Reviews for Cheaper, faster, better (Book)
Kirkus
Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
The well-known investor and climate change activist delivers an optimistic but not altogether rosy manifesto on the need to combat climate change. Steyer first had an inkling that something was wrong when he revisited a glacier he’d been enthralled by as a kid, only to discover that it was gone. This led to a revelation: “climate change was real—and happening much faster than most of us imagined at the time.” In 2012, he left the investment business and launched numerous enterprises, including a ranch “dedicated to proving that you can raise cattle and have a negative carbon footprint.” It helps to have a large pot of money to do such things, but Steyer insists that everyone has a role in undoing the worst effects of climate change. The author considers such efforts to be sound investment strategy. He highlights the work of climate entrepreneurs, such as two Massachusetts engineers who figured out a way to increase the efficiency and amount of energy—renewable, ideally—carried on power lines and a South Carolina man who has been “working to turn the old fertilizer plant into a sustainable hydroponics and aquaponics facility.” The author regularly sprinkles his revealing human-interest stories with accessible but sharp-edged asides on doing well by doing good: Investing in infrastructure makes good sense, for instance, whether in terms of time or money. Steyer’s case studies are refreshingly wide-ranging, whether concerning efforts to make “climate-conscious chocolate” or using AI to predict which days are going to be too cloudy to harvest solar energy. The author is abundantly clear that this will all require hard work and compromise, but it’s worth every ounce of effort and every penny. Pair this one with Drawdown, edited by Paul Hawken. A readable, encouraging argument that climate activists will want to put to work. Copyright © Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
