THE NEW NEW DEAL by Michael Grunwald, Simon & Schuster, New York , 2012
CLEAN TECH NATION by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder, Harper Business, New York, 2012
THE NEW NEW DEAL by Michael Grunwald and CLEAN TECH NATION by Ron Pernick and Clint Wilder provide the most coherent overview and in-depth analyses of global green trends and are importantly related. In 2012 the world embraced cleantech and accelerated the green transition from the 300-year fossil-fueled Industrial Era to the Solar Age I described in The Politics of the Solar Age (1981) after my six-year stint as a science policy wonk in Washington. In July 2012, 191 country members of the United Nations (UN) pledged in their Declaration at the RIO+20 summit to stop subsidizing fossil fuels and 19th and 20th century industries and shift to growing cleaner knowledge-rich economy sectors and jobs, which the UN calls THE GREEN NEW DEAL. Sadly, the USA, my beloved adopted country, was the fossilized laggard – still fighting a rearguard action in Washington while numerous polls confirm that U.S. citizens overwhelmingly support this shift to the 21st century green economy.