Bad Energy - by Joshua Frank (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Green energy and renewables are heralded as the only way to mitigate our ever-worsening ecological crisis. But that's not the whole story.

In Bad Energy, award-winning journalist Joshua Frank argues that the green energy transition is driven not by an effort to save the planet but by profit incentives. We must stop burning fossil fuels if we have any hope of saving the planet, but the significant, haphazard expansion of green energy in recent years--from large solar projects to wind energy to mining for renewables--has destroyed communities and ecosystems. And worse, renewables simply cannot match our ever-expanding demand for energy, driven in no small part by the rapid proliferation of data centers in the world's wealthiest nations.

Taking readers from copper mines in Montana and Bolivia to wind farms in Wyoming to the geopolitical battle over deep-sea mining in the South Pacific, Bad Energy offers a stark assessment of the costs of the rush for renewables and the demand for endless growth. As Frank makes clear, we cannot consume our way out of climate chaos. What we need instead is rejection of the capitalist interests driving planetary collapse and a radical vision for a truly sustainable future.

Review Quotes

"We are told that the climate crisis demands only a change of energy. Joshua Frank shows what that story conceals: gutted sacred lands, poisoned aquifers, collapsing biodiversity, and a billionaire class whose carbon footprint dwarfs continents. Bad Energy is incisive, fact-laden, and relentless -- meticulous, damning, and necessary." --Raj Patel, author of Stuff and Starved

"Think of Bad Energy as a diagnostic manual to expose the violence of our global transition to green energy; by the last page, you'll realize that under the hood of your low-emissions Tesla is a gaping terrestrial wound two miles wide and a thousand feet deep that matches the size of the copper mine that makes it run. Frank maintains a razor-sharp focus on this hard truth of renewable energy: it is the same capitalist plunder repackaged by the ruling class as collective salvation from the climate catastrophe their greed created. Will we fall for their false gift of green capitalism? Or will we develop global class consciousness to save the earth (and ourselves)? Bad Energy is a crucial guide for the struggle to come." --Melanie Yazzie (Diné), co-author of Red Nation Rising: From Bordertown Violence to Native Liberation

"Joshua Frank makes it clear there are no easy answers to the complex problems of climate change, ecological crises, energy production and consumption, and justice for people, animals, and the planet. Mixing reporting from the frontlines of the climate crisis--and the mines, power plants, and data centers fueling it--with structural analysis of the vampiric consumption of energy in the service of capitalism, militarism, and imperialism, Frank convincingly argues that greenwashing the status quo only leads us further into an untenable future. Degrowth and decolonization are our best options to 'prevent the apocalypse, ' and must be undertaken with urgency and care." --Ray Acheson, author of Abolishing State Violence: A World Beyond Bombs, Borders, and Cages

"What if every effort to oppose illegal wars, kleptocracy, and nationalism relied on technology that destroys forests, mines mountains, and enslaves children? How could we keep going or live with these contradictions? These are the questions I brought to Joshua Frank's sobering and deeply researched Bad Energy. I knew it was bad, but I didn't know how bad. Frank exposes the exploitation and ecocide behind smartphones, electric cars, renewable energy, and large language models, revealing the rotten mass of exploitation and ecocide right beneath the slick green surface. Bad Energy forces us to contend with the world as it is, to prepare for calamity, and to stay connected and creative in the real world. And that's a good thing." --Frida Berrigan, author of, It Runs in the Family


"Joshua Frank has written a brilliant exposé of the environmental, social, and political costs of water-sucking data centers, rural-ravaging rare-earth mining, and ecosystem-disrupting wind and solar farms. Bad Energy says it all." --Char Miller, author of Burn Scars: A Documentary History of Fire Suppression


"Most climate writing treats the renewable transition as the answer. Joshua Frank treats it as the next question. Bad Energy follows the green economy down to where it actually lands--copper mines, lithium pits, wind farms, deep-sea mineral grabs--and exposes the costs we've been told not to count. Frank's argument is simple and devastating: you cannot consume your way out of a crisis caused by consumption. A book the climate movement needs." --Will Potter, author of Green Is the New Red


"Bad news about our planet is everywhere, from extreme heat and devastating hurricanes to species extinction and microplastics contaminating human brains. In Bad Energy, Joshua Frank zeroes in on a critical driver: the technologies leading the world's energy transition. Frank doesn't just highlight the many harms that arise from the production and implementation of these technologies; he also lays bare the fundamental problem. Capitalism. Yet despite the grim realities he presents, readers are left with a sense of hope. Bad Energy encourages us that it's not too late to challenge the system that's pushed our planet to the brink." --M.V. Ramana, author of Nuclear is Not the Solution: The Folly of Atomic Power in the Age of Climate Change


"Bad Energy is a warning shot across our bow that our clean energy technologies are leading us along a dangerously familiar road. It's a book not just to be read, but heeded." --Tara Lohan, author of Undammed: Freeing Rivers and Bringing Communities to Life


"If, as Joshua Frank brilliantly reveals, "the market itself is the underlying issue" behind ecosystem breakdown, then the idea of solving it with corporate solutions is bound to fail. Whether critical minerals are plundered by firms headquartered in the West or in BRICS economies, unprecedented counterpower is required for a new energy economy to emerge grounded in genuine climate justice principles. Frank offers a powerful arsenal of experiences and arguments for 'Right to Say "No!"' warriors, from Greenland to South Africa's Wild Coast and everywhere else." --Patrick Bond, author of Looting Africa: The Economics of Exploitation