Erin Brockovich
Deepwater Horizon
Giant
Fukushima 50
The Bravest
Syriana
The Mattei Affair
Dead Ahead: The Exxon Valdez Disaster
Chernobyl: The Final Warning
The Current War
Dam 999
Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior)
Waterworld
The Night They Saved Christmas
 
Books

• Extraction: The Frontiers of Green Capitalism
• Petrochemical America
• Fossil Capital: The Rise of Steam Power and the Roots of Global Warming
• Climate Change: The Science of Global Warming and our Energy Future
• Short Circuiting Policy: Interest Groups and the Battle over Clean Energy and Climate Policy in the American States

• The Climate Optimist Handbook
• Energy: What Everyone Needs to Know
• Living Oil: Petroleum Culture in the American Century
• Energy in Literature: Essays on Energy and Its Social and Environmental Implications in Twentieth and Twenty-First Century Literary Texts
• Merchants of Doubt (also a film)
• The Birth of Energy
• How the World Really Works
• Energy and Civilization: A History
• Energy: A Beginner’s Guide
• Living Minerals: nature, trade, and power in the race for lithium
• Charged: A History of Batteries and Lessons for a Clean Energy Future
• The Elements of Power: A Story of War, Technology, and the Dirtiest Supply Chain on Earth
• The Jevon’s Paradox and the Myth of Resource Efficiency Improvements
• Art & Energy: How Culture Changes
• The Hype About Hydrogen: Fact and Fiction in the Race to Save the Climate
• Renewables: The Politics of a Global Energy Transition
• Cracked: The Future of Dams in a Hot, Chaotic World
• Silenced Rivers: The Ecology and Politics of Large Dams
• Dams (Studies in the History of Civil Engineering)
• The Gospel of Climate Skepticism: Why Evangelical Christians Oppose Action on Climate Change
• Climate Obstruction: How Denial, Delay, and Inaction are Heating the Planet
• What Is Energy? An Answer Based on the Evolution of a Concept
• Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization
• Bright Green Lies (also a film)
• Curse of the Black Gold: 50 Years of Oil in the Niger Delta
• A History of Solar Power Art and Design
• The Shadow of the Mine: Coal and the End of Industrial Britain
• On Petrocultures: Globalization, Culture, and Energy
• Oil Fictions: World Literature and Our Contemporary Petrosphere
• Solar Politics by Oxana Timofeeva
• Energy, the Great Driver: Seven Revolutions and the Challenges of Climate Change
• Oil on Water by Helon Habila

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