The valuable new interactive e-publication for anyone with even a passing interest in energy stems from a partnership that was born a couple of years ago between Ben Jervey at GOOD Magazine and the folks at Focus the Nation.
Jervey had recently published an “Energy Issue” of GOOD Magazine, while Focus the Nation was running its annual Forums-to-Action (F2A) student training program, which develops new student leaders to drive solution-oriented clean energy collaborations between the campuses and their communities. In other words: training young clean energy advocates.
The folks at Focus the Nation got GOOD’s Energy Issue, liked it, wanted to use it in their training. Originally, the primer was envisioned to be a beefed-up version of that Energy Issue, but has since grown into a much more ambitious undertaking.
Initially in the 2011-2012 academic year, the primer was developed as an eight-week Energy 101 curriculum, a backbone of energy literacy for the students. The final product was a 211-page PDF, and everyone who saw it raved about how useful it was and suggested that it should be made more widely available.
“Energy is one of the world's largest industries, and it's intimately intertwined with the global economy and environment. Solving our great global energy challenges should also mean solving our biggest environmental, social, health and economic challenges,” explains Focus the Nation. “Yet for all the wide-eyed, hopeful talk about building out the clean, renewable energy economy of the 21st century, there's a serious lack of understanding about what energy actually is, how it powers our lives, what problems it causes, what problems it solves, and -- perhaps most importantly -- the enormous scale of our energy challenges. In short: we need, as a society, to become more energy literate.”
And, so, for this year’s edition, the team decided to create a valuable resource for anyone with even a passing interest in energy. It was also decided that it should absolutely be developed into an interactive e-publication, which Focus the Nation has now released as The WATT? An Energy 101 Primer.
A 21st Century textbook
“Consider it a user's manual or primer or resource guide. Or maybe it's a 21st Century textbook. We're creating a complete and comprehensive Energy 101 education, in language and charts and graphics that we all can understand,” explains the organisation.
The Energy 101 project is being guided by an incredible editorial advisory board that includes: Charles Baron (Former Manager — Google's Climate and Energy Program), Denis Hayes (President of the Bullitt Foundation, Former Director of NREL and Founder of Earth Day Network) and Jesse Jenkins (Director of Energy and Climate Policy — Breakthrough Institute).
Focus the Nation is currently looking for investors to fund the interactive e-book version, which will cover, economics and geography and technology lessons, and interactive infographics and timelines and glossaries and "guest speakers”.
While the organisation says that it will be creating a basic, updated PDF version of The Watt: An Energy 101 Primer regardless of funding, it is looking for additional funds for licensing fees and/or design fees for the e-book publishing platform that it chooses to work with, a graphic designer to make it handsome and create infographics and timelines and charts and other pretty things, research, writing, and production time, and a copy editor.
“Trust us when we say that the vast majority of the money raised will go to ‘hard’ costs of licensing and sub-contracted expert labour. Ben will work on this for free if he has to,” says Focus the Nation. “If we exceed our goal, we’ll use the extra money on: editorial costs for guest contributors, even more infographics, and extra chapters/sections.”
Since 2008, Focus the Nation has helped more than 300,000 young people embrace the challenges, excitement and realities of moving their communities toward clean energy solutions.
Ben Jervey (the writer/producer) writes about climate, energy, and sustainability for numerous publications. He works for OnEarth.org, DeSmogBlog, and is the former Environment Editor at GOOD. He’s the author of “The Big Green Apple: Your Guide to Eco-Friendly Living in New York City.”
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