Amory Lovins

Amory Bloch Lovins (born November 13, 1947 in Washington, DC) was trained in physics and has worked professionally as an environmentalist. He is co-CEO of the Rocky Mountain Institute, a MacArthur Fellowship recipient (1994), and author and co-author of books which make arguments for and popularize energy-efficiency principles to public and corporate audiences. Lovins' works include Factor Four with Hunter Lovins and Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker, and Natural Capitalism with Hunter Lovins and Paul Hawken. In the 1990s, his work with the Rocky Mountain Institute has included the design of an ultra-efficient automobile, the "Hypercar". Image File history File linksMetadata Amory_Lovins. ... Image File history File linksMetadata Amory_Lovins. ... November 13 is the 317th day of the year (318th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 48 days remaining. ... 1947 (MCMXLVII) was a common year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1947 calendar). ... Aerial photo (looking NW) of the Washington Monument and the White House in Washington, DC. Washington, D.C., officially the District of Columbia (also known as D.C.; Washington; the Nations Capital; the District; and, historically, the Federal City) is the capital city and administrative district of the United... Bold textHello ... Chief Executive Officer (CEO) is the job of having the ultimate executive responsibility or authority within an organization or corporation. ... According to its web site, Rocky Mountain Institute is an entrepreneurial nonprofit organization that fosters the efficient and restorative use of natural, human and other capital to make the world more secure, just, prosperous, and life-sustaining. ... The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation is a private, independent grantmaking institution. ... Ernst Ulrich von Weizsäcker (born June 25, 1939) is a German scientist and politician. ... Natural capitalism is a set of trends and economic reforms to reward energy and material efficiency - and remove professional standards and accounting conventions that prevent such efficiencies. ... Paul Hawken is an environmentalist, entrepreneur, journalist, and best-selling author. ...

Lovins has been one of the most influential American voices advocating a "soft energy path" for the U.S. and other nations. He has advocated energy-use and energy-production concepts based, on one hand, on conservation and efficiency, and on the other, on the use of renewable sources of energy and on generation of energy at or near the site where the energy is actually used. The soft energy path is an energy use and development strategy delineated and promoted by some energy experts and activists, such as Amory Lovins and Tom Bender; in Canada, David Suzuki has been a very prominent (if less specialized) proponent. ...

Life and work

Lovins spent much of his youth in Silver Spring, Maryland and in Amherst, Massachusetts. In 1964, as a former award-winning high-school science whiz, Lovins entered Harvard. After two years there, he transferred to Magdalen College, Oxford, England, where he studied experimental physics. He became a Junior Research Fellow in Oxford’s Merton College, where he studied for two years and earned a master of arts (M.A.). In 1979, Lovins received an Sc. D. from Bates College. Silver Spring is an urbanized, but unincorporated area in Montgomery County, Maryland, in the United States. ...   Amherst is a town in Hampshire County, Massachusetts, United States. ... 1964 (MCMLXIV) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (the link is to a full 1964 calendar). ... Magdalen College could be Magdalen College, Oxford Magdalene College, Cambridge This is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ... Oxford is a city and local government district in Oxfordshire, England, with a population of 134,248 ( 2001 census). ... Merton College is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in the United Kingdom. ... For other uses, see Bates (disambiguation), Bates (surname) Bates College is a private liberal arts college, founded in 1855, located in Lewiston, Maine, in the United States. ...

But, having become a devotee to Snowdonia National Park, in northwest Wales, Lovins was lured out of academia. It was during his days in the UK that his career as a writer began. In 1971 he wrote about the endangered Welsh park in a book commissioned by David Brower, president of the environmental organization Friends of the Earth. Lovins spent several years as British Representative for Friends of the Earth. He wrote a number of other books published by FOE. During this time his interests settled specifically into the area of resource policy, and most especially, energy policy. An essay that he originally penned as a U.N. paper grew into his first book concerned with energy, World Energy Strategies. His next major work was co-authored with John H. Price and titled Non-Nuclear Futures. See also Snowdonia Snowdonia National Park, or Parc Cenedlaethol Eryri (in Welsh) was established in 1951 as the third national park in England and Wales. ... Motto: (Welsh for Wales forever) Anthem: Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau Capital Cardiff Largest city Cardiff Official language(s) Welsh, English Government Constitutional monarchy  - Queen Queen Elizabeth II  - Prime Minister of the UK Tony Blair MP  - First Minister Rhodri Morgan AM Unification    - by Gruffudd ap Llywelyn 1056  Area    - Total 20,779... Friends of the Earth is an international network of environmental organizations in 70 countries. ...

Back in the U.S., Lovins guided mountaineering trips in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. The shock of the 1973 energy crisis helped create an audience for his ideas, and he appealed to this new audience with the publication of his 10,000-word essay "Energy Strategy: The Road Not Taken?" published in Foreign Affairs, in October 1976. This article is about the White Mountains of New Hampshire. ... This article does not cite its references or sources. ... (Redirected from 1973 energy crisis) United States, drivers of vehicles with odd numbered license plates were allowed to purchase gasoline only on odd-numbered days of the month, while drivers with even-numbers were limited to even-numbered days. ...

Lovins (not quite 29 at this point) described the "hard energy path" as involving inefficient liquid-fuel automotive transport, as well as giant, centralized electricity-generating facilities, often burning fossil fuels (e.g., coal or petroleum) or harnessing a fission reaction, greatly complicated by electricity wastage and loss. The "soft energy path" which he wholly preferred involves efficient use of energy, diversity of energy production methods (and matched in scale and quality to end uses), and special reliance on "soft technologies" (also known as alternative technology) such as solar, wind, biofuels, geothermal, etc. For Lovins, large-scale electricity production facilities had an important place, but it was a place that they were already filling; in general, more would not be needed. One of his main concerns, was the danger of committing to nuclear energy to meet a society's energy needs. (See radioactive waste, nuclear proliferation). Coal Coal (IPA: ) is a fossil fuel extracted from the ground by underground mining or open-pit mining (surface mining). ... Pumpjack pumping an oil well near Sarnia, Ontario Ignacy Łukasiewicz - inventor of the refining of kerosene from crude oil. ... The soft energy path is an energy use and development strategy delineated and promoted by some energy experts and activists, such as Amory Lovins and Tom Bender; in Canada, David Suzuki has been a very prominent (if less specialized) proponent. ... Alternative technology is a term sometimes used by environmental advocates to refer to technologies which are more environmentally friendly than the functionally equivalent technologies dominant in current practice. ... Nuclear waste locations in USA Radioactive waste is waste type containing radioactive chemical elements that does not have a practical purpose. ... World map with nuclear weapons development status represented by color. ...

By 1978 Lovins had published six books, consulted widely, and was active in energy affairs in some 15 countries, as synthesist and lobbyist. In 1979 he married L. Hunter Sheldon, a lawyer, forester, and social scientist. Hunter received her undergraduate degree in sociology and political studies from Pitzer College, and her J.D. from Loyola University's School of Law. In 1982, along with Hunter, Amory Lovins founded the Rocky Mountain Institute, based in Snowmass, Colorado. Together with a group of colleagues, the Lovinses fostered efficient resource use and policy development that they believed would promote global security. RMI ultimately grew into an organization with a staff of around 50. By the mid 1980s, the Lovinses were being featured on major network TV programs like "60 Minutes." Social interactions and their consequences are the subject of sociology. ... Pitzer College is a small, private liberal arts college located in Claremont, California, USA. Pitzer College is the fifth of seven institutions of higher learning known as the Claremont Colleges and coordinated through the Claremont University Consortium. ... Several historic and current educational institutions are named in honor of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. ... According to its web site, Rocky Mountain Institute is an entrepreneurial nonprofit organization that fosters the efficient and restorative use of natural, human and other capital to make the world more secure, just, prosperous, and life-sustaining. ... Snowmass (sometimes known locally as Old Snowmass) is an unincorporated community in Pitkin County, Colorado. ...

At RMI's headquarters, in Colorado, the south-facing building complex is so energy-efficient that, even with local -40° winter temperatures, the building interiors can maintain a comfortable temperature solely from the sunlight admitted plus the body heat of the people who work there. The environment can actually nurture semi-tropical and tropical indoor plants.

Amory Lovins was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 1984. He has received the World Technology Award, the Nissan, Mitchell, "Alternative Nobel" and Onassis Prizes. He has also received eight honorary doctorates. Jakob von Uexkull, founder of the Right Livelihood Award The Right Livelihood Award, established in 1980 by Jakob von Uexkull, is presented annually in the building of the Swedish Parliament, usually on December 9, to honour those working on practical and exemplary solutions to the most urgent challenges facing the...

Working with many specialists, Lovins's more recent work at RMI has focused on efforts to transform sectors including the automobile (they designed a hydrogen-powered "hypercar" to provide an example to Detroit), electricity, water, semiconductor, and real estate.

Quotes

• "The average [television-program] viewer can save thousands of dollars a year added to your discretionary income by bringing the waste out of the energy and water you use in your house, how you travel, what you buy and you can do good for yourself and the Earth at the same time and improve your quality of life by making more careful choices."
• "Phasing out nuclear power should make our electricity cost not more but less."
• "What we thought of as isolated pathologies, scarcities of work or hope or security or satisfaction, are not isolated at all, in fact they're intimately related, they're all caused by the same thing, namely the interlocking waste of resources, of money, and of people."

Books

Books authored or co-authored by Amory Lovins:

• Winning the Oil Endgame: Innovation for Profit, Jobs and Security (2005) ISBN 1-84407-194-4 (Available Online in PDF)
• The Natural Advantage Of Nations: Business Opportunities, Innovation And Governance in the 21st Century (2004) ISBN 1-84407-121-9
• Small Is Profitable: The Hidden Economic Benefits of Making Electrical Resources the Right Size (2003) ISBN 1-881071-07-3
• Natural Capitalism: Creating the Next Industrial Revolution (2000) ISBN 1-85383-763-6
• Energy Unbound: A Fable for America's Future (1986) ISBN 0-87156-820-9
• Brittle Power: Energy Strategy for National Security (1982 re-released in 2001) ISBN 0-931790-28-X (Available Online in PDF)
• Soft Energy Paths: Towards a Durable Peace (1977) ISBN 0-06-090653-7
• Harvard Business Review on Business and the Environment
• Factor Four: Doubling Wealth - Halving Resource Use: A Report to the Club of Rome
• A Road Map for Natural Capitalism
• World Energy Strategies: Facts, Issues, and Options
• Non-Nuclear Futures: The Case for an Ethical Energy Strategy
• Energy/War: Breaking the Nuclear Link
• The Energy Controversy: Soft Path Questions and Answers
• The First Nuclear World War: A Strategy for Preventing Nuclear Wars and the Spread of Nuclear Weapons
• Nuclear power: Technical Bases for Ethical Concern
• Least-Cost Energy: Solving the C02 Problem
• Openpit Mining

References

• Cousineau; Danitz; Zelov Ecological Design: Inventing the Future (film/video), Knossus, Inc., 1994
• Craig Lambert "The Hydrogen-Powered Future," in Harvard Magazine, January/February 2004. Web: http://www.harvard-magazine.com/on-line/010451.html
• Kas Thomas "Interview with Amory Lovins," in The Mother Earth News, issue #48, November/December 1977. Web:http://www.motherearthnews.com

See also

• Negawatt Power
• Soft energy path

This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. ... The soft energy path is an energy use and development strategy delineated and promoted by some energy experts and activists, such as Amory Lovins and Tom Bender; in Canada, David Suzuki has been a very prominent (if less specialized) proponent. ...

External links

• The Rocky Mountain Institute's home page
• Big Picture TV Free video clips of Amory Lovins
• 20 Hydrogen myths - Published by the Rocky Mountain Institute, a major hydrogen economy proponent.
• Hypercar Concept
• Centre for Alternative Energy (European)
• Carbon Activism for Beginners.
• EU Intelligent Energy.
• Winning the Oil Endgame presentation at MIT - Video of Lovins.
• Winning the Oil Endgame - The Book Home Page - Read Free Online or Buy